converser.nz

Category: This Is Christchurch

  • No New Airports Likely Without Government Intervention

    Christchurch City Council has waded into the debate about Central Otago airports by letting its subsidiary company Christchurch International Airport Ltd buy up land at Tarras for a proposed replacement for Queenstown Airport. With an eye on the tourism market, and keen to assert itself as the dominant local government player in the South Island,…

  • Labour Health Sector Restructuring Credulity [4]

    So TIC embarked on a series of articles in this subject the most recent of which was written some 12 months ago. And now 1 July 2022 has rolled around, the 20 DHBs have been abolished and the new central bureaucracy has taken over. This week in the media there have been a flurry of…

  • Localism / Regionalism In Canterbury

    Following up from the previous post on the so called “regional” stadium here are some more thoughts about local authorities in Canterbury. This follows on from a desperate attempt by CCC to portray the stadium as a “regional” facility in order to justify approaching other local authorities in Canterbury to get funding for the stadium.…

  • Zero Justification For Any Neighbouring Council To Contribute To Christchurch Stadium “Te Kaha”

    The news of the week is a major blowout in the expected cost of Christchurch’s new stadium. The project was originally supposed to come in at around $470 million, of which the government is to contribute $220 million, with $250 million to come from ratepayers via the Council. But now, it is suggested that this…

  • Irrigation Water Rights Issues Heating Up In Otago

    Some recent posts on this blog have highlighted aspects of the Government’s 3 Waters policies. In a different yet parallel vein, issues over water rights for irrigation by farmers have become highly contentious in Otago over the past few years. Otago is an interesting case for irrigation management as water rights there have been based…

  • Three Waters / Local Governance Antagonism Continues

    The Government’s flagship legislative effort this term has been the controversial 3 Waters reform proposals, in fact carried over from the previous term, but which must be finalised before the next election if it is to have any hope of coming into effect. Part of the impetus for the Three Waters reforms is to bring…

  • Labour the party of centralised bureaucracy?

    Bryce Edward’s Democracy Project blog has this week a post by Camryn Brown implying the above. It’s not clear who Camryn Brown is and what ideological cant they follow, but there is is a lot of form to it with the present Labour government although it’s not always like this with Labour. The Clark administration…

  • 3 Waters Debacle reflects failed past local governance organisation

    The Labour government has, with considerable merit, proposed a reorganisation of the local government management of water, along with a general review of LG functions. Few councils in the last 30 years with the exception of Auckland have done a good job of managing 3 Waters infrastructure. The problem is that in creating larger councils…

  • Labour Health Sector Restructuring Credulity [3]

    OK. So waiting to write this last part has been good. Sitting back, gathering more information and watching the government make itself look weak and incompetent hasn’t been such a bad idea at all. Whilst we aren’t affiliated with any particular political cause, we draw strength from the knowledge that the Government has become disconnected…

  • Labour Health Sector Restructuring Credulity [2]

    So in the first part of this series we had a look at the history of change in the health system in NZ. The biggest and most important innovation of the past 40 years has been the trend to decentralisation, which was first done in the mid-1980s with Area Health Boards, and latterly with District…