Posts by Joe Wylie
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
. . . residents who feel exploited by the camera crews . . .
It's the CBD Red Zone where the Experiences will take place, the part that ordinary mortals without PR potential may not enter. There's been a bit of understandable confusion since the announcement of the Residential Red Zones. Along with AMI Stadium and the RWC "Fan Zone" in North Hagley Park it's pretty much resident free, which is ideal for the Sultan of Smarm, as unscripted encounters tend to throw him off his game.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Actually, Jordan wrote “Will the private market deliver fine, and I’m just wrong?” which implies the complete opposite to me, ie that he does not have faith in the private sector.
No more faith than he displays in his late-to-the-party exercise in kite-flying. If prevailing Party opinion is that such a modest proposal might frighten the chooks he appears to indicate that he's unlikely to take it further.
I appreciate that he's probably the best you have outside of the "politically tainted" Chch MPs. If there weren't more pressing issues here I'd offer a little sympathy.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Bernard Hickey, Gareth Morgan, and now FranO appears to be applying for membership to the Market Apostates Club..
While the would-be sharpest knife in Labour's drawer on quake matters outside of the Cursed Earth asks "Will the private sector deliver fine, or am I just wrong?"
Nice to see the fire in the belly that drives the best & brightest to the party of social justice still smoulders.. . . RWC camera crews get Bob Jones-ed by desperate residents.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to merc,
Meanwhile, quake theme tours for meathead media.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to merc,
This is a pretty good article
Fran O'Sullivan . . .
Commandeer large amounts of stable land on the outskirts of Christchurch and launch a big state-led building programme to get people safely rehoused quickly. Do this instead of allowing developers to book obscene profits at the expense of fellow citizens who have already lost enough of their equity through the quakes.
. . . sounding rather more exercised, and rather less conciliatory towards the private sector, than Jordan Carter:
I would love to see the Government, in partnership with the local councils, taking some initiative here. A Canterbury Housing Development Authority could be set up as part of CERA, and it could have the job of acquiring land and building new suburbs . . . Private developers can't do that. They have a legal responsibility to make money for their shareholders as their prime imperative. They have moderately short time horizons. They would be logically insane to pass up the opportunities that very high demand presents to them.
It is time for the people, working together through the public authorities, to take matters into their own hands and to plan and deliver new housing options that work for everyone.
That is a silver lining that could emerge out of the dark cloud of this disaster -- if the government and if the councils have the wit and the wisdom to grab at the chance.
What do you think? Is this a good idea or a mad one? Would other opportunities be better to take? Will the private market deliver fine, and I'm just wrong?
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No end in sight to Canterbury insurance embargo
Insurance Council of New Zealand CEO Chris Ryan says insurers still do not know when the market will return to normal.
But he says 98% of Christchurch is covered and the lack of new cover “is a real issue but it is not a major issue”.
New Zealanders have been warned for months that the cost of insurance will rise, as they have paid inadequate earthquake premiums for years.
Mr Ryan says consumers are now realising that insurers have to make a profit, just like any other business.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Just thinking,
Cosgrove isn't Christchurch and he may benefit from its demise.
Brendon Burns is easy to ignore when he's right in front of you. He goes from Grey to Tranparent in the blink of an eye. Ruth Dyson is MIA. Lianne Dalziel is worried about Coro St. This isn't a street in Bexley or Brighton but on the Telly.
No one is taking Gerry on.Sadly you're right about Dyson, most of the time. Her heart doesn't seem to be in it these days. Not sure what you mean by Cosgrove not being Christchurch. He's barely recognisable from the disgruntled Mike Moore protege of the early stages of Clark's term as PM. Taking it to Brownlee, and copping it in return.
Brendon Burns could have hardened up rather more than he did after nearly losing his "safe" seat to Nicky Wagner. He certainly seems to have worked hard on local issues since the quake. Hopefully his constituents don't have to get past a front desk person whose politics appear to be to the right of Christine Rankin, which was the case in the early 2000s with otherwise nice guy Tim Barnett.
And Lianne Dalziel? From Sofie's Hansard link. Not exactly the witterings of a Coro Street obsessive:
The Minister talks about the people who are living in damaged houses on damaged streets with limited services, and who are uncertain of the future of their properties. He is describing my neighbours. The only reason I do not include myself in that description is that I have some resilience factors that some of my neighbours do not. I am mortgage free. I have a good, uninterrupted income. I have the ability to make choices that are not available to others. I can even sneak away for a quake break and pay for it myself.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Thanks Sofie. Brendon Burns was my local MP until I was driven from Chch Central just under a year ago. He's certainly had an interesting first term, and there's every indication that he'll increase his majority to something like the level once enjoyed by Tim Barnett come November.
I don't have any issue with the local Labour MPs. Cosgrove and Dalziel particularly have been impressively proactive in the last year. One of the vilest things from the Hansard you linked to was the patsy sniping from minor Nats with no first-hand experience of Christchurch's problems. It's hard to understand why there hasn't been a more concerted effort by Labour MPs outside of Canterbury to counter National's strategy of ring-fencing quake issues as the provincial whinings of a bunch of ingrates. The message that the kind of insurance and real estate woes that have proved all too real down here could happen to anyone facing a natural disaster needs to be got out there.
Trevor Mallard's been happy to put his oar into Christchurch issues in the past. A pity that he seems to display a tacit admiration for Brownlee, rather than taking the fight to him.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Well, Pagani got punted from Labour. He wasn't offered as a spokesblogger.
Much like Farrar got "punted" from Shipley's court? The perception's certainly that he has at least some kind of of tacit endorsement.
. . . how National is failing Christchurch is something that could and should be an issue for Labour as a whole, even the opposition as a whole, not just local MPs.
Right. You'd think the Greens would be all over it.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
This page of Hansard gives some idea of what Labour were promised and are not getting with CERA.
Thanks Sofie, a bit of a slog but much appreciated. Post quakes it's pretty apparent to most Christchurch Labour MPs that there's more to representing your constituency than tying a red & black balloon to your car aerial. What seems to be missing is a sense of any co-ordinated strategy from the wider party. In the aftermath of the country's biggest natural disaster Labour 's party hierarchy seems mesmerised by its perceived mistreatment by the media. Given an opportunity to put their case they front with an idiot version of David Farrar.
I'm mystified as to why the situation of the Haywood family and others isn't, as Russell said earlier, being screamed from the rooftops. Further to his guest posting here, Mike Coleman was deliberately misrepresented by Gerry Brownlee as an opportunist who'd failed to understand the fine print of his insurance policy. It's outrageous, it could happen to anyone, no matter how well-informed and articulate, and it passes pretty much unchallenged.