New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters has today announced a campaign commitment to fund an extra $15 million for the Christ Church Cathedral to get the rebuild moving.
I was hoping Winston meant he would put in $15 million personally but instead he means he wants taxpayers from Hamilton, Te Kuiti, New Plymouth and Hastings to fund it.
The Church never wanted to rebuild it. They knew the cost wasn’t worth it. They could build a new cathedral for much less. But they got bullied into it.
The cost of the rebuild is now $248 million. The insurance replacement value was $39 million.
It’s been 15 years, and Christchurch is doing fine without it.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition
The cost of the rebuild is now $248 million. The insurance replacement value was $39 million.
It’s been 15 years, and Christchurch is doing fine without it.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition
1 comment:
Ruins can be very lucrative. Ask any city in Europe. They hold concerts in them. They market them to tourists as part of the local history. The tourists flock to take Instagrams in them. Who can resist the Tintern Abbeys of this world. But a dowdy, unremarkable Victorian pile, however meticulously it may be restored, is never going to be a tourist attraction.They are a dime a dozen all around the world. So promote the ruin of the Christchurch Cathedral as a destination in its own right and get creative about what is on show. For example, how about using the ruin to house a state-of-the-art earthquake museum to celebrate the resilience of the city and honour the victims - now that would be something different. Napier milks their earthquake for the tourist dollar. Surely any true mainlander can do as well. Time the Anglican Church recognised the property was past its use-by date anyway, and the earthquake did them a favour. An act of God you might say.
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