Paul Henry and Christchurch’s floods

Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, April 30th, 2014 - 67 comments
Categories: john key, Media, national, tv - Tags: ,

John Key sod turning central plains water

If you want a reason to bash your head against something hard then if you saw Paul Henry’s performance last night on his show it would surely have provide it.  He very clearly set out the reason that so many of us were afraid about the recent numerous appointments of right wing commentators to positions of power.  He provided a completely partisan inaccurate description of who is at fault for Christchurch’s floods.  He denigrated Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel in a way that was totally unjustified and blamed her for the flooding clearly in a way designed to protect John Key from criticism.

The Press has reported a transcript of some of Henry’s comments:

Don’t just stand in the rain and look like a drenched rat … actually sort this out.

New Zealand is a developed country where people paid rates and taxes to mitigate against events like this.

But this is where the rubber hits the road … and it falls on the shoulders of Lianne Dalziel and her council.

James Dann has described the show as follows:

Last night, Paul Henry went on an extraordinary rant, placing all of the blame squarely at the sodden gumboots of Lianne Dalziel. Paul Henry knows about as much about the flooding situation in Christchurch as he does about race relations in India – i.e. nothing.  I’ve never watched his show before, but was prompted by this rant. It’s as though he thinks he is a “man of the people” like stable-mate John Campbell, except instead of standing up for the little guy, he’s pushing the line for the big guy – his mate, the Prime Minister. It is Danyl McLauchlan’s description of how the PM’s office feeds the bottom-feeder blogs, except on a grand scale.

He judiciously cuts together footage to serve his narrative, rather than the truth. When Lianne says that she is dividing the task force into two, he screams “what does that even mean?” Well, Paul, as the presenter on what is theoretically a news show, maybe you could have done some research. But in lieu of that, I’ll explain it. The task force has been divided into two teams, one to look at the short term solution, and one to look at the long term resolution. We need both. We can’t have people going through this again, so we have to find a short term solution. But we also need to know whether this situation can be mitigated, by improving the drainage, raising the houses, or partial red-zoning. This takes more investigation, and has more serious implications for people’s primary asset, their homes. It makes sense to take some time with this.

First a very truncated description of the problem.  Onenews has an informative video.  The Canterbury earthquakes has caused sections around the Flockton Basin, just north of the Christchurch City Centre to drop by up half a metre.  Dudley creek has also been affected and cannot drain water away as quickly as it used to.  The flooding was caused by a combination of these effects and three “one in a hundred year storms” happening within a month.  The frequency  must be making people think that climate change is indeed occurring.  Proposed solutions are work on Dudley Stream to improve its drainage and/or a pumping station to move water on quickly.  The cost of a station is in the vicinity of $50 million dollars.  Either option would take years to implement.

The herculean job of rebuilding a city and now dealing with incessant flooding problems would drain the most capable of local bodies.  Christchurch needs all the help it can get.

You would think that the Government would step in and assist.  There must be some actual or potential liability for the EQC to meet.  Insurance companies are obviously also at risk.  Urgent funding so that this work can be conducted should be a given.

But John Key has said that the Government cannot do anything until Council asks.  It is funny that if increased water resources for farmers is involved then the Government will step in and sack a democratically elected organisation as well as pledging public money to make sure it happens but ordinary people having their houses flooded continuously attracts no such urgency.  Apparently Key was in Christchurch yesterday but not for the clean up but for the sod turning on the Central Plains Water Scheme.  How unfortunate is that timing.

The really worrying aspect is that Henry’s rant feels like it was somehow programmed.  As commented by Russell Brown:

Okay, here’s what I think is going on.

National has been using Curia to poll on perceptions of Brownlee in Christchurch, which will be awful.

So they fly in Key to stand next to Brownlee and radiate chummy star power.

But they also need to shift some of the public ire from Brownlee, so briefings go out to the usual suspects putting the heat on Dalziel.

Dalziel, I am sure, would like some help and wants to collaborate on the crisis (why wouldn’t she?), but she’s not getting that for political reasons.

The whole thing is, in my humble opinion, a very, very cynical political game, at the expense of the people of Christchurch.

I am afraid that Russell may be right.  This is going to be a long and brutal election campaign.

67 comments on “Paul Henry and Christchurch’s floods ”

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  1. aerobubble 1
    30 April 2014 at 2:40 pm

    I still don’t get it. Create a wall of sandbags around the hundred odd houses, bung up the dunny (maybe unnecessary as too high up anyway) and other pipes temporary in heavy rain, then hand out a pump and roof water piping to redirect water over the sand bags. Can they handle that for three years? Until some drainage is put in place. hell, get student to make up the sandbags. Am I missing something

    • mickysavage 1.1
      30 April 2014 at 2:46 pm

      Apparently the sandbags do not work with houses with wooden floors. The water table rises and the water comes through the floor boards. The base of the stream has apparently risen by up to half a metre and you can imagine how much work would be required to return the stream to its former condition.

      • NickS 1.1.1
        30 April 2014 at 3:44 pm

        It does if the water table isn’t high or the floodwater doesn’t sit for days, but yeah, better off red-zoning the worst areas, and excavating a holding pond to hold the flood water and slowly release it into the Dudley creek system.

      • aerobubble 1.1.2
        30 April 2014 at 4:07 pm

        Sounds right. Okay, so how good will it be to pour some concrete on the earth under the house, so making it water proof (or whatever). Would that harm the house price??? like from moisture buildup over time??? i.e. take the bunging up effect one step further.

        • greywarbler 1.1.2.1
          30 April 2014 at 4:27 pm

          Read Nicks below at 4 and 4.2 aerobubble.
          I can understand anyone getting impatient at the glacial pace that the remedial work and future planning decisions are proceeding. Nick’s ideas to transport the houses is a seriously practical one. Is it three 100year floods in amonth’few months? Better that homeowners are higher (and drier).

    • TeWhareWhero 1.2
      30 April 2014 at 3:13 pm

      I am tempted to speculate on what you might be missing Aerobubble but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Christchurch is NZ’s second city – the state of parts of it 3.5 years after the first quake sequence is a national disgrace.

      People have put up with this for more than 3 years already and you blithely suggest they put up with it another 3 years by using a few sandbags and a pump. Pump the water where exactly?

      And it’s not just the areas that are at risk of flooding -which is way more than 100 houses – it’s the people still living with damaged houses or paying inflated rents for damaged houses or forking out $260 a week to pitch a tent.

      ChCh was built on a river delta; it is underrun by streams and aquifers; the 11000 + earthquakes have caused land to lift and sink; some of the millions of tonnes of liquefaction has ended up in river beds and/or the beds have lifted; parts of the estuary where these rivers and streams drain have lifted. It’s a HUGE problem – and to suggest that it’s just about a few sandbags every so often is insulting.

      • aerobubble 1.2.1
        30 April 2014 at 4:17 pm

        Look I get you are going to be insulted easily by blithe suggestions, since I can feel that anger about the whole shoddy deal so many have had. But. Obviously I was not talking about homes that should be demolished. Or people tenting it. Or whatever other mayhem they are experiencing.
        I think most reasonable people can see that.

        But are you suggesting that some homes, that are fine, should be declared red zoned despite their residents solving the problem for themselves? The point of the red zone was the infrastructure was
        too costly to replace wasn’t it??

        I totally agree though that this problem of flooding should have been recognized by Parker quite early on in the piece.

      • aerobubble 1.2.2
        30 April 2014 at 4:26 pm

        So nobody in the history of flooding has ever used sandbags. And it wouldn’t be a few sandbags I warrant. Yes, there is a serious flooding problem, due to lots of factors, I never said there wasn’t or that sandbags would solve every problem there. But nice troll attempt.

        • TeWhareWhero 1.2.2.1
          30 April 2014 at 6:35 pm

          Who’s a troll?

          Maybe you didn’t mean to aerobubble but the way you expressed yourself made it sound as though you thought it was a relatively minor problem involving only a few houses, occupied by people who could easily put up with the inconvenience of occasionally bunged up dunnies, sandbags around their houses etc.. for 3 years.

          And yes we can be a little touchy down here in the Appalachians — sorry, South Island.

    • Marius 1.3
      30 April 2014 at 3:22 pm

      Yes. You’re missing a piece of your brain, you sad tosser

    • Kahukowhai 1.4
      1 May 2014 at 8:13 am

      Yes of course you are. There has already been three years of flooding with three floods in the last 2 months alone. There are 1000 properties in just one area, but the flooding is also city wide.

  2. fender 2
    30 April 2014 at 2:48 pm

    Yes it’s unsurprising to see Key knife Dalziel in the back, was only a matter of time. Equally unsurprising to see Henry batting for his beloved National Party. This is why I made a conscious effort to avoid his new program from the moment it was announced, the guy is a fuckwit of the highest order.

    • greywarbler 2.1
      30 April 2014 at 3:34 pm

      @ fender
      FOHO I now proclaim this to be an acronym for those people who we wish would leave NZ and go live on another planet. It is particularly for bestowing on those who create mayhem more through their action, or lack of it, resulting from their mental processes than through physical action.

      • fender 2.1.1
        30 April 2014 at 5:04 pm

        Lol

        The trouble is GW these idiots like Henry do live on another planet, only their disgusting outer shell wasn’t issued with a boarding pass and now their empty craniums have become infested with National Party parasitic worms..

  3. TeWhareWhero 3
    30 April 2014 at 2:52 pm

    I didn’t see this because I can’t watch Paul Henry for health reasons. There are some rightwing commentators and pundits I can watch, listen to and engage with – but this gobby, smug, wanna-be schlock jock is not one of them. He’s truly, appallingly awful- the more so because he is so very, very stupid.

    I recall his comments about infant mortality in the third world – joking about the families not really caring because they have 6 more kids out the back. Or words to that effect. Disgusting.

    Like most liberally minded people I do make an effort to try to understand people like him but this is one step too far. When he starts to use my home town to score his miserable blimpish and curmudgeonly political points I’m afraid he defeats even my liberal pretensions and I find myself considering the leaky boat/shark infested waters/ no oars option as the most appropriate.

    Give the show pony a knight hood, and his oppo a platinum handshake; protect the pie eater, EQC and insurance industry from criticism – and then try to blame the awful mess on the Labour mayor who has inherited the mess from them.

  4. NickS 4
    30 April 2014 at 3:31 pm

    What I don’t get about the solutions proposed is why they’re not even bothering with creating an artificial wetland to act as a holding basin and slowly release the water into Dudley Creek. It would probably work out about the same cost, but create more recreation space, a wildlife area and avoid the massive disruption that would be needed to fix the bottleneck issues created by bridges over Dudley Creek and screw over the recovering creek ecosystem. Plus given most of the houses there sit on piles, the ones that are in suitable condition can be moved to new sites.

    As for why I say this – I live not to far away from the area and the route to work goes along Stapleton’s and Slater streets + artificial and reconstructed wetlands are usually best practice to deal with flooding in the long term. And historically, even during the 100mm+ rain events, the worst Dudley Creek system got to was being not even close to breaking it’s banks, although low lying gardens/lawns usually ended up underwater

    Also, Dudley Creek is flooding the whole length, from up by Flockton street, right down Banks Ave, with bridges often acting as bottlenecks, while the creek bed is still at it’s nominal depth as multiple floods have scoured out most of the silt from the sandblows. What’s changed though is that the land movements due to the quakes have altered drainage patterns and reduced stormwater capacities, so the Dudley Creek system now has far greater water flow during rain into it than before the quakes, which combined with lateral movement and the creek banks dropping, has lead to the current issues.

    Main bridges causing the issues – Hill’s Road intersection, Slater street (due to land height drop, there’s a significant dip at the bridge site), side bridges off Stapleton’s are also an issue. Not sure of capacity of Stapleton’s road bridge, although it appears to be an arch + piles, and lack of flood debris on the road suggest it wasn’t impeding the flood waters, with water levels being below the bottom of houses based on mud deposits on vegetation/etc. There’s also major issues with the drainage on Slater street, in that the road kerb channels aren’t flowing, which is likely due to land relief changes + stormwater drain damage due to sandblows.

    • greywarbler 4.1
      30 April 2014 at 3:41 pm

      I seen to remember NickS that you have come up with good positive ideas before. The wetlands sounds a scheme to consider and quickly too.

    • NickS 4.2
      30 April 2014 at 4:03 pm

      Cheers greywarbler.

      And here’s some links I should have added in;
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retention_basin
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_runoff
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balancing_lake

      Some area’s do need pumps, i.e. lower Riccarton, due to springs, but Flockton Basin is surface run-off so use of wetlands/ponds

    • framu 4.3
      30 April 2014 at 4:26 pm

      theres the other upside in this that the holding pond/wetland concept cleans up the storm water before it goes elsewhere

    • marty mars 4.4
      30 April 2014 at 6:39 pm

      Good comment Nick – yes wetlands are a great idea imo.

      We must look to the land (and water) to give solutions, work with instead of against nature. It’s the only sustainable way for anything to work.

    • Ian Dalziel 4.5
      30 April 2014 at 9:47 pm

      I too live in this area, and regularly walk along Stapletons Road by Dudley Creek, the current creek bed is pretty much silted up to where the bank tops used to be in many places, such that it hardly flows under Shirley Road and therefore backs up back towards Flockton Basin, Aylesford & Emmett street area (That may not be Dudley Creek per se, but it is a tributary – several creeks join Dudley Creek in this area). The bit near Shirley Rd hasn’t had the flows and has little scouring out.
      I am surprised it hasn’t been dug out at least back to prior levels.
      Maybe we should organise a working bee, get some shovels and pile it on to the road for the council or someone to take away.
      And yes the scouring along the Banks Ave stretch has it almost looking like a healthy river again – though tidal effects push outflowing water back up the creek.
      This area has always had a really high water table, I remember a flat in Berwick Street (between Cranford and Warrington sts) back in the ’70s, digging a hole resulted in a swimming pool pretty quickly – about 10 – 15 inches below ground level – nowadays it is so sodden that nothing drains away much, water just pools with any rain!
      And they are putting more suburbs on our good market garden land which was part of the flood plain as well – it was called Marshland Road for a very good reason.

      Your point about the bridges is interesting, where Dudley Creek flows under Petrie Street that is the highest point in the road, so perhaps it has been thrust up and is impeding flow?

      But once they stopped the Waimakariri doing what it has done for millennia and put a built environment on top of an alluvial plain, well, compaction and land slumping was inevitable…
      maybe thats why it was origanlly called the Settlement of Christchurch?

      Keep your powder dry!
      :- )

      • NickS 4.5.1
        1 May 2014 at 11:35 am

        Reduced flow is more due to changes in the creek’s gradient due to land movement, and it’s natural state is mostly slow flowing and silty with dark brown mud 😛 Dudley Creek from Shirley/Hill’s intersection now lacks the grey silt thrown up from the quakes, and if I didn’t some UV light traps + in stream sampling we’d probably see a relatively healthy assemblage of freshwater insects (for an urban stream passing through multiple residential properties). Heck, there’s now eels living in it 😛

        As for the stream running along Quinn’s road, I live pretty close to it, and it’s always been in a sorry state due to low flows over the last 20 years, mainly as the drainage channels dug around it’s headwaters reduced surface flow into it, and it wasn’t helped by runoff, both road and rural. Since the February Quake it’s regularly dried up in places due to slitting and I suspect the springs feeding it have either dried up or reduced in flow. What it needs is basically more water diverted into it to help keep the flow rate up and clean out the stream bed.

        And yeah, ground water levels are damn high around there, even on the higher bit we’re on, ground water levels are still high enough during winter that you can easily dig down to it, while ponding and streets getting slightly flooded were normal before the quakes.

  5. One Anonymous Bloke 5
    30 April 2014 at 3:36 pm

    Personal responsibility means blame Labour.

  6. Tracey 6
    30 April 2014 at 3:36 pm

    it could backfire badly. christchurch people know how long their new mayor has been in, national might get away with treating people like bm, fisiani etc as stupid and still get their support…. but there is stupid and blindly stupid.

    • TeWhareWhero 6.1
      30 April 2014 at 4:00 pm

      We can only hope that’s the case.

      In the Press today Key is quoted as saying to ChCh Council – ‘give us a plan and we’ll help action it.’

      What have Brownlee and his merrie men at CERA with their ‘unprecedented in peace-time’ powers been doing for three years?

      • Tracey 6.1.1
        30 April 2014 at 4:12 pm

        its ironic given from even before the earthquake this govt was focused on stripping power from chch and canterbury…

        • aerobubble 6.1.1.1
          30 April 2014 at 4:22 pm

          Should the new Mayor get some bulldozers in a just dig a ditch that’ll temporarily drain the area a bit, just enough to keep floors. And maybe if a few homes are all there is, then pay them out?
          Didn’t the head of the new agency to deal with the consequences of the Earthquake get the nod because he just got on with it and started digging a ditch for power despite RMA…
          …hey, where is that guy and why isn’t it his deal???

      • greywarbler 6.1.2
        30 April 2014 at 4:18 pm

        A lot of politicians particularly local ones, get into council so they can find prime areas to invest in. Brownlee’s family have been in timber and I guess construction supply. What better way than to have a nice holding company and buy up sites as others move on. Have a dummy company and keep it aside from oneself. No hurry to get things moving then, govt wants Chch Council to sell assets too.

        So doing things judiciously and a bit slowly can only create a climate of dissatisfaction and the likelihood of owners selling and moving to where they can get their money working for them. And then it’s willing seller, willing buyer.

        • aerobubble 6.1.2.1
          30 April 2014 at 4:31 pm

          I disagree. Politicians are naturally hesitant, delay prevaricate and have angles will the wealthy.
          Also its capitalism to find advantage in situations, and laws if they are excessively unfair.

          If you want to find fault, surely, start with how Christchurch build on sandy, sodden earthquake prone soils, and what happened to those who turned a quick buck turning the
          bog into real estate. i.e. those who have already made heaps, rather than those that might…

          • greywarbler 6.1.2.1.1
            30 April 2014 at 5:34 pm

            aerobubble
            Well the only thing now is to concentrate on getting one of those heaps and building one’s house on the top of it. It’s a pity that the powers that be/not don’t call on you as you have lots of ideas. NickS ones sound sounder though. How about teaming up and shaking Brownlee, it would take two, and be light on your feet as he has probably been fast with his fists since school days. Watch out for stairs too.

          • greywarbler 6.1.2.1.2
            30 April 2014 at 5:34 pm

            aerobubble
            Well the only thing now is to concentrate on getting one of those heaps and building one’s house on the top of it. It’s a pity that the powers that be/not don’t call on you as you have lots of ideas. NickS ones sound sounder though. How about teaming up and shaking Brownlee, it would take two, and be light on your feet as he has probably been fast with his fists since school days. Watch out for stairs too.

      • The Pink Postman 6.1.3
        30 April 2014 at 4:24 pm

        Dont forget Shipley Te Whare, Brownlee and his mates are a disgrace.
        Lets hope the good people of his electorate throw him out .
        Also anyone who watched Key on Campbell last night would have seen just what a cunning uncaring bastard he is .

        • NickS 6.1.3.1
          30 April 2014 at 4:52 pm

          Brownlee’s embedded in Ilam like a bot fly in flesh. He will end up with a reducing majority, but due to the large upper and upper middle class income areas, it’s an easy seat for National and Brownlee’s active enough at the electorate level to get people voting for him. Plus Ilam had jack all damage from the quakes, and so have only had to deal with external issues like traffic congestion and benefit from increased housing prices. While the student population usually votes for their home electorates, rather than Ilam.

      • Rodel 6.1.4
        30 April 2014 at 8:10 pm

        I think the CEO of CERA has probably been busy wondering what to do with his $10,000 a week salary. Must take a lot of his time.

      • miravox 6.1.5
        30 April 2014 at 10:14 pm

        I’m well out of the loop on local news in NZ, but I had a quick squizz and the TV3 news on-line and got the impression that Key reckons it’s the council’s responsibility first because it’s flooding. Cera, otoh is responsible for earthquake damage? It’s as if the two aren’t related. Is this sort of what he’s saying?

    • John 6.2
      1 May 2014 at 8:54 am

      Good comment Tracey. National politicians have only 4 solutions. 1. Do nothing – the market will take care of it. 2. Tell people you forget, because of defective-selective-regressive memory syndrome. 3 Create a new reality beginning with the phrase: “The reality is …” which is designed to stymie debate because people who are not NACT voters who can afford $5,000 a head fund-raisers have no sense of “reality” ito (in their opinion. 4 Blame somebody else. Christchurch people aren’t dumb – they know who has been in power for over 1500 days. sitting on their hands and protecting scumbag insurance companies who are delaying, prevaricating and duck-shoving so they don’t have to pay out.

  7. Hami Shearlie 7
    30 April 2014 at 5:17 pm

    Not once did Paul Henry mention CERA who are supposed to be all over this!! CERA set up by the National Led Government!! Mind you I hardly ever watch Paul Henry and even when I do, I can’t concentrate on anything he says because my eyes are always measuring his ears, his right ear is so much bigger and the bottom is lower than the left one! Has anyone else noticed this, I can’t stop looking at it!

  8. Papa Tuanuku 8
    30 April 2014 at 5:46 pm

    500 comments on stuff!

    agree, i dont watch either – i switch or mute if im waiting for it to finish. same with hosking.

  9. feijoa 9
    30 April 2014 at 6:05 pm

    Paul Henry is truly awful

    I saw him a month or 2 ago ranting about how he hates councils and bureaucrats

    I recall shouting at the TV ( pointless, I know), You stupid bastard, who takes away your sewage and shit – the council!! Try doing that yourself you fuckwit

  10. captain hook 10
    30 April 2014 at 6:19 pm

    yep another hooton job. ring up tranny whipper henry and get him to provide a diversion immediately. he couldn’t win a seat so he became a lapdog. ugly.

    • Rodel 10.1
      30 April 2014 at 9:55 pm

      CH
      Correction..it was a tranny that whipped Henry in the election. Not the other way round.

  11. Dan1 11
    30 April 2014 at 6:43 pm

    How is it that TV3 has Campbell positively pushing for answers in areas that concern the average Kiwi, and at the same time they employ an egocentric nutcase who failed as a National party candidate, was dropped from TV1, failed as a personality in Australia,… failure, failure failure.
    TV3 has a responsibility to give fair coverage.

    Their editorial bias with a blank cheque to Henry leaves me with a dilemma: do I do without my regular dose of Campbell in protest at the dogwhistling by a National party stooge who I rate lower than Whaleoil. I never watch Henry but that he goes out encouraged to pull in the rednecks is appalling.

  12. TeWhareWhero 12
    30 April 2014 at 6:50 pm

    There used to be (still might be) – a twonk who posted on the Stuff website – his user name was paulhenryforprimeminister – and yes, he demonstrated all the intellect and tolerance you would expect from a PH fan. You know the type – nasty little person, so full of corrosive self loathing he has to turn it outwards or die.

  13. Rodel 13
    30 April 2014 at 8:17 pm

    What really, really amazes me is that at least two contributors to this blog actually admit to watching Paul Henry’s show.( or did they hear about it from a friend?)

    Advance Australia…….God Defend New Zealand.

  14. ropata 14
    30 April 2014 at 8:43 pm

    ECAN has been so busy irrigating farms for Judith Collins and the landed gentry, they don’t have time to fix puddles for the townsfolk.

    Can the Heathcote Estuary and the river be dredged?
    Can the sewage outfall project be co-opted to help drain stormwater?

  15. vto 15
    30 April 2014 at 9:09 pm

    dig the bloody drains out for fucks sake

    diggers are for hire just down the road

    unfuckingbelievable

    cera on top of council on top of ccdu on top of election on top of irrigation on top of ecan wtf to expect eqc all over again

    • Kahukowhai 15.1
      1 May 2014 at 8:17 am

      But Lianne your hero bleated it was going to take 2 years minimum to dig out the creek. I guess they have leased out all the shovels for that long.

      • vto 15.1.1
        1 May 2014 at 2:26 pm

        the reference wax actually to your lot. did you not read what was wrote?

  16. vto 16
    30 April 2014 at 9:14 pm

    paul henry remains’ new Zealand’s weakest link, what an arsehole.

    the new mayor is doing incredibly well, as everyone here knows

  17. Lloyd 17
    30 April 2014 at 9:43 pm

    Why would anyone not turn off the TV or change channel when Paul Henry came on?

    I used to be a regular TV3 Nightline watcher.

    Not now…..

    I can proudly say the only time I have watched even 10 seconds of the Paul Henry mind boggle was last night as the TV was on and the sound turned down, and it took that 10 seconds for me to realise the TV had turned toxic.

  18. hoom 18
    1 May 2014 at 12:19 am

    You would think that the Government would step in and assist.

    Maybe set up some kind of Government controlled Authority with sweeping powers & run by a senior Cabinet Minister to help Christchurch Recover from the Earthquake….

  19. SPC 19
    1 May 2014 at 2:47 am

    The promos for the programme give the viewer fair warning as to the fact that it is right wing balance to the show at 7pm.

    Thus you had Henry accentuating the word force, when mentioning compulsory Kiwi Saver, force you to save more, in the promo.

    Whereas on TV1, there are the opinion-editorials of Hosking that permeate the show on TV1, such as his approval of taxpayer support for winners”, like Ko. And no balance whatsoever in the wider programming. It’s election year appeasement of National, the only political threat to the state broadcaster.

  20. Kahukowhai 20
    1 May 2014 at 7:56 am

    If you don’t live here you could claim ignorance as a defence. Or maybe you live in Dunedin where it’s even worse and their council says it will take 20 years to fix sewage overflowing in someone’s backyard. The Christchurch City Council has known there was a flooding problem for more than 3 years. The latest rubbish is it will take at least two more years to fix this problem. When a few diggers could take a few weeks to dig out the creek and raise the stopbanks.

    Yes the problem will take years to fix when all the politicians and bureacrats sit round and have endless taklfests about how to fix the problem and wring their hands and whatever.

    The council had to admit they only had 3 people working on the problem since the last flood, what a joke.

    • adam 20.1
      1 May 2014 at 8:55 am

      So if you what you say is true – then the central government has failed Christchurh on a massive scale. Smiling John is just that all smiles and no substance.

      Mind you this is what happens in a free market econonomy – so if you have ever voted for labour or national you desirve this shit to happen. So stop complaining, you voted, you got what you desirved.

    • NickS 20.2
      1 May 2014 at 11:16 am

      🙄

      Because there’s so totes not a whole range of legal and hydrological issues that need to be dealt with, nor a number of possible solutions that need to be weighed up and you can so go just dig a drainage trench and not have any downstream issues such as more flooding or your trench collapsing.

      i.e. the banks of Dudley Creek are mostly on private land and include a large number of private bridges + have established trees growing on the banks, creating a mess of issues. Plus the Flockton Basin is the result of local runoff flowing into the depression created by the February quake and resulting land movement, which then flows into feeder streams/drains and overwhelms the capacity of Dudley Creek.

      But why think when you can just mouth off and make an ignorant arse out of yourself?

  21. Kahukowhai 21
    1 May 2014 at 7:59 am

    I’m sure you would love Key to sack the council so you can have a buck both ways. Wouldn’t you. Get off the fence. If the council keeps running round in circles there will be rioting in the streets over this.

  22. Kahukowhai 22
    1 May 2014 at 8:51 am

    Now how about the REAL news in Christchurch
    – The city council is broke yet they are trying to borrow money through a subsidiary to throw at subsidising a few so called “affordable” houses.
    – The city council is partnering with the government to build so called “affordable” $400,000 apartments in a poor part of town.
    – The city council is allowing gentrification in all the lower income inner suburbs so driving poor people out of those areas.
    – The city council has only repaired a few of the hundreds of damaged residential units in 3 years since the earthquakes.
    – The city council believes they can put their social housing into a shell company so it will qualify for income related rent subsidies. They haven’t read the government’s statement that council housing will not qualify.

    • Mark 22.1
      1 May 2014 at 2:17 pm

      As per norm with this right wing troll, he places all the blame on the council and none on those National hacks he loves so much. He makes Paul Henry seem informed. As per norm, his “facts” are so far from the truth you could swear John Key said them. Treat him like the worm he is and hopefully he can return to the Press and leave his trolling for there.

  23. captain hook 23
    1 May 2014 at 11:35 am

    Lianne Dalziell has never been my cup of tea. She is too interested in Hardly Davisons but there is no questioning her committment to Christchurch and the recovery. for Tranny Whipped Paul Henry to start mouthing off about her is just as low as it can get and he should be ashamed of himself.

  24. Mr O Well 24
    1 May 2014 at 5:08 pm

    The Paul Henry show

    Classic example of a WINZ back to work scheme going so sadly wrong.

  25. BEATINGTHEBOKS 25
    1 May 2014 at 7:25 pm

    Well whoever is responsible needs to SORT THE PLAN you have had long enough. Then everyone should get a shovel and do the bizzo, even if they are not paid ( shock horror). Bet if everyone pulled together and did the work and didn’t bitch and moan the job would be done in a month. Bet that doesn’t happen, just more pissing and moaning from the government and Dalziel, fuck the deadlines just get the job done. Soft as butter. Thick as shit. Stop talking get working.

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