The wheel turns

Written By: - Date published: 6:33 am, May 18th, 2012 - 11 comments
Categories: disaster, Gerry Brownlee - Tags:

Across the country, the number of party votes National received fell in 2011, except for in Christchurch. Given turn-out fell 10%, the fact more people voted National was a sobering moment for critics of how the rebuild is being handled.

Or perhaps not. Now, 87% of Press readers think the government isn’t doing enough.

National just got lucky – the election coincided with the population’s optimistic psychological bounce-back phase – but, now, people are still waiting and there’s still no plan, and Brownlee is acting like a haughty, lazy dictator, and people are getting sick of it.

PS. I see Brownlee has created another layer of governance and stacked it with his mates, including SuperCity architect Mark Ford – who will oversee $2b of rebuilding … from Auckland.

11 comments on “The wheel turns ”

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  1. Ad 1
    18 May 2012 at 7:10 am

    Don’t mind if anyone slaps me on this one, but there are few in New Zealand who could do what Mark Ford has done. Spectacularly painful as it was, there is as a result of the Auckland restructure a degree of coherence, decreased bureaucratic territories, and a unity of purpose that it has never ever had before.

    Mark now has a level of trust across bureaucratic, local government, central government, contractor, engineering, and customer service fields that few have achieved. That he operates with a significant bow-wave of fear and contempt is, well, that’s part of the package as well.

    The real question is whether this Auckland Council gives the funding next week to let this massive bureaucratic machine do it’s work.

    I do wonder however why tho site continues to propose alternative histories in which Labour could have won the last election if-only, coulda, would, shoulda. Labour has shown itself to be spectacularly ready for nothing. It can’t even form a coalition internally, let alone form one with anyone else.

    It’s not enough for Labour for National to fall down. National under Key are too good, and – just like Clark – they could squeak another team for a total of nine years.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 1.1
      18 May 2012 at 7:41 am

      Decreased bureaucratic tendencies ? What planet are you on.

      Instead of different councils having territorial boundaries now different council organisations have functional and even physical boundaries.
      Auckland transport controls anything to do with the road AND the land up to the property boundary

      Watercare has the sewer network AND the water supply but NOT the stormwater.

      Want a building permit, get the council to OK the building and then run through the loops again for the sewer connection.
      Need a driveway run through the hoops with Auckland Transport .
      All in different buildings and different staff !
      What amalgamation

      Reading the PR spin lines you are running Ad has me coughing up the weetbix. Its one of the best kiss arse expositions I have seen for a while

      • ad 1.1.1
        18 May 2012 at 8:15 am

        Sorry I knew I was being provocative. There’s a few thousand out there who will be there to light the firewords when Mark Ford actually shuffles off this mortal coil. Writing the opposite way was just too easy.

        • ghostwhowalksnz 1.1.1.1
          18 May 2012 at 10:35 am

          You can only be paid to write this stuff !
          How hard is it to be a fanboi ? Plessssse

          • ad 1.1.1.1.1
            18 May 2012 at 10:37 am

            Ah my friend you need to be able to learn to slap on the Presidential kneepads, not eat or drink for a few days beforehand, and book a couple of days to recover afterwards. But it is possible. The joy of managing power.

    • fatty 1.2
      18 May 2012 at 10:35 am

      “Labour has shown itself to be spectacularly ready for nothing.”

      That is part of the problem for Chch, alongside the city council. The way the media, the city and the country stroked Bob Parker’s orange jacket was both perverted and ignorant. Anyone with a brain was challenging his very existence. Parker and his cronies continues to be the problem as all the money in Chch is getting funnelled to a few.
      The vastly different intergenerational experiences within Chch began the very day of the Feb quake. Old people were told they were vulnerable and at risk, meanwhile, young people were told they were thugs, looters and were a risk. This framing of the younger and older generations continued until they left the city, leaving only the middle aged people standing around with their (half destroyed) assets. The rich were protected thanks to the army blockading the city shops.
      Nats got voted back in and all the rebuilding has been backhanders and given to mates. There is nothing in the city for younger people. The Ellerslie International Bob Parker Advert was on months ago, yet every day I have to bike through that park and its still under repair from that stupid inbred event. I can understand that we have to pay millions so rich, white, baby-boomers can have their self-obsessed, elitist circle jerk…but do I still have to suffer 3 months on? The only thing that can rival the stupidity of our snobby flower show, is the eager dismantling of Canterbury University by plundering the Arts department. Will someone please rid Chch of Parker and Rod Carr…they are less welcome than an STD.
      The only good thing to come of the quake for the younger generations is that the moral panic that was ‘boy-racers’ has now disappeared. Parker no longer needs to fake that problem cause the older people who were susceptible to believing that story have left the city…so too have the young people who were the other victims of the ‘boy-racer’ fantasy.
      Chch has lost its creative young people, its a sad place at the moment. But they will return when (if?) new housing gets built. The only way to rebuild this city is by providing cheap and liveable residential housing, until we do that younger people will not return…reminds me of that other place that has the same intergenerational problem which is driving young people to greener pastures – New Zealand

      • ad 1.2.1
        18 May 2012 at 10:42 am

        In one sense you are also linking to the Hobsonville story. Politics can be won in no small part on the domestic front when people see things built, and built in a way that is good for their lives. One of the most powerful images in New Zealand politics is that of Michael Joseph savage shifting a chair into the first State House.

        Image that image replicated year by year, town by town, right across the country, for three years. Solve the housing shortage, activate the state, engage the construction industry and the workers at the same time.

        And rebuild a civic future all at the same time as forming a media star out of the first politician to do it again. Kill any single motorway project and you would have the money. Any takers?

  2. Tom Gould 2
    18 May 2012 at 8:39 am

    “National just got lucky.” Not really. They milked the disaster for all it was worth, while pulling that old Textor trick of accusing anyone who as much raised a concern with ‘playing politics’. Short term, like most of what they do, and aimed at the brain dead media, who can’t recall what they wrote yesterday. The ‘Banks effect’? And it worked. Fortunately, ordinary people still have a memory.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 2.1
      18 May 2012 at 10:39 am

      Usually the result of Key and the government dominating the available ‘newspace’.
      Now the contraries are getting equal time the result will turn accordingly.

      Notice Key and ministers are making actual interviews rather than only having to front’ announcements’. They are trying to push up their face time with the public and it shows why they were hiding previously

  3. Robert Glennie 3
    18 May 2012 at 11:28 pm

    If people are not alarmed about the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, the should be, especially if they live in a major centre due to be hit by a disaster. The C.E.R.A. governance model is how the recovery from for example an earthquake in Wellington or the Manawatu River breaking out in Palmerston North – disasters with potentially huge implications for New Zealand – will probably play out politically.

    Are you sure you want this sort of governance after a disaster?

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