Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, April 1st, 2011 - 6 comments
At this time in our history we need government leadership like we have never needed it before. But the signs aren’t good. Christchurch is a city on the edge, and round the country business confidence is plummeting.
Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, March 31st, 2011 - 14 comments
Over at No Right Turn, I/S has written a useful summary of the government’s plan for new emergency legislation for Christchurch. It gives the minister largely unfettered powers with only limited rights of appeal for affected citizens. The mindset behind this legislation is that Gerry Brownlee and his developer mates know best.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, March 31st, 2011 - 10 comments
You know your opponent’s stand is dishonourable when they resort to spreading lies and promoting falsehoods about your position. The government’s Acting Energy and Resources Minister, Hekia Parata, has been caught out lying and spreading slurs that misrepresented her opponents’ position on deep sea oil drilling.
Written By: - Date published: 8:39 am, March 31st, 2011 - 35 comments
Efforts to cool the nuclear fuel rods in Fukushima’s No 2 reactor have failed. The rods have become molten and it appears some have melted through the steel reactor core into a concrete layer. Two dangers now arise: radioactive chemicals created by the concrete reacting with the nuclear fuel and the nuclear fuel pooling enough to go critical.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 pm, March 27th, 2011 - 46 comments
Normally, we get 3.65 millisieverts of radiation a year. Increased cancer risk is associated with 100 millisieverts per year. Nuclear workers are only meant to get 100 millisieverts even in an emergency with protective clothing. Today, water in No 2 reactor was detected emitting 1 sievert per hour – and they’re not sure of the source.
Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, March 27th, 2011 - 46 comments
Steven Joyce and the NZ Transport Authority seem to be living in the 20th century. You know the time, when there was a strong causation and correlation between rising numbers of people and increased use of roads. But neither appear to have caught up with the 21st century where that isn’t happening. Yearning for the 1960’s in planning transport infrastructure doesn’t help Auckland or the rest of NZ
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, March 26th, 2011 - 42 comments
Jenny argues that with the ink barely dry the new Foreshore and Seabed legislation is beginning to have effects. Oil drilling companies are rushing to take advantage. She argues that the Maori Party’s support gives the mining and oil companies the confidence they need to proceed with their plans to exploit the Seabed and Foreshore.
Written By: - Date published: 3:35 pm, March 25th, 2011 - 16 comments
Where does a year go? Tomorrow is Earth Hour 2011. Will you go beyond the hour?
Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, March 25th, 2011 - 31 comments
The world will gradually be forced to abandon fossil fuels. Fukushima (and Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island) show us that we can’t trust nuclear power. It has to be green, renewable energy sources. Can’t be done? Germany thinks it can.
Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, March 24th, 2011 - 49 comments
The PM and the Minister of Finance are at odds on how the cost of rebuilding Christchurch will be met. Bill English thinks that the costs are too high to be met by cuts, and significant borrowing will be required. John Key wants to avoid borrowing and cover the costs with budget cuts. This disagreement is indicative of the Nats shambolic preparation for the road ahead.
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, March 23rd, 2011 - 47 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: 6:15 am, March 23rd, 2011 - 78 comments
This post was going to be about Auckland Unleashed which is being released today, but has been somewhat, er, derailed, by the bridge vs tunnel report that’s come out.
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, March 21st, 2011 - 18 comments
On Friday, the government sent out a Request for Proposal for building companies to build 2,500 temporary modular homes in Christchurch. It looks like step towards the rebuilding plan I and others have been suggesting for the past couple of weeks. Now, lets see an aggressive timetable and a plan for what comes next.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 21st, 2011 - 7 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: 10:57 am, March 20th, 2011 - 32 comments
The SST’s John Hartevelt is shocked by National’s decision to pay out millions for Christchurch rugby business while ordinary people live in shattered homes and lose their jobs with meager support. He asks whether the Nats have lost their moral-political bearings. In fact, this is a perfect example of National’s elitist philosophy.
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 - 38 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 - 73 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 - 183 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: 12:21 pm, March 17th, 2011 - 39 comments
While media speculates on how many deaths in Japan will eventually be attributable to the earthquake, the tsunami and radiation exposure, I’ll warrant that one major contributory factor to the total death toll will escape any mention or comment.
Written By: - Date published: 10:46 am, March 17th, 2011 - 48 comments
In American football, there’s a move called the ‘Hail Mary pass’ – throw the ball down field and pray. That’s what filling the Fukushima reactors with sea-water has been described as, a Hail Mary pass. It just doesn’t seem to be coming off. Reactor 3 has started emitting more radiation, 4 is on fire, the core may be breached in 2. Even 5 and 6 pose a risk.
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 pm, March 16th, 2011 - 97 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 - 17 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: 10:40 am, March 16th, 2011 - 63 comments
Every day brings a new disaster from the Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant. Four reactors have now experienced an explosion and/or fire and/or partial meltdown. Yesterday saw the first significant radiation release, from Reactor 4. It’s a complex situation, so I’ve tried to summarise it as it stands this morning.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, March 16th, 2011 - 76 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: 4:27 pm, March 15th, 2011 - 13 comments
Sometimes we take comments here and put them up as posts. Here’s one from long time contributor vto.
Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, March 15th, 2011 - 9 comments
No Right Turn says all that is required on another of Nationals aspirational failures.
For the past year, the government has been talking a lot about “boosting science and innovation” as the “keys to economic growth”. Today, we saw the reality behind that talk, with news that NIWA is planning to sack 5% of its total workforce:
Written By: - Date published: 5:33 pm, March 14th, 2011 - 18 comments
Forty two Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) workers left New Zealand this morning for Japan. Straight off the back of three hard weeks in the rubble of Christchurch, they are flying in to help out with an even bigger disaster.
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, March 14th, 2011 - 22 comments
The destruction wrought by the 9.0 Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami is truly appalling. Untold lives have been lost. Thousands of square kilometres were obliterated by the water which swept up to 20km inland.Updates second explosion at nuke plant. New tsunami warning. 70% chance of 7+ aftershock within days.
Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, March 14th, 2011 - 72 comments
As the nuclear disaster continues to unfold in Japan there is a risk of a Chernobyl style event and a huge release of radiation. Coming as it does on the heels of the Christchurch earthquake, it is all too easy to imagine the same scenario playing out here. New Zealand must remain nuclear free forever. We need a plan for a nuclear free and oil constrained future, and we need it now.
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