Last week Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Gerry Brownlee sent me a letter in response to a blog I wrote about four of his wealthy constituents getting $595,000 each for land remediation after the September 2010 earthquake when they would have been entitled to only $20,000 each from EQC.
The original story in the Press is here.
The blog I wrote about it is here.
Mr Brownlee’s letter to me is attached to the end of this blogpost. He is offering a briefing from EQC’s senior leadership team, the Insurance Council of New Zealand and Regenerate Christchurch to let me know how they go about their business.
A cynic may say Brownlee’s letter is an attempt to bury – under a mountain of erroneous detail, confusion and diversion – what appears to be a straightforward case of corrupt practice. Is it an attempt to shift the blame from the Minister to nameless officials in government agencies?
Keep Our Assets Canterbury, for whom I’m standing as a mayoral candidate in Christchurch, is following up on the Minister’s offer.
However I am following up with questions to the Minister about the government’s gold-plated decision for Fendalton but readers may also have questions for Gerry Brownlee on this rotten deal or on other aspects of the earthquake, the rebuild or government priorities for Christchurch.
If you have questions for Gerry Brownlee please include them in the comments section below. We will collate them and send them direct to the Minister for answers.
Government corruption is rife in NZ now.
Question; – Where has the Government gone with their supposed fixing of NZ awful tarnished global reputation as a “tax haven”?
Government are out of control now.
Yep indeed.
Even a few staunch Nationals that I know are feeling uneasy about the way the National government casually disregards laws and democratic practices in order to get what the regions to do exactly what it wants.
The greatest achievement of this National government is to make corruption a normal part of the workings of this country.
Some legacy huh?
I think the gnats greatest achievement is the growing homeless and poverty
Yep to both there Mike & Michelle.
“Dirty politics” oddly seems almost irrelevant now doesn’t it?
When the docile MSM are too gutless to take them on in the press they equally as “culpable” also as they have much to answer for after the dust settles next year.
What about the National government’s import licensing scheme (scam?) for so many products coming into the country during its long reign in the 60s and 70s?
Having one of those licences was a proverbial goldmine.
The Key government is just the Holyoake/Muldoon governments all over again.
I have a question.
Was Mark Munro or Antony Goff one of the four recipients of the $595,000.00 pay-out?
The reason I ask this question is because I had experience with Goff, one of the motivators behind the de-pedestrian-isation of the New Brighton Mall, a few years ago.
The contractors moved in to the NB Mall, dug up all the fabulous palms and trucked them away after selling each one for about $40 K each. Then, they dug up the mall and built a ridiculous and ugly one way street along which bogans race and in doing so , closed off foot paths during the construction to such an extent that we lost business and got about $5 k behind in our rent to our landlord for the rent of our business premises. The contractors only worked between 8.30 am and 5 00 pm five days a week. I.e. during our business hours. Ripping up asphalt and seating and laying ugly, concrete bunker like planters.
During the opening ceremony, I went up to the old, psychedelic peacock that is Antony Goff and asked ” Since this road makes no sense, how much money are you and Mark Munro making out of this?” Goff stormed over and shouted in my face ” You’re just being negative! ” and stalked off.
A week or so later, I read in The Press, that Goff’s company had received $100 K from the Ch Ch city council to pay for Goff’s own team of ‘consultants’ to ‘investigate’ the feasibility of changing recession plane laws to enable high rises to be built along Marine Parade.
It was concluded, therefore, that the disaster that is the New Brighton Mall through-road was in fact designed to set a precedence to allow vehicle access to the car parks required of the planned high rises.
Off topic but you get my drift.
Go you @ John Minto. I’m so going to vote for you.
That’s so off!! How these people sleep at night I have no idea. Thanks for sharing, people need to know.
Conflict of interest begins at the top and dribbles down the bureaucratic chain……….John Keys leads by example…..and so the round table widens the gap of marginalisation between them and us……oh the rich are predictable when given power……https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i22aXJ7D_vE
Re brownlees ‘ comments’. I can’t help but notice more than a hint of passive aggression in there. I can see him hissing though his neat little meat eating teeth. ‘ Face to face briefing’ .
Fuck off.
Forgive him @ Countryboy – for he knows none other than sloth.
It all began, once upon a time during the 1980’s, when a failed pig farmer was put in charge of the economy.
He railed against the inefficiencies and in effectiveness of things like the NZPO when ‘consumers’ had to wait a few weeks for a telephone line.
(These days they wait longer for an equivalent service from a private monopoly getting corporate welfare, and once installed, it’s anyone’s guess how long it’ll hold up. The efficiencies that failed pig farmer advocated for, AND designed, means that a series of ticket clippers get a look in, with the one actually doing the work lives (rather than thrives – as promised) on the lowest amount of the successive ticket clipping.)
He railed against many other perceived (but not actual) problems in the state sector – be it health, education, housing, general well-being.
Clip go the shears boys clip clip clip.
We’ve a way to go yet before that lowliest of fibre installers and their like) wake up to the fact they’ve been royally ripped, but they are beginning to realise.
These sages of superior intellect who cry foul over shower heads, but who are happy to defeat democratic principles at every opportunity; who can’t see the benefits in re-establishing things like the Gisborne rail link – LET ALONE re-instating some of the links we once had in preparation for the future; OR who are still in denial about the causes of water pollution; who are so thoughly ‘risk-managed’ of their own disposition that both common sense and scientific evidence must be subverted by media spin …. these are our political representatives. They’re also more often than not many of my contemporaries. Dunnes, Finlaysons, Kitteridges, et al.
Much as they might protest, they’ve either sought to dress up their greed/sloth/avarice by justifying their once-were principled stance by pretending ‘they grew up’ ….. but more likely they were never that principled in the first place.
If I’m still around after a change in regime (rather than gubbamint), it’d be bloody tempting to do a study of various of their individuals.
One thing’s for sure – it’s bloody interesting to hear what some of their children (those that have them) think of them.
It ain’t pretty (and of course there are a few d-d-d-djays yet to grow up)
I’ve always wondered about that. As a child of a Tory politician, and in particular, a Tory politician who willingly institutes a raft of legislation that pillories and victimises the poor and disadvantaged, you must feel somewhat self-conscious. I suspect, unless you’re completely devoid of any shred of self-awareness, or you only associate with the similarly coddled children of politicians and CEOs, it must be a curious and uncomfortable feeling to witness the misery wrought by your elders. How many of these young folk, I wonder, grow up desperately attempting to reconcile the mothers and fathers they know and love, with the dispassionate bean-counters and mechanical cost-cutters of government and corporation.
bloody tory crooks we need to get rid of them ASAP
Country Boy to get Minto elected we need every bit of help we can get I do hope you are helping with the campaign.
I’ll be voting for John also.
After six years of this mess, where even the contractors digging up my street over and over again for no known or logical reason hiss corruption when you query them, I’m beyond questions.
I do wonder about the state of my and other people’s lungs after 6 years of living in a (possibly poisonous) dust bowl. My car gets covered in a sheet of dust even when in the garage within a couple of days… A demolition around the corner was found to contain asbestos so left ripped open and blowing in the wind for weeks before being removed.
We can ask all the questions we like and they can answer with as much spin as they ( Gerry et al) like but in the end they just roll on over us creating the city of their dreams but not of ours.
The old boys (and old girls) network at play, I guess.
Confuse and obfuscate where you can, and otherwise bully those daring to challenge them on details, that seems to be the approach.
the only remedy one may have is take them to court or one of our specialist tribunals, but then you will usually need some cash, legal expert advice and perseverance for years to come, facing decisions (it it goes that far), appeals, reviews, new decisions, further appeals.
Welcome to the Land of the Long White Lies, once upon a time called New Zealand Aotearoa.
Yes, here are a few questions for Browlie.
1. The Local Government Acts require councils to plan for the future and for all processes to be open and transparent. So how come the city council is not doing any planning for the REAL future -one of declining energy availability and rapid overheating of the Earth, with commensurate massive sea-level rises that will inundate much of low-lying New Zealand including a lot of Canterbury? And how come so many city and regional council processes are concealed from public scrutiny?
2. In view of the fact the global financial system is now held together by the ‘duct tape’ of historically unprecedented low interest rates, bailouts of banks, and huge injections of fiat money that constantly fail to generate the desired stimulus of mature economies, and bearing in mind that increasing numbers of nations are abandoning the US dollar as a reserve currency and as a trading currency, how long does Mr Browlie think the global financial system will last before it implodes? 6 months? 12 months? 2 years? 3 years?
3. Bearing in mind that the international insurance system is being ‘hammered’ by claims related to planetary overheating, and bearing in mind that all government policy (here and elsewhere) is geared to increasing the rate of meltdown and increasing the incidence of climate chaos events, how long does Mr Brownlie think the international insurance system will remain in operation?
4. Bearing in mind that all government policy is predicated on infinite growth on a finite planet, and bearing in mind that the Earth is finite and that conventional oil extraction peaked years ago, how long does Mr Browlie think continued growth of population and growth of economic activity will be possible in NZ?
5. What is Mr Browlie’s response to the information contained here?
http://energyskeptic.com/2016/limits-to-growth-is-on-schedule-collapse-likely-around-2020/
‘Limits to Growth is on schedule. Collapse likely around 2020’
Well done you John Minto, for exposing this issue of enormous payouts to National’s cronies.
Obviously some rogues, led by Brownlee and Co taking advantage of a disaster to make a profit, from ordinary people’s misery and hardship! Scum!
As for Brownlee’s response, if it can be called that, is a poor excuse at attempting to cover up corruption! Subtly nasty in its context!
Go John Minto for CHCH mayor. If I lived there, he’d definitely get my vote, but I’m a JAFA. Apart from Penny Bright, for whom I will be voting, the rest are nothing but a bunch of corrupt under rock dwelling regurgitated rejects!
not Tricia Cheel, she’s not corrupt 🙂
Oop. Bugger. Spelled Gough’s name incorrectly. My apologies you pompous git.
https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0ahUKEwin0abk-_bOAhXSQpQKHbD4B3YQFggmMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Faotearoaawiderperspective.com%2F2011%2F12%2F07%2Fchristchurch-fletcher-and-zombie-banks-are-john-keys-masters-making-a-mint-out-of-the-christchurch-quake%2F&usg=AFQjCNHOEgSYkTw2YuULFZU94LSkjhuziQ
I just sent a comment here with many questions and it did not get posted.
Did you receive it ? If so can you please put it up. Thanks
TDB – Can you please explain to me why you chose to not include my list of questions ?
What possible reasons can you offer for not wanting to consider nor willing to look at all sides of this issue?
My list of questions are about questioning authority and delving deeper and looking at this issue beyond what the media and govt. have given us.
Did you get the list ?
If you have decided not to publish the questions, please state why.
[Blake, there was no queued post from you in any of the Folders I regularly check. Please re-submit for approval. Thank you. – ScarletMod]
Yes please do re post your questions? Before the end of next week
Question – Why SO LONG in fixing Christchurch? 5 years and counting…. Maybe the Nats like to see New Zealanders suffer.
Questions for Mr Brownlee:
Why have you closed schools in Christchurch despite considerable community opposition?
How many will be given to potential Charter Schools?
What pressure have you put on CCC to sell local community assets, to help fund “big ticket items” and other re-build work?
And lastly,
Will be there a Royal Commission of Inquiry to Review the work of EQC; Insurance Companies; CERA; CCC; and any other organisation involved in the Christchurch re-build? If not, why not?
Good on you, John.
How many pies can he eat in 3 minute?
How many pies can fit in his mouth at the same time?
Whats the most number of pies that he’s eaten?
Does he have tomato sauce on his pie(s)?
What does he count when he goes to sleep at night, Pies?
What is his favourite Pie?
Does he eat a Pie when he’s showering? How many Pies does he take with him when he travels around the country?
Does he take Pies with him when he goes overseas?
Will he be buried in a Pie shaped coffin when he dies?
Gerry the Pie Murderer, you’re a fat bastard!
Excellent!
well said
these wankers sense of entitlement has no limits there literally helping themselves to our taxes and people who have been through hell were given the fingers .let them eat cake is just as relevant today
Three questions, please John:
1. When will senior citizens be fast-tracked for repairs and restoration?
2. How many families are still living in tents and garages and backyards?
3. What work is being done to redesign the city and suburbs to avoid the areas prone to liquifaction and disruption of infrastructure?
3.5 What’s with the focus on stadiums and other ego construction when people and businesses are still waiting for basics?
The good old Tories never let an opportunity go by to make a profit or enrich their friends in this case off the back of a major disaster the CHCH earthquakes.
While the common folk are doing it hard the wealthy always come out ahead with help and consideration from the National government and even the good staff at the EQC felt that with the extra workload they deserved too be paid exorbitantly high salaries even encouraging inexperienced young people to go out and deal with the carnage and victims of this massive disaster renumerating them well for the job.
I smelled a rat when it became public that the repairs too peoples homes were substandard and would have too be fixed.
The government couldnt care less about the people affected here six years after this disaster they see it as a money making opportunity for their friends to make big profits out of peoples misery.
Funny how Fletcher construction won the contract for the rebuild and have made a massive two billion in profits from the construction side of the business which has increased their share price to an all time high.
And not surprisingly the council are in trouble and are talking about selling city assets…another opportunity for the governments friends.
I hope with John running for mayor that CHCH voters give him support and take their city back and think twice about giving National the party and electorate vote as they have done for the last 9 years at the general election in 2017, Brownlie and co think of themselves as New Zealanders….nothing could be further from the truth they are criminals pretending to represent CHCH people, its time to chase them out of town.
Good luck John.
Brownlee is by far and away the most tedious, arrogant, pedantic, nasty, twisted, bullying, and, let’s not forget flatulent, flat-headed, cloth-eared, swivel-eyed, fornicating LITTLE gits I have ever had the displeasure to have set eyes upon. To now add corrupt to the list would come as no great surprise…
It’s appalling what happens when woodwork teachers get a sniff of power, isn’t it?
Question: Gerry Brownlee for once in your life be honest to the people that you in the position you are in. Why did you pay more to your friends than they should of recieved. There is evidence that shows you 7sed tax payers money to build your financial gain as well as building your so called friends bank accounts. John MI to has you by the balls. Step up to your liars and corruptness. John Minto you have my vote. Gerrymandering Brownlee I hope you loose your position.
It does seem that those with money like residents in Fendalton have the ear of this minister and other Key government ministers.
And those who do not have money like the homeless, the unemployed, the low-paid are disparaged and referred to by John Key as lazy and druggies.
Now that says alot about a government that has gone way past its Best Before date. And those like Brownlee in this government have become arrogant, rude and patronising.
Yes – when are you going to resign Browlee
I had heard that one of his family members was buying up properties in the red zone. If this is true..why and is it corruption?
I have no specific examples of corruption or favouritism to give but I seriously question this Minister’s priorities, and his commitment to the people of Christchurch, when so many citizens have suffered so much because of the machinations of the insurance industry. He COULD have been a champion of the people; instead he chose to focus only on his beloved ‘anchor projects’, that will largely benefit only his business mates. I used to work with Gerry and my opinion of his commitment, student-focus, and professionalism as a teacher was low; I doubt that much has changed.
So he was a crap teacher, as well as a crap MP? Colour me surprised.
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Yes; Mr Brownlee, Can we use Social Credit, or Positive Money from the NZ Monetary Authority instead of borrowing money from the private banking sector or taking money from taxes to fund the CHCH rebuild like we did in the 1930’s to fund NZ out of the “great” depression? If not, why not?
Brownlee should be tried for treason his red zoning was deemed by the supreme court as illegal and corrupt ask him why he red zoned Brooklands and don’t take infrastructure as a answer he knows that is b/s this man is a land thief first class.
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