The previous government already had a solid infrastructure programme in place when the current coalition came into power. One of the first things the COL did was to cancel most of those infrastructure projects, particularly the roading projects. This government’s ideology, led by the Greens, was that roads would be no longer needed, as everyone would walk, cycle, use public transport, or buy an electric car. The fallacy of their thinking is breathtaking. Just about all of those options still require roads. Their dedication to rail projects is fair enough, particularly heavy rail for freight, but we need both a better rail network and a better roading network. Unfortunately, this government failed to see that.

The BFD. Show stopping transport policy. Cartoon Credit SonovaMin

The resulting chaos was all too predictable. Cities, particularly Auckland and Wellington, have become completely gridlocked. Bus services are desperately unreliable, because of driver shortages and unnecessary tampering with existing timetables. On a day in July, when there was a derailment at Wellington station, the only way of getting into town from the Hutt Valley or the Wairarapa was to drive, resulting in complete chaos on the motorway. In fact, that is all this blind ideology has given us – transport chaos and a real threat to the economy and stability of this country, when people are simply unable to get to work.

After 2 years, guess what? The government has decided to borrow money it would not have needed to borrow, and give us some of those sorely needed infrastructure projects, pretending all along that it is their idea… when, of course, these projects were well underway before the last election.

Details are beginning to emerge of just how the Government plans to spend its $6.8 billion worth of new road and rail investment, announced in Wednesday’s budget policy statement.

A large part of the money is meant to be spent by 2024 with the Government promising to increase capital investment almost immediately.

But this opens up a difficult political question for the Government as many of the projects that are ready to be funded by this additional investment were mainly drawn up by the previous government.

These include 12 road projects that were re-evelated [sic.] when the new Government published its transport priorities in 2018. These have become known as “cancelled” Roads of National Significance, or RoNS.

Stuff.

In case you don’t know which projects are classed as RONS, here is the list:

Both the Waikato Expressway and the Kapiti Expressway are excellent roads which are effectively incomplete, and extending them to where they were originally intended to go will be a great congestion breaker for both areas of the country. The Tauranga Eastern corridor is sorely needed, and the Puhoi to Wellsford section of SH1 will make it much easier for economic development in Northland, again so sorely needed. As for Auckland roads… Auckland traffic is the worst in the country, and the economic effects of the constant gridlock are always underestimated. Opening up these congestion points will make a huge difference to commerce in Auckland.

We should be delighted, of course, that at least some of these roads look to be going ahead, but what makes me really angry is the wasted 2 years while the government caved to Green ideology and the country came to a standstill as a result.

Now, of course, it will take time for these projects to be reinstated. Hopefully, consents that had already been given have not expired, or it will be back to the drawing board and 5 years of going through the process again. But even if the consents are in place, it will take time before the projects are ‘shovel ready‘. Most commentators on the policy have said they think it unlikely to see any of these projects started before the election next year. So that will be 3 years wasted.

National, of course, can hardly object to their own projects being finally given the green light, but their best angle during the election campaign will be to emphasise the lost time, wasted productivity and the borrowed money, all of which would not have been necessary if the projects had been allowed to continue as originally planned. It is not as sexy an election campaign as “Let’s Get Brexit Done”, but it could still be very effective in showing the New Zealand public how inept and ideological this government really is.

Labour, of course, will try to claim it all as their own. Interesting, isn’t it? Their favourite mantra over their term so far has been ‘nine years of neglect’. It seems that this period of terrible neglect has given them the large infrastructure projects that we have all been hoping for, without having to lift a finger themselves. It is truly amazing what ‘neglect’ can do.

Ex-pat from the north of England, living in NZ since the 1980s, I consider myself a Kiwi through and through, but sometimes, particularly at the moment with Brexit, I hear the call from home. I believe...