Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:28 am, July 6th, 2013 - 41 comments
Bob Parker has announced that he is not going to seek re-election to Christchurch’s Mayoralty. Given that the Council has lost the power to issue Building Consents, that its Chief Executive is on Gardening Leave and that insurance for its building consents has been withdrawn this is not surprising. There clearly is something wrong with the City’s governance. And you have to wonder why it took the Government so long to respond.
Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 10:59 am, February 11th, 2012 - 105 comments
People are waking up to National’s plan to remove the democratically-elected Christchurch City Council and replace it with its own hand-picked commissioners, who will then give a green light to Brownlee’s developer mates and the sale of council assets. You can already see the vultures circling – waiting for the chance to seize more public wealth for themselves.
Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 6:41 am, January 31st, 2012 - 84 comments
Most Kiwis have had no payrise, if they’re lucky enough to have kept their jobs, in the past few years. Yet Christchurch City Council CEO Tony Marryatt has kept on getting pay rises on his obscene salary, even as his job performance has declined. Now the arrogant bastard is saying he’ll keep $34,000 he doesn’t deserve unless the elected council ‘behaves’. There is no justification for this madness. Sack him.
Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:22 am, March 11th, 2011 - 126 comments
Mayor Bob Parker has described landlords hiking rents in Christchurch as “looting by another name”. I think the majority of us would feel as Parker does — it seems simply wrong to exploit people for profit in a time of tragedy. But look around. It’s just unregulated capitalism in action. There’s an awful lot of it about.
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:00 am, February 7th, 2011 - 24 comments
When a millionaire director and a foreign corporate wanted millions in tax breaks, Key jumped to it. When SCF collapsed the investors got an average of $60K, no questions asked. But when it comes to helping the ordinary families of Christchurch and the West Coast, the Nats are nowhere to be seen once the cameras are gone.
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 2:39 pm, December 8th, 2010 - 7 comments
I saw this old American comic and the coincidence was just too bizarre. I had to share.
Written By: Bill - Date published: 10:06 am, October 26th, 2010 - 8 comments
It appears that Bob Parker is about to kick up a storm by insisting that commercial buildings be either repaired or demolished by 31/01/11. He should be reaping a whirlwind.
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:15 am, October 7th, 2010 - 51 comments
Bob Parker has milked the earthquake for maximum political gain. As a result, Jim Anderton is understandably the underdog in the mayoral race. No-one could blame him for losing in this situation but don’t rule him out just yet. People haven’t suddenly forgotten why they wanted rid of Parker or Anderton’s record of service.
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:22 pm, September 22nd, 2010 - 27 comments
Parliament unanimously made Gerry Brownlee dictator. Apparently, this was necessary to save Christchurch. But are Dictator Gerry and Bob ‘the Rebuilder’ (wonder how long it took Kevin Taylor to come up with that one) actually delivering for the people who need it the most? Not if the anger in poor Christchurch suburbs is anything to go by.
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:59 am, September 14th, 2010 - 39 comments
Jim Anderton’s mayoral campaign got a lot harder last week. He had been the favourite by a long, long way but Bob Parker has handled the disaster recovery well and he will win votes for that. But it doesn’t change why the people wanted shot of Parker and Anderton in his place. All’s not lost. Jim’s holding a community forum tonight in Woolston.
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:26 am, September 6th, 2010 - 71 comments
It’s the stomach-churning way that some on the Right have decided to try to use the earthquake for political advantage by deifying Bob Parker. Even Parker himself looked sick when Paul Henry compared him to Rudi Giuliani. Update: Farrar, Whaleoil, Henry, and Matthew Hooton are trying to spread a lie that Anderton said only an earthquake could stop him winning the election. Danyl has the truth.
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:14 pm, June 15th, 2010 - 28 comments
I was quite surprised by Jim Anderton’s decision to stand for mayor of Christchurch. And I had thought that his decision not to step down from Parliament until the next election was a mistake that would haunt him in the mayoral campaign. But it looks like I got it wrong. A UMR poll shows that Anderton is preferred over Tory incumbent Bob Parker by a two to one margin.
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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