Some pretty damning revelations about the culture at the City Council. Over to Dawn Baxendale the new CEO to sort this, and us to support her to do this. Christchurch City Council secrecy outrageous | Stuff.co.nz OPINION: City council staff are paid by us – the rate paying citizens … [Read more...]
This weeks speaker: Jean Drage
Jean is going to share some thoughts on the recent elections. You may have seen her articles in Stuff recently (links below). Since moving to Christchurch more than a decade ago, Jean Drage has worked for both Canterbury and Lincoln Universities and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. … [Read more...]
Is The People’s Choice Labour by any other name?
Christchurch 2021 (the Precursor of The People's Choice) Isn't the internet a marvel, a website still exists for Christchurch 2021 which was formed in 1995. I have spoken to people who were members of Christchurch 2021 and they say that it was formed deliberately to get the best progressive … [Read more...]
Do we Really Support Democratic Representation?
Are we truly committed to democratic representation around the Council table? Many seem to want more of ‘their’ people around that table. Is this the same as representation? Concerns about water quality and the environment were obvious in ECan voting in this election, mostly in … [Read more...]
This week’s speaker Steffan Kraberger
This week’s speaker is Steffan Kraberger, a landscape architect with a design and build company based in Christchurch working with “deeply site-based landscapes” (we’ll let Steffan explain what that means). He completed a thesis titled ‘Port Hills Spatial Planning for Wildfire management’ in … [Read more...]
Last Weeks Speaker Dawn Baxendale
It was a real pleasure to welcome the new CCC CEO Dawn Baxendale, to her first public speaking engagement. Dawn summarised her life and what gives her stability, her family, and what has formed her as a person. It was refreshing to listen to a CEO with massive background in Local Government and … [Read more...]
ECan Chair Jenny Hughey
Congratulations to Jenny Hughey on being voted unanimously to the Chair of Ecan. Jenny is really impressive and I think she will do an excellent job. https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/116820743/no-quibble-over-ecans-new-chairwoman-but-drama-over-deputy-vote … [Read more...]
Should we be worried about the change in Wellington’s Mayor?
I am slightly worried about the result in the election of Wellington’s Mayor. I don’t know either of the two key candidates. They both seem pretty decent guys. However, the key issue I was left wondering about was the presence of money from Peter Jackson entering the campaign. I know nothing at all … [Read more...]
How I hate big infrastructure investments becoming political footballs:
Remember Sir Dove-Myer Robinson? He was the Mayor who proposed all sorts of amazing projects for public transport in Auckland. People laughed at him. He failed and is now looked on as a visionary who should have been listened to. Now they’re at it again. Phil Twyford is being beaten up … [Read more...]
Rugby Results
I have been increasingly annoyed at the media obsession with the Rugby World Cup. Now that the All Blacks have bombed out, maybe we can return to sanity, and talk about real things. Maybe the result might inject an element of sanity into the debate about our stadium. Or was that another bloody … [Read more...]