Duncan Garner has demolished the government’s disgraceful excuse-making over its woeful lack of preparation for the World Cup. “I was there. It was scary. It was a disgrace. There were few police. There were no barriers. It was NOT family friendly. It was a tragedy waiting to happen.And that’s just Party Central. That’s the bit the Government was responsible for. Don’t forget that.”
The government’s handling of the RWC opening and the resulting chaos has been both incompetent and insulting to Auckland. “Seizing control” is simply adding insult to injury.
Keen to shift the blame for the RWC opening fracas Murray McCully has used reserve powers under his very own CERA-like powers to seize control of the whole Auckland waterfront. John Key wants it run like Party Central, which he says “worked absolutely perfectly”. Yeah, tell that to the waka paddlers who were assaulted by a drunken mob there.
Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully says “we don’t need to have winners and losers here” but he has had to bow to […]
“Major festival events linked to the 2011 Rugby World Cup could be shifted to Wellington because of Auckland’s party central fiasco, Government sources say.” – Tracy Watkins
Wait, “Auckland’s party central fiasco”? It was John Key who came up with the term, and forced the councils into the Queens Wharf site. But the media are happy to let him wriggle out of responsbility again.
Enough was written yesterday about the latest instalment of the slow motion train wreck that is John Key’s “Party Central”. So here’s Emmerson’s visual take.
John Key and Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully have been at their do nothing best ever since Key dazzled the media with his party central ‘vision’. As the days tick down, they still haven’t made any decisions, and the plans for Queens Wharf have become less and less grand. Now, they’re looking at just chucking up a big tent.
So Key’s “party central” plan for Queen’s Wharf seems to be dead in the water, after Auckland Mayors labeled it a “monstrosity” and refused to fund it.
Are these the prudent decisions of leaders who don’t want the city saddled with expensive white elephants, or the timid decisions of leaders who are without vision and averse to risk?
