Fellow New Zealanders and those with friends and relatives in New Zealand have complained about the media blackout that followed the earthquake at the beginning of last month. I was more stoical remembering the complete absence of any reports on the last New Zealand election when Labour’s Helen Clark was defeated.

The details of widespread destruction of New Zealand’s second city with a population of 350,000 remains largely uncommented on. The Guardian’s photo of huge fissures in ground near Kiapoi managed to get the name wrong of the epicentre of the quake wrong. I think that was the paper’s only comment. Always rather insecure in its status as a first world country thanks to a bout of neo liberalist economics in the 1980s the first estimates of repairing Christchurch and the surrounding area run to £2 billion repairs for 100,00 homes some 5,000 of which are uninhabitable are only slowly beginning. The real challenge to the country can be gauged by the fact that repairs to far smaller Darwin in Australia after its hurricane stretched the far larger Australian economy.

The earthquake arrived in the middle of New Zealand’s local government elections. Prime minister Key, after taking extensive powers to deal with the disaster insists that these proceed as normal. However, in Christchurch Labour veteran politician Jim Anderton has slipped from being almost certain to take the Christchurch mayoralty to being neck and neck with the present incumbent due to his high profile following the earthquake.

Oh well, after being cannon fodder in the Brits’ wars and being referred to as south Pacific Poms by the Aussies what can you expect?

Please read the first in a series of articles on ProgressOnline about Kiwi politics. the second will follow, also from Sally Spurr, after Labour party conference.