Simeon Brown fires up PPP to build & run 'expressway' to Whangarei costing twice as much per km as Transmission Gully, before emissions costs; Health NZ cost 'blowout' not in head/back offices
What does a politician need to build a road. A press release!
What do you and I need to build a road? Ownership of the land, consents for all the work, cash in hand, an agreed contract, staff to do the work, staff or consultants to monitor/manage the contract to ensure NZ public gets what is in the contract, time (years).
Mike Hosking saying "we need commissioners across the country to kick butt who cares about democracy we don't need it and nobody can be bothered with it". Paraphrasing here but bloody hell
Bernard, could you maybe poke around the claim that there are 14 levels of management staffing levels at Te Whatu Ora. It sounds like a slightly dishonest way of portraying things.
Very telling that they can't provide evidence to back up that claim. I'm a frontline employee in a bureaucratic corporate and apparently sit at level 8. Without asking friends and family at Te Whatu Ora directly I find 14 levels of management hard to believe.
Striking (laughable?) to consider how many crossed tees and dotted eyes Labour undertook to defend against accusations unwise spending, and then watch conservative Ministers like Brown throw down a huge roading project sans RoI numbers. Not an eyelash batted.
Really ought to dispel illusions regarding what politically-motivated screeching of “unwise spending” is really about.
Just noting the juxtaposition of a plan to entrench a transport system dominated by private vehicles, with an unaffordable health system.
Moving around our bodies in cars all the time means we miss out on massive physical and mental health benefits of regular physical activity. (And puts other people off walking and cycling in our shared public spaces) Also, those vehicles produce air pollution which causes lots of invisible health problems (think childhood asthma as one example).
So how about reducing health burden by looking at the wider impacts of other policy choices? We could get so many win wins (climate emissions reduction, nice places to live, more independence for those who don’t drive) and last but not least happier people less burdened with chronic illnesses 😀
Perhaps the government could save costs for the new motorway by paving it with gravestones of the preventable deaths that result from their cuts to Te whatu ora, kainga ora and loss of smoke free legislation?
I guess one can argue that Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ is not overspending 130 million a month, but rather that is underfunded by 130 million a month... is not a business... is a service provider
I guess the overspending depends on your starting point. Much like the movie The Castle "tell him he's dreamin'", Van Velden stated last year "When it came to Covid, we completely blew out what the value of a life was, completely, I've never seen such a high value on life." Oh, to return to the good old days of reclassifications and ineligibility. Sliding numbers and targets around to generate the 'successful' outcome.
Investing in health is about people's daily quality of life. Investing in roads is if no personal value to most people. Investing in rail is less expensive & will shift more freight &more people more efficiently. Trains do not create potholes for motorists.
$3 billion for the now cancelled Project iReX upgrade of the 93 km Cook Strait SH1 crossing is looking (comparatively) more and more like good value for money.
Essentially State Highway 1 in Northland has not been upgraded and strengthened for the heavier trucks approved by National last time. Very crudely, comparing the road impact (and presumably the forces a road must be constructed to withstand) increases by a power of 4 of the gross vehicle weight. The heavier trucks approval allows trucks with a gross weight heavier than previously, with that gross weight being dependent on the vehicle length. But if we take the old max weight as 44 tonnes and new max weight as 55 tonnes, then the road impact is at least 2.4 times greater. Little wonder that Brynderwyn and Mangamuka sections of SH1 are collapsing. (I know heavy truck operators argue about individual axle loadings being lower so kei te pai)
This 4 laning to Whangārei, as well as being excessive capacity (much would be perfectly fine as 2+1 road), does nothing for the SH 1 north of Whangārei - where trucks are the only freight option as the rail needs upgrading and even then only goes to Otiria (Moerewa).
The concept of an integrated multi-mode transport system seems to allude our Minister of Transport. Wasn't he allowed to play with toy trucks when a child or something?
The inefficiency and extra cost of a PPP v direct government finance is obvious.
"It is utterly deplorable that the public-private partnership set up under the previous National Government failed to build the motorway without pouring hundreds and perhaps even thousands of tonnes of sediment into the ecologically-important Pauatahanui Inlet of Te Awa-o-Porirua Harbour. Equally alarming is the failure of yjr Greater Wellington Regional Council to monitor the road works and stop them until the public-private partnership started to comply in full with the resource consent conditions imposed on it by the Environment Court."
What does a politician need to build a road. A press release!
What do you and I need to build a road? Ownership of the land, consents for all the work, cash in hand, an agreed contract, staff to do the work, staff or consultants to monitor/manage the contract to ensure NZ public gets what is in the contract, time (years).
Do we know the cost of double-tracking the railway between Whangarei and Auckland compared with the announced road plan?
I can guarantee the government don’t
Agree, have corridor available, however trucking industry rather pothole our roads. Road lobby has ear of government.
Sometimes when reading a piece of music pops into my head - this morning for some reason it was “Road to Nowhere” by Talking Heads
And with plans for Kainga Ora - burning down the house, and gun law reform - psycho killer. What a band!
Agreed! (and love it!)
Mike Hosking saying "we need commissioners across the country to kick butt who cares about democracy we don't need it and nobody can be bothered with it". Paraphrasing here but bloody hell
Amusing to see Hoskings, National's favourite lick spittle, verbally flaying Luxon.
I can't bare to watch, but the cynic in me says it's all a ruse - under the guise of "balanced" journalism.
Bernard, could you maybe poke around the claim that there are 14 levels of management staffing levels at Te Whatu Ora. It sounds like a slightly dishonest way of portraying things.
Good question.
Very telling that they can't provide evidence to back up that claim. I'm a frontline employee in a bureaucratic corporate and apparently sit at level 8. Without asking friends and family at Te Whatu Ora directly I find 14 levels of management hard to believe.
Luxon, Reti, Levy and Apa - that’s 4 levels not contributing to care.
Striking (laughable?) to consider how many crossed tees and dotted eyes Labour undertook to defend against accusations unwise spending, and then watch conservative Ministers like Brown throw down a huge roading project sans RoI numbers. Not an eyelash batted.
Really ought to dispel illusions regarding what politically-motivated screeching of “unwise spending” is really about.
Just noting the juxtaposition of a plan to entrench a transport system dominated by private vehicles, with an unaffordable health system.
Moving around our bodies in cars all the time means we miss out on massive physical and mental health benefits of regular physical activity. (And puts other people off walking and cycling in our shared public spaces) Also, those vehicles produce air pollution which causes lots of invisible health problems (think childhood asthma as one example).
So how about reducing health burden by looking at the wider impacts of other policy choices? We could get so many win wins (climate emissions reduction, nice places to live, more independence for those who don’t drive) and last but not least happier people less burdened with chronic illnesses 😀
Perhaps the government could save costs for the new motorway by paving it with gravestones of the preventable deaths that result from their cuts to Te whatu ora, kainga ora and loss of smoke free legislation?
I guess one can argue that Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ is not overspending 130 million a month, but rather that is underfunded by 130 million a month... is not a business... is a service provider
I guess the overspending depends on your starting point. Much like the movie The Castle "tell him he's dreamin'", Van Velden stated last year "When it came to Covid, we completely blew out what the value of a life was, completely, I've never seen such a high value on life." Oh, to return to the good old days of reclassifications and ineligibility. Sliding numbers and targets around to generate the 'successful' outcome.
Investing in health is about people's daily quality of life. Investing in roads is if no personal value to most people. Investing in rail is less expensive & will shift more freight &more people more efficiently. Trains do not create potholes for motorists.
Health before roads.
$3 billion for the now cancelled Project iReX upgrade of the 93 km Cook Strait SH1 crossing is looking (comparatively) more and more like good value for money.
Essentially State Highway 1 in Northland has not been upgraded and strengthened for the heavier trucks approved by National last time. Very crudely, comparing the road impact (and presumably the forces a road must be constructed to withstand) increases by a power of 4 of the gross vehicle weight. The heavier trucks approval allows trucks with a gross weight heavier than previously, with that gross weight being dependent on the vehicle length. But if we take the old max weight as 44 tonnes and new max weight as 55 tonnes, then the road impact is at least 2.4 times greater. Little wonder that Brynderwyn and Mangamuka sections of SH1 are collapsing. (I know heavy truck operators argue about individual axle loadings being lower so kei te pai)
This 4 laning to Whangārei, as well as being excessive capacity (much would be perfectly fine as 2+1 road), does nothing for the SH 1 north of Whangārei - where trucks are the only freight option as the rail needs upgrading and even then only goes to Otiria (Moerewa).
The concept of an integrated multi-mode transport system seems to allude our Minister of Transport. Wasn't he allowed to play with toy trucks when a child or something?
The inefficiency and extra cost of a PPP v direct government finance is obvious.
Even if individual axle loadings are lower, there's still more axles.
Streams of consciousness.
https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=156690
"It is utterly deplorable that the public-private partnership set up under the previous National Government failed to build the motorway without pouring hundreds and perhaps even thousands of tonnes of sediment into the ecologically-important Pauatahanui Inlet of Te Awa-o-Porirua Harbour. Equally alarming is the failure of yjr Greater Wellington Regional Council to monitor the road works and stop them until the public-private partnership started to comply in full with the resource consent conditions imposed on it by the Environment Court."
Chris Horne 26 November 2023
When will we ever learn?
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