Just spent a couple of days there. The second time beyond the airport since February. And then in was just for a quick meeting.
We went for a wander around the edge of the central city. Even worse than I had expected from TV and colleagues.
Experienced the 4.7 and 5.2 overnight Friday. And the smaller ones that aren’t reported any more. Frightening.
Talked with a woman whose water connection to the house had survived September and February but broke on Saturday morning. Stoic but scared.
Brilliant feedback on the work MPs are putting in – and have been for 16 months now.
But there are thousands of people down there who are working incredibly hard to make life better for others in circumstances that most of us could not tolerate.
We need to find a way of acknowledging that.
Man you’re brave going in there.All the hard work that people are putting in is amazing!
I have the greatest respect for you Trevor.
But that this visit is your first real visit to Christchurch since the quakes I find telling about everything that was wrong with Labour last term.
The whole caucus should have been in Christchurch a number of times. The fact that it wasn’t has always been for me a fundamental failure of leadership and determinaion to understand the problems that Christchurch poses for the entire country.
Leaving everything up to the local MPs has never been an adequate approach in my mind. (Having said that it’s important to acknowledge that a number of MPs, including Phil were often in Christchurch…)
And if you go too many times James you get call a disaster tourist.
I’m not a Labour supporter as you know, but a Wellington based electorate MP not visiting Christchurch was the least of their problems. Enough Labour MPs visited Christchurch and facebooked, tweeted or wrote about it here.
Everything that was wrong with Labour last term was limp fair weather supporters panicking and voting for the Greens after believing the hype that voting Green is supporting Labour.
Like you it sounds.
Good on you Trevor,
Could be valuable experience for if, sorry, when it happens in Wellington.
Wellington should be thinking about what heritage buildings it wants to keep and what buildings aren’t affordable to be strengthened and therefore should be taken down.
Cuba Street has almost identical architecture to Colombo Street. It scares me to think what would happen to Wellington if a serious quake hit.
New Zealand needs to learn from this disaster.
“And if you go too many times James you get call a disaster tourist.”
With an RNZAF helicopter on standby and all domestic air New Zealand flights ready to divert when given the order.
@James Caygill. There is mutual respect. It is clear we were beaten badly in Christchurch and it may be that there was a view that getting all of us there at once was important. I didn’t however get that feedback from Chistchurch pre-election.
@trevor. I understand Trevor. Thanks for the reply.
@cactus kate. Trevor understands my point i think. It’s more my desire to see the caucus meet here, rather than have more “tourists” per se. And anyway, I think there’s a pretty big difference between visiting lawmakers and visiting rubbernecking celebrities.
Also, the idea of my being accused of being a green supporter is the funniest thing I’ve read on here in a long time. Thanks for the morning giggles.
We should be spending public money to relocate people not rebuilding infrastructure that is going to break again and again, I see the virtue in staying loyal to the city but you have to get real and move on