Brownlee makes tectonic plates look like speed demons

23 comments on “Brownlee makes tectonic plates look like speed demons ”

• Comments are now closed

1. ad 1

   27 July 2012 at 9:38 am

   Utterly pathetic. Sees a fully mandated City plan from Christchurch, and deliberately cuts it up and slows its implementation down.

   If there’s one thing I am utterly confident a Labour-led administration would have done better than this lot, it’s rebuilding Christchurch. The masterplanning for Hobsonville in Auckland, for example, is outstanding. It has partnered the private sector in a manner that delivers a whole range of sound social and environmental outcomes. I don’t like all of it. But it was formed and imagined and first funded under the Helen Clark government.

   The disdain he has shown for Christchurch City and in fact most other democratic intitutions there is staggering – and you never speed anything up by shutting major allies out of the picture.

   For him to have a crack at insurers, when the lack of leadership from him or central government is pretty stark now, has breathtaking gall.
   • Dr Terry 1.1

     27 July 2012 at 11:54 am

     ANY damn administration could have done better than this lot! But I must ask again, “ÏS the Government in any hurry to repair Christchurch?” (A “go slow” has benefits – for one thing, it provides a never ending excuse for the state of the economy, an even better tool than endlessly blaming the previous Labour administration for whatever National fouls up (though this too keeps being hauled up to excuse ineptitude).
2. The Central Scutinizer 2

   27 July 2012 at 9:45 am

   General Gerry hopefully has an insurance policy on patience. Now that he has lost his patience, he will be able to make a claim and get a hefty payout further delaying settlements to the poor buggers that are still shitting in porta loos. Wait! his protegee Side Show Bob will be loosing his patients next.
3. felix 3

   27 July 2012 at 11:20 am

   Did I miss something or has Brownlee recently become Minister of Transport? He’s been answering as such in the house lately.

   Whether this is a permanent or temporary position the same question applies: Why the fuck is he doing ANYTHING else while there’s work to do in Christchurch?
   • Colonial Viper 3.1

     27 July 2012 at 11:26 am

     There’s work to do in Christchurch? You must be mistaken, market forces are going to look after that.
     • Kotahi Tāne Huna 3.1.1

       27 July 2012 at 11:35 am

       ”Now the private sector needs to do the sort of things that the private sector claims it can do so particularly well.”

       King Brownlee doesn’t sound very confident.
     • mike e 3.1.2

       27 July 2012 at 12:19 pm

       Force everybody to leave for Aus
   • ghostwhowalksnz 3.2

     27 July 2012 at 12:19 pm

     Yes he is Minister of Transport
4. Plan B 4

   27 July 2012 at 11:25 am

   AMI paid out and made the others look bad, it had to be put down and then handed on a plate to the biggest domestic insurance company operating in New Zealand creating a single entity that controlled most of the market – although it does use several brand names.
5. Tom Gould 5

   27 July 2012 at 11:28 am

   If there were sausage rolls involved, Gerry would be all over it.
6. Jim Nald 6

   27 July 2012 at 11:40 am

   Heard the dodo on Morning Report today.
   Quite frankly, he is an embarrassment in the extreme.
   • Dr Terry 6.1

     27 July 2012 at 11:58 am

     Yes, Jim, and just the man National wants there for its own nefarious reasons.
7. Fortran 7

   27 July 2012 at 1:53 pm

   AMI went bust through incompetent management, nothing else.
   The government is still bailing they policyholders out to a $1 billion, in respect of the Earthquake claims.
   The balance of the other than the EQ claims business, ie Fire, Motor policies etc in other parts of New Zealand, has been sold to the Aussies because nobody else in New Zealand would touch them.
   • Colonial Viper 7.1

     27 July 2012 at 3:24 pm

     has been sold to the Aussies because nobody else in New Zealand would touch them.

     BS

     They were sold overseas because overseas owners would pay the highest price. Classic socialisation of losses and privatisation of profits.

     The Government bailout of AMI should have been a full takeover of the company, and shareholders should have been crushed. That’s what should happen when incompetent management (as you put it) bury a private company.
     • Phil 7.1.1

       27 July 2012 at 4:51 pm

       AMI was mutually owned – the policyholders were the shareholders. If the government had “crushed the shareholders” it would have left 30% of Christchurch homeowners out of pocket.
8. hoom 8

   27 July 2012 at 3:16 pm

   I’m curious that he takes a dig at the ‘market will provide’ ethos

   ”Now the private sector needs to do the sort of things that the private sector claims it can do so particularly well.”

   Can there possibly be a creeping recognition within the Nats that the market actually doesn’t necessarily provide?
   Is he threatening regulation/nationalisation?
   If so is it a credible threat?
   • Kotahi Tāne Huna 8.1

     27 July 2012 at 3:20 pm

     A rare moment of clarity? Or was it just foot-in-mouth disease?
     • fender 8.1.1

       27 July 2012 at 8:23 pm

       All of the above plus Brownlee is trying to distract from the illegal behaviour that the judge termed: “stepped outside the legal limits” of his CERA ACT powers and made a “serious error” in denying the developers appeal rights.

       More bullying to distract from the earlier bullying.
9. MrSmith 9

   28 July 2012 at 6:38 pm

   All I can say to those that live outside Christchurch and are worried about a big Quake hitting their area, “don’t worry about the quake” what you really have to worry about is having to deal with EQC under a National Government anyway.

   Basically people, in an earthquake EQC is an insurance policy, on roughly the first $100k’s damage to your house,, people I talk to are under the illusion there is a big pot of money somewhere, when all the government does is use your EQC premiums to insure against the first 100k damage with an offshore insurance company, the problem is that EQC weren’t ready for an event like this and how could they be, but at the end of the day and after almost two years it was Gerry Brownlee’s job to iron out the problems and he has sat around waiting for the market to fix things, like the head up his Ass tory he is.
   • Fortran 9.1

     29 July 2012 at 1:50 pm

     Nobody could have reasionably foreseen these Earthquakes in Christchurch, or had enough vision to the cumulative costs.
     Over the years the Council ignored any advice they received from the Scientists, and others, as to the possibility.
     That EQC had overseas REINSURANCE is a blessing – it saved the Taxpayers something like $6billion out of a $12billion plus total claim.
     Government (Taxpayers) are still the ultimate funder whatever.
     • MrSmith 9.1.1

       30 July 2012 at 6:58 pm

       Well Fortran, the government made me take out an insurance policy for the first 115k of damage to my house in the event of an earthquake, if they were under insured then that’s hardly my fault is it, they fucked up so they/us have to pay, what I am saying is an earthquake of this magnitude is everyone worst nightmare, but dealing with EQC another disaster you have to deal with daily if you want any progress, if you don’t hit the 115k threshold then the nightmare has only just begun, having to deal with EQC for the last 18 odd months has been the same nightmare over and over again.

       The reason people take insurance is so if needed you will be no worse off after the event, in the case of EQC a lot of the costs fall on the property owners in my case thousands of dollars with no right under the act to claim those costs.

       So I’m worse off with a broken home that can’t be repaired because now a special foundation has to be designed sometime in the future etc etc this property is rented but as a result of the damage the rent is well below it’s market rental, if I had gone over the 115k I would have been at-least been dealing with my insurance company with my own agent getting on with the job at their expense.
       • SamIwas 9.1.1.1

         31 July 2012 at 5:46 am

         @MrSmith

         Actually you can thank the private insurers for that as well. Before last September’s declaratory judgment, forced upon everyone by the private insurers, EQC would have simply tallied up your total damage, paid you out cap and left you to deal with the insurers. But because they were looking to limit their liability, private insurers sought an order from the High Court that EQC cover reinstates after every single natural disaster event. So with every earthquake in Canterbury, EQC has to reassess all of your damage up to that point (previous unrepaired damage may have exacerbated additional damage etc) and assign the damage to each event accordingly.

         This was a huge blow to EQC’s progress, while the insurers managed to lump a huge amount of additional liability on to taxpayers. Throw in the ridiculous complexities of land damage (a lot of Christchurch was built on crap land) and you’ve got the perfect recipe for long delays.

         This isn’t to exonerate EQC altogether – they have stuffed up in their own way – but they have managed to pay out nearly $4 billion in mostly building claims in the past 20 months, which isn’t bad going, for any response to a massive catastrophe, anywhere in the world.
10. MrSmith 10

    31 July 2012 at 11:03 am

    SamIwas: You seem to be cheer leading for Brownlee “it’s all the private insurers fault” and they may be partly to blame, but this is just an example of how the insurance market quickly abandons you when the risks get to high.

    All it appears the insurers did was remind EQC through the High court of their responsibilities, if EQC had a case they would have appealed the judgment and won.

    $4 billion spent and all I wanted was someone to answer the bloody phone.

• Comments are now closed

• Log in
• Donate
• Contribute post

• Articles RSS