Gerry Brownlee
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NRT on Brownlee’s lies and cronyism
Written By: - Date published: 6:13 pm, August 6th, 2011 - 55 comments
Remember the fuss when Brownlee appointed Jenny Shipley and other cronies to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Review Panel at triple the normal rate? Brownlee tried to cover it up with a lie. I/S at No Right Turn has the scoop – go read it there.
It’s cold in Christchurch
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, July 26th, 2011 - 69 comments
Why has the government delayed the second phase of Christchurch’s heating programme for two months? Could the timing be any worse?
Brownlee’s dirty little deal
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, July 20th, 2011 - 12 comments
I/S has revealed how Gerry Brownlee handpicked the “independent” body that is meant to monitor the use of his CERA powers. He appointed Jenny Shipley to the panel and got her $1000 a day, three times the usual pay. Brownlee said the extra was needed to get the people he wanted. But the chair says money didn’t enter into it for him.
Questions mount over Nats’ red zone plan
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, June 27th, 2011 - 30 comments
Brownlee has known for months about the fishhooks in the red-zone buyout plan. Incredibly, he has done nothing to address them. The rules of the bailout package aren’t even written. It was rushed out unfinished for political reasons. How can it take so long to write these simple rules? Only explanation is a lazy, useless, incompetent minister.
Where are Nats’ answers to Chch fishhooks?
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, June 25th, 2011 - 61 comments
The weaknesses in govt’s Christchurch buyout plan were pretty obvious. Option 1: GV for land & property, would not be enough to buy replacement for most. Option 2: GV for land – activate replacement clause in insurance contract for house, would only work if insurer agreed house was a complete write-off. Option 2 failing already.
That’s it?
Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 10 comments
Amazing what political pressure can do. Christchurch package was clearly put together in the space of a couple of days. Buy-out at GV the obvious basic solution but will see many out of pocket. Option 2 is an admission of that but only open to some. None of the fish-hooks have been worked out. What’s Gerry been doing all this time?
The buck stops with Gerry
Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, June 21st, 2011 - 9 comments
Every day more stories of the poor management of the Christchurch recovery are coming out. Delays in physical rebuilding are understandable. Delays in EQC payouts are another. They undermine the city’s economy and stop rebuilding. A reader has sent in their story. It’s one of many. Brownlee should have sorted this months ago.
Whenever you’re ready, John
Written By: - Date published: 6:57 am, June 21st, 2011 - 53 comments
Gerry Brownlee says an announcement on Christchurch’s land will be made “very, very soon” but testily refuses to give a date, or even a real timeframe. I have a sinking feeling this is all a PR exercise. Just as Brownlee has got everyone really agitated, that Nice Man Mr Key will unveil the information. When it fits into his diary, of course.
The wrong man for the job
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, June 19th, 2011 - 46 comments
I haven’t seen the full interview of Brownlee on the Nation. If the clips on the news were anything to go by, it was more of the same. No info for Christchurch residents. No empathy for them either. More haughty bullshit. More vague excuses for delays. More focused on himself than the people who need help. He needs to go.
Blindingly obvious – but secret
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”…
Mining II: The Empire Strikes Back
Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, June 11th, 2011 - 52 comments
A little over a year ago the biggest single protest march in this country since 1938 put the final nail in the coffin of the Nats’ amateur hour plans to mine our most precious conservation land. Or so we thought…
Brownlee’s savage attack on Chch business owners
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, June 4th, 2011 - 83 comments
Christchurch business owners, unable to even get to their premises in the red-zone, have asked for some help to stop going under. Gerry Brownlee’s arrogant response: “If they are such clever, gifted, and forward-looking entrepreneurs it’s pretty sad that their first port of call has to be to Government looking for a bailout”. What an arsehole.
Brownlee flexing his CERA muscle
Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, May 10th, 2011 - 10 comments
Is the power of CERA going to Brownlee’s head a bit? Seems he’s using it to intimidate Christchurch building owners.
Heck of a job Brownlee
Written By: - Date published: 1:22 am, April 30th, 2011 - 63 comments
The government has spent $1 million so far on 350 campervans for Christchurch. One person stayed in them. For that money, better to put them up at Premier House and commute them by Iroquois. There is a massive housing need in Christchurch but the campervans were so shitty and expensive people preferred overcrowded or damaged houses.
Hartevelt hearts Brownlee
Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, April 17th, 2011 - 21 comments
Young John Hartevelt has obviously decided it’s a good idea to cozy up to our new dictator. How else to explain the fawning piece in today’s Sunday Star-Times? Hartevelt heaps plaudits on Gerry Brownlee for deigning to have a one day select committee and swipes at Labour’s Lianne Dalziel for daring to demand better for her constituents.
Good-bye rule of law
Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, April 15th, 2011 - 10 comments
I was going to write about how ludicrous it is that National is abandoning the idea of a warranty or bond system for builders in the new Building Act designed to stop a repeat of the leaky homes debacle, given that we’re about to embark on the largest rebuilding programme in the country’s history. But then I realised it no longer matters what laws say.
Reasons to vote against CERA
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 14th, 2011 - 77 comments
Update: bollocks. Clayton Cosgrove has announced Labour will vote for CERA “even though we have grave concerns”. He then spent 10 minutes whining how Brownlee had lied to Labour repeatedly during this process and wasn’t to be trusted. He warned Brownlee he would be accountable if CERA stuffs up. Brownlee responded “so will you”. Labour wonders why it is stuck in National’s shadow unable to get traction – It’s decisions like this one.
Voting away our democracy
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, April 13th, 2011 - 52 comments
Just before the second Christchurch earthquake, Gerry Brownlee was being criticised for the lack of progress in recovery. People suggested what was needed was an independent commissioner to lead the rebuilding – an ‘earthquake Tsar’. Brownlee responded “the last Tsar got shot“. Now, the new CERA law makes Brownlee our Tsar in a very literal sense.
Dim-Post: Gerry Brownlee to rebuild city
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, April 12th, 2011 - 10 comments
The Government will let us see the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority bill today, then slam it through under Urgency. Hopefully, it won’t be a repeat of CERRA, which made Gerry Brownlee our de facto dictator. In honour of this ominous event, here is a classic piece of satire from Danyl at Dim-Post.
Brownlee promises inflatable, plastic Christchurch
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 am, April 7th, 2011 - 20 comments
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has unveiled plans for a giant inflatable plastic CBD and inflatable plastic suburbs to replace buildings damaged in the Christchurch earthquake. The inflatable CBD will include a number of office buildings and a bouncy castle. To save costs, the government has rejected making the buildings here and will buy them from China.
Brownlee wrong for Christchuch
Written By: - Date published: 4:46 pm, March 28th, 2011 - 19 comments
Gerry Brownlee is making a mess of the rebuilding of Christchurch. In the latest fiasco, the person Brownlee tapped to head the new earthquake recovery authority apparently can’t face the prospect of working with him.
Building our future
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, March 10th, 2011 - 69 comments
Facing a housing shortage in Auckland now and a massive rebuilding programme in Christchurch to come, the Government has announced the biggest public building initiative since World War 2. Thousands of unemployed young people will be paid to train as apprentices in building trades and contribute to their country’s future.
Beyond a joke
Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, March 9th, 2011 - 60 comments
John Key and Gerry Brownlee are the two most powerful men in the country right now. In their actions and in their words they hold the hopes of tens of thousands of people whose lives have been turned upside down and the future of a major city. We really need these men to do a good job. So, this Laurel and Hardy impersonation has to stop.
Confirmed: Brownlee made it up
Written By: - Date published: 3:43 pm, March 7th, 2011 - 18 comments
More bad news for Gerry Brownlee today. No Right Turn has had confirmation that Gerry Brownlee makes his ‘policy’ up as he goes without seeking competent advice. This must be more than slightly terrifying to the people of Christchurch because Brownlee is currently their dictator by legislation in the rebuilding effort. His bulldozing ineptness is not just confined to buildings but is endemic to everything he does.
For God’s sake, be straight with us
Written By: - Date published: 1:50 pm, March 7th, 2011 - 115 comments
John Key and Gerry Brownlee made extremely foolish comments attacking the coronal staff trying to identify the dead and about knocking down all the historic buildings. Now, they’re lying about those statements. This crisis is too big for this childish bullshit. John, you need to be a real leader, not a naughty schoolboy lying to cover your mistakes.
Bulldozer Brownlee
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, March 6th, 2011 - 109 comments
Gerry Brownlee thinks that most of Christchurch’s heritage buildings should be bowled tomorrow. I wonder what Christchurch thinks of Gerry Brownlee.
Key, Brownlee & McCully have questions to answer
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, December 22nd, 2010 - 45 comments
It seems we don’t have a government at the moment. John Key is incommunicado in Hawaii. The Acting PM, Bill English, and Key’s press people refuse to speak for him. Someone needs to front up because serious questions are emerging about the honesty of statements Gerry Brownlee and Murray McCully made in Parliament and to the New Zealand people.
Ridiculous Urgency
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 pm, December 11th, 2010 - 31 comments
National, under the direction of Gerry Brownlee, continue to abuse parliamentary procedure and make bad law. They tried to ram 12 bills through on Thursday, resulting in them sitting under urgency until Saturday night. There is no proper oversight, no thinking through the possible problems with bills, and far too little chance for the public to have their say. We have procedure for a reason…
This Government Doesn’t Trust You
Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, December 8th, 2010 - 34 comments
You not only can expect to be spied on more after an overhaul of the SIS, but you sure as hell shouldn’t be allowed to know how they are going to do it. It’s your freedom they’re protecting, so you should expect a reduction in liberty to achieve that. And we certainly can’t be allowed […]
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