Vote them out #6

Google translates Waka Kotahi as single vehicle.

We could be forgiven for thinking the aim of the government’s roading policy is to reduce car numbers that far.

Far too much effort, and money, has been spent on attempts to get people out of cars and far too little on making the roads better and safer.

Far too much has been spent on consultants and communications and far too little on roading improvements:

What Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has spent on consultants in the last four years could have paid for four bridges across the Ashburton River.

For its proposed second urban bridge, the Ashburton District Council has had to produce a business case to see if the project is worth the estimated $40 million investment, so to hear the figures around the agencies spending was not impressive reading for mayor Neil Brown.

Since 2019, Waka Kotahi has spent $145m on consultants, covering things like the environment and planning, and spent only $200m on actual construction. . . 

Since 2017, Waka Kotahi has also more than doubled its communications team from 32 staff to 88 – 65 of whom earn $100,000 or more.

That’s over $650,000 on public relations that could be better spent on actual infrastructure, Brown said, as without justification it was a ludicrous figure of communications staff. . . 

Then there is the Road to Zero campaign, which has almost $200m of spending earmarked to get New Zealand to try and achieve zero road deaths or serious injuries by 2030. About $85m of that has been allocated to advertising activities alone.

“We want to get the road toll down but improvements to roading is money better spent to get the intersections safer, the highways safer than on an [advertising] campaign.” . .

That expensive campaign includes the advertisement which shows a driver swerving to avoid a possum.

The whole advertisement is nothing more than an exercise in bureaucratic back-patting and it could be taken to promote dangerous driving.

When confronted with a small animal it’s safer to carry on than to try to avoid it.

But what more can you expect from an agency that thinks spending $30,000 on five large zeros is a good idea?

Good roads are safer roads and making roads better ought to be the government’s focus.

That it has wasted so much money on other priorities including anti-car ones is another reason to vote it out.