Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, January 26th, 2012 - 25 comments
Christchurch has been back in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. What’s going on behind the public narrative of a tough and resilient populace soldiering on in the face of all these obstacles?
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, December 24th, 2011 - 59 comments
Heartfelt greetings and commiserations to all in the shaky city. Use this post for general discussion of the ongoing quakes in Christchurch.
Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, November 10th, 2011 - 44 comments
Why did Key keep talking through a minute’s silence for Christchurch quake victims?
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, November 3rd, 2011 - 17 comments
Labour’s EQC policy has taken the holes in the current system revealed by the earthquakes – too low cap, inequitable flat levy, non-universal coverage, lack of provision for accommodation coverage – and fixed them. On top of that, they’ve promised to give people access to their geotech info. Great policy. No wonder National’s angry.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 20th, 2011 - 101 comments
DPF is stirring the sewer again with ridiculous smears about a Labour candidate. Does he resort to mud-flinging due to a lack of National policy that stacks up?
Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, September 28th, 2011 - 19 comments
250 jobs lost at Chch meatworks.
55 jobs lost at Canterbury leather.
Insurers warn they’ll pull out.
Kaiapoi redzoners to be $24K worse off. That’s before they get screwed by the landbankers.
10,000 Cantabrians left for overseas in the past year.
The recovery ‘delayed‘ again. It’s clear we still haven’t hit bottom.
The Nat’s plan: “muddling through”
Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, August 27th, 2011 - 67 comments
Following the release of data by the Chief Coroner, suicide is once again getting some time in the headlines. Coincidentally, news from Christchurch supports the suggestion that stronger communities reduce suicide rates.
Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, August 8th, 2011 - 34 comments
Grieving families of Christchurch earthquake victims say that John Key has broken his promise to them. Key is refusing to even comment on the nature of the meeting. This must all sound very familiar to the families of the Pike River miners.
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, August 3rd, 2011 - 52 comments
The “free market” exists to make profit. It does have some advantages when everything is running smoothly. But the free market is hopeless in tough times. It never wants to pay out or clean up the mess.
Written By: - Date published: 7:23 am, July 12th, 2011 - 50 comments
Police have launched a criminal investigation in to TVNZ’s Sunday piece on Christchurch “looter” Arie Smith. Why?
Written By: - Date published: 4:43 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 12 comments
Sometimes you have to simply start from 1.0 for Godwin’s Law. This pretty much applies to anything re-subtitled from the movie “Der Untergang”. The latest one that I have seen is this side splitting rendition of exactly what has been going on inside the EQC operation in Christchurch.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, June 22nd, 2011 - 62 comments
After another terrible night in Christchurch, guest poster Andy-Roo writes about life on the ground in East Christchurch.
Written By: - Date published: 6:33 pm, June 17th, 2011 - 7 comments
From Canterbury TV (good to see they are still serving Canterbury) the first news report is better than most of the other stuff I see in the TV news about Christchurch. This is what people are telling us (one sent this clip through) in e-mails and comments. Now you can see them. It is a …
Written By: - Date published: 8:22 am, June 17th, 2011 - 119 comments
In the damaged suburbs of Christchurch, people’s lives, their emotions, in many cases their finances, are all stuck in limbo. Residents need to know which areas are going to be written off. What they don’t need is Gerry Brownlee telling them they are “simplistic”…
Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, June 15th, 2011 - 35 comments
Lack of certainty is killing the spirit and economy of Christchurch. Before the latest quakes there were already threats of protests because Brownlee has failed to announce which areas can’t be rebuilt on. That information is even more needed now. Brownlee says it’s ‘blindingly obvious’ which areas must go. He needs to drop the arrogance and inform people.
Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, June 13th, 2011 - 34 comments
The nastiest quakes since February. A 5.5 closely followed by a 6.0. Damage, injuries, utility outages reported. How much more can Christchurch take?
Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, April 5th, 2011 - 9 comments
A unemployment disaster is slowly unfolding in Christchurch. For now, the tide of job losses is being partially held back by wage subsidies supporting nearly 70,000 workers, but those will be phased out by June. Then, all hell will break loose. The Government has no plan for this and, according to Key, hasn’t even bothered to understand the scope of the crisis.
Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, April 5th, 2011 - 61 comments
Displaced Christchurch residents are being told they need to pay at least $190 a week to stay in emergency campervan housing.
Meanwhile picking up the tab for wealthy SFC investors just got another third of a billion more expensive.
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, April 2nd, 2011 - 10 comments
More Christchurch black humour (or maybe “brown” humour?)…
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, March 24th, 2011 - 11 comments
62,000 Christchurch workers are now receiving special earthquake payments. Most of these workers’ businesses have been closed by the earthquake and plan to re-open at some point by 6,300 jobs are gone for good That’s about 30% of Christchurch workers out of action and 3% without the hope that their workplace will re-open.
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, March 23rd, 2011 - 45 comments
Owners of businesses in the red zone CBD want brief access to their premises to retrieve items and data that are vital to whatever remaining chance they have of keeping their enterprises alive. The government is refusing access on the grounds of safety. There’s right on both sides of the issue, but whatever happened to informed consent?
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 21st, 2011 - 6 comments
We’ve had the memorial service. Now we need action. Now we need the plan. Christchurch needs rebuilding. How is it going to happen? Does the current government have the will? I went looking for clues in John Key’s three big speeches to date. What I found was not encouraging…
Written By: - Date published: 7:36 am, March 20th, 2011 - 94 comments
Here’s my prediction for 20 March 2011.
Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, March 19th, 2011 - 37 comments
Who will plan, oversee and administer the rebuilding of Christchurch? Public servants. The kind of “back room bureaucrats” that the Nats love to hate. But governments can’t get anything done without them.
Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, March 18th, 2011 - 60 comments
There’s a large number of reports coming out of Christchurch of businesses that have been demolished without Civil Defence consulting with the owners, as is procedure, and giving them a chance to recover vital equipment and records first. Disturbingly, some of these demolitions seem to have been carried out by ‘cowboys’ without CD approval.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, March 18th, 2011 - 181 comments
A memorial service will be held in Hagley Park today to pay tribute to victims of the February quake. Proceedings begin at 10:30am, with the service starting at 12:30, and two minutes silence at 12.51pm. This event has strongly polarised opinions in Christchurch…
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 pm, March 16th, 2011 - 96 comments
Me & others: How come the government seems to have no plan for rebuilding Christchurch or desire to get one?
Righties: Well, um, Key’s awesome and, anyway, what’s your plan, smart-arse ?
Me: I’m not the government, rebuilding Christchurch isn’t my job. But here’s where I would start.
Written By: - Date published: 12:03 pm, March 16th, 2011 - 16 comments
This week’s Sunday Star-Times was full of stories about unaffordable food, housing and fuel affecting the country’s urban dwellers, nowhere more so than in Auckland. Meanwhile the shortage of housing after the earthquake promises huge rent and house price hikes for Christchurch, assuming the locals don’t flee and push up house prices elsewhere.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, March 16th, 2011 - 65 comments
I don’t think that anyone who has been paying attention to events in Christchurch could seriously have expected the city to host a major sporting event like the RWC within a few short months. So why is John Key the last person left in the country who is denying the obvious?
Written By: - Date published: 12:04 am, March 16th, 2011 - 123 comments
There’s been increasing concern over the past week or two that not only has the government failed to communicate its plan for the Christchurch recovery, it doesn’t actually have one, and isn’t particularly worried about getting one. Yesterday in the House, Labour took Key to task on this important issue. And he was found terribly wanting.
Written By: - Date published: 4:27 pm, March 15th, 2011 - 12 comments
Sometimes we take comments here and put them up as posts. Here’s one from long time contributor vto.
Comments