Hard News: The Sky is the limit
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bob daktari, in reply to
Projections of future financial viability
exactly - we've seen this time and time again with the usual bullish projections and eventual cost overruns and poor performance passed onto the tax/rate payer - be it IT projects, rationalisation and re-organisation of an entity(ies) etc etc. Hardly rocket science to see through the bullshit... and yet it continues to happen
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Sacha, in reply to
as good as those foisted on Dunedin ratepayers for the covered stadium
such a good deal, let's have another one in Chch!
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Let's build it at just above the High Tide mark, like the new motorway tunnels at Waterview. Make the grandkids pay, that's the Keynglishjoyce way. I wonder if they intend to borrow another $50 billion, and what they'll spend it on.
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Mike O'Connell, in reply to
I think if the 'Gerry Brownlie Memorial Stadium' were to be given the green light, there'd be riots!
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TracyMac, in reply to
I am not saying that government ministers and officials set out to craft a bad deal
I think that's a very generous interpretation, but I agree that it's just as likely to be a case for Hanlon's Razor.
I don't know which is worse: outright corruption, or outright stupidity (despite the propaganda of their being "good at business).
Also, it's funny how we don't get cries of "pork-barrelling" when it's private companies involved. From my POV, there's no discernable difference - it's just what you consider your "constituents" to be.
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I wonder how many more pokies they will be given to make up the current estimated deficit and how many more once it's built and the true cost is known?
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Phil Stewart, in reply to
TV3 was completely MIA on this story tonight, so maybe it really does make sense to dump all this 2 days before Christmas.
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Dear Stevie Joyce,
Thanks ever so for this wonderful Xmas pressie. As Johnnie often says, "At the end of the day taxpayers are more worried about snapper than forking out millions for our friends in the gambling addiction industry". After all, those Salvation Army folk need extra work to do, don't they? What a Great Leap Forward for the 1% who support National financially, eh? This legacy will secure your special place in history books right up there next to think big projects, paying Rio Tinto to pollute, and such like. Congratulations, Stevie!
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And so we get to ….
Yes, after stiffing Auckland Council on the CRL out of little more than political spite, the government has the damn nerve to suggest – without even a heads-up to the mayor – that Auckland ratepayers might like to cover its arse.
The Herald understands SkyCity would also like the council to offer millions of dollars in concessions on costly red tape necessary to build the centre. Mr Brown didn’t know anything about Mr Joyce’s idea or potential concessions for SkyCity and appeared reluctant to get involved.
“Auckland Council has not been approached,” he said through a spokesman. The deal was “between SkyCity and the Government”.
And then this:
But Orakei councillor Cameron Brewer said while it would be “a stretch” for ratepayers, a subsidy for the centre should be considered.
So after bitching about and needlessly politicising any number of considered spending decisions, Brewer is happy to kick in a council subsidy on this?
He really wants a safe National seat, doesn’t he?
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And meanwhile, the Wellington convention centre project Steven Joyce touted yesterday as an example to Auckland just fell over.
What a shambles.
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Shill be right...
Key and Joyce get 'railroaded' into these things with promises of 'deals too good to miss' - they are classic 'rubes', or maybe we are........is this the 'Three Convention Centre monte'?
The scams keep on coming. -
Speaking of arrogant uncaring multinational corporations...
...does anyone have an email address for anyone in influence further up the food chain at the hopelessly organised Vodafone - everytime I see that ad that says 'The reliable network' I want to kick in the television - if you have an address, either post it here or email me via the little envelope above this post.
These people want to lose another 200 jobs and they already can't do the basics right!
It's as if I was the only person to have to shift temporarily out of a house while EQC repairs were grudgingly made in Chchch.Vodafone just couldn't get their head around it, they promised a technician would come (and would phone first) on Nov 19th over a week after we had actually shifted out - I stayed home and waited, no one came or rang, no one followed up to see why they still had an 'undone' job on their books - the upshot being that no one could phone us for 5 weeks - now I'm trying to get everything back to how it was, do you think they can help there - seemingly not - a phone call last friday (after the obligatory half hour listening to Bic Runga et al* on their hold system - i have drained phones waiting on that time-sucking system for a total of cumulatively 5 hours now) resulted in a promise to phone me yesterday to tell me what would happen and when, no such call eventuated - I hold these people in less esteem than I do the muppet I had to deal with at EQC - yet Vodafone wants our money. You'd think keeping the customers you have would be a better plan than burning them out and picking up new ones from somewhere else in the small pool that is NZ...
They have a loooong way to go at customer support - pricks!!!</tether & rant>
* can someone check that they are paying the proper licence fees to have these songs on high rotate on their phone muzak system - the downside is I now associate all these songs with failure, anger and an uncaring organisation - more 'positive' marketing then...
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Vodafone wants our money.
They're becoming notorious for this kind of thing, unfortunately.
In happier news -- I got your package, Ian! Delighted by the contents and the bomb-proof swaddling with gaffa tape. Once a roadie, always ...
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
They’re becoming notorious for this kind of thing, unfortunately.
Their cable network in Wellington is still pretty robust. But when I changed plans, they pinged me the equivalent of a disconnection fee for the 'convenience'. And their helpdesk is still under-staffed - not that I've had to even ring them much in the first place.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
TV3 was completely MIA on this story tonight, so maybe it really does make sense to dump all this 2 days before Christmas.
Or not. Still, it wasn't even headline news.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
I'm shocked!
I look to you, Ian, as the poet...the wordsmith...he who encapsulates with brevity and wit.
You need cheering up.
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linger, in reply to
Pour qui?
pour Key et ses amis
open season. open sesame!
hoping for a handout, cash for free:
that’s gambling in / on / with the SkyCity.pork for pokies:
pokerfaced porkies;
poor communication;
poor consultation;
poor conduct.
porous contracts …
poor us. -
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
oh the tort cha, cha cha cha...
You need cheering up.
Rectal reconnection, that has a familiar ring to it!
...it's not just the phone it's the telly and broadband as well
(they did try there - first with a vstick or vodem or somesuch
then a modem arrived out of the blue - with instructions to wait for the all clear to install - I waited and nada, zilch, so I installed it anyway which for some reason worked thru the landline - not thanks to any instruction or real help from Vodafone)all compounded by my main work computer not surviving shifting, lost all my emails and addresses and some data - also had forgotten my password to woosh webmail aaargh - it all just firms my belief that electricity is an evolutionary dead end, we've been herded into a dry dead end gulch, can the rock rain from the surrounding cliffs be far away...
and now I've just had a container picked up (still padlocked) while I wasn't home - even though they (Royal wolf) promised they'd phone me before coming so I could be there to unlock it - why can't these companies just do what they say they are going to do...
- merry bloody christmas indeed
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linger, in reply to
merry bloody christmas indeed
Ah well then, sticking with Rosemary's theme, here's a Bloody christmas song:
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Alfie, in reply to
...it's not just the phone it's the telly and broadband as well
I had a similar experience with Vodafone the last time we moved house. We arranged to have the telco services transferred weeks in advance and were assured that everything would go smoothly. We arrived at our new home to find no phone, no internet and no SkyTV. This was worsened by no cellular coverage in our area.
We lived as luddites for the next three weeks with zero comms. Vodafone promised us numerous dates for resumed service, and broke them all. We got sick of trying to explain the situation to different call centre staff in the Phillipines and I eventually wrote to Vodafone CEO, Russell Stanners. Within a few days the problem was sorted and we received a $1,000 credit on our account.
I've emailed you his address Ian. Merry xmas!
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Sacha, in reply to
The theory is they bring foreign currency here. They also just happen to provide large construction projects that the financial sector can make lots of money from, with public agencies helping reduce the risk.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
What is unbeleivable is that Christchurch is still dealing with this four years later.
One would think that there would be a plan, a protocol, a system.
Family X is temporarily moving into Y address while property Z is being repaired.
Here is Customer Service Person C, who sole job it is to facilitate this temporary change of address with minimum further impact on Customer X.
This should be routine.
FFS.
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
the same modeling
Exactly. There’s a whole industry of economists who can produce back of an envelope calculations with the fudge factors on warpdrive to justify spending taxpayer dollars pouring some more concrete.
If there is a huge untapped market of people wanting to fly across the world for conferences, why won’t they pay enough in hall rental to make the centre viable? And if the conference centre is a loss leader for hotels, then why don’t the hotel industry get together and fund it themselves?
Over the last decade or so, we’ve had well over a billion of public money (along with designer legislation) gifted to various corporations for events and productions that would, allegedly, transform our economy with a flood of tourists. Did this work?
The visitor arrivals don’t seem to show that – they creep slowly upwards with occasional slumps when the world economy tanks. I don’t see a return here that justifies the hype.
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And, just in case you think those nips in the graph represent actual real benefits of movies and ball games, above are the Australian figures for the period. They have different boondoggles, but their data tracks ours remarkably well
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matthew, in reply to
Try Snap. By far the best telco ive come across (and ive tried most). You may spend a few extra dollars but its absolutely worth it. Their customer service is superb and they are even based in Christchurch so you'll be supporting a local business.
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