How I hate big infrastructure investments becoming political footballs:

Remember Sir Dove-Myer Robinson? He was the Mayor who proposed all sorts of amazing projects for public transport in Auckland. People laughed at him. He failed and is now looked on as a visionary who should have been listened to.

 Now they’re at it again. Phil Twyford is being beaten up over his proposal for light rail in Auckland and of him trying to engage with another potential funder for the project. It could be that the problem is not Phil Twyford, but his Minister of Finance who is so obviously a conservative neo-liberal. However, the rest of us in NZ will pay for this political battle if it is not sorted out, as the bill will get larger and we will end up with it.

Here’s how the media covered this issue this week:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/116806085/aucklands-light-rail-an-economic-tragedy-decades-in-the-making

In Christchurch both National and Labour have played political football with our infrastructure and we have ended up with the bill.