Exposed: New Zealand’s poor record of infrastructure maintenance | Q+A 2024
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- Опубликовано: 23 фев 2024
- Geoff Cooper from the Infrastructure Commission joins Q+A to talk about a new report that exposed New Zealand’s poor record of maintaining existing infrastructure, despite new projects being promised and built
Join Jack Tame and the Q+A team and find the answers to the questions that matter. Made with the support of NZ on Air.
They have just laid hot mix on state highway 1. Kaiwaka
30 yrs ago I had a operator license for a paver. The machine used to lay the hot mix
The job done is disgraceful
The standards are beyond words
If it was a private job it would be condemned
This is part of state highway 1
Unbelievably rubbish workmanship at horrendous cost
This is such a great interview and some good points.. maintenance is super important.. Infrastructure in schools is the same they love to do new builds and replace things but keep the existing builds in good shape very poor..if we look at school swimming pools a good example of the poor ethos and frankly waste of money 💰...and turning back to our infrastructure i.e drain pipes, water sewage pipes, poor roads..I notice they are also great at resurfacing roads that are hardly used and our roads that need work get put on the backburner ..but hey I'm no expert on this I suppose there is good reason for why things are put off😮
NZ is now paying the price for doing nothing on infrastructure maintenance .And will continue to do so and well into the future.Just pathetic.
That's what happens when you let immigrants flood in our small island,. Infrastructure can't handle. Never will. 126000 people entered last year, what do you think will happen ??? Dummy.
Taxpayers keep paying over and over again and still shit happens and nothing is solved! Useless pack of fools and losers! These politicians all go to varsity and come out brain dead,they are groomed and programmed to cause havoc and get paid well for it!
following chinas example hey
Yes I'm in china for work ever 8-10 mths and yes they have a great roading system. Probably not evident to people unlike us who travel there. @@doorwhisperer
for vehicle swallowing sinkholes
and Tofu Dreg construction
... maybe go somewhere in China other than Shanghai
@@darylpatterson7894
8:10 “just one more lane bro” mentality.
The only way to fix traffic is to provide alternative means to get around that aren’t in a car.
facts
nothing wrong with cars
@@doorwhisperer But there is a lot wrong with our gross over-dependence on cars.
That's a fair thought, but what means do you suggest? More buses won't work because all you're doing is adding more traffic to continually increasing congestion, making it worse. Trains maybe? That would need a whole lot more tracks. Around Auckland are a lot of volcanic peaks, so maybe a cable car/shuttle link system? That would also bring more tourism.
Shambles, people controlling the purse strings unqualified
been spent on overpaid saleries for CEOs,and companies getting backhanders,and too miuh given too cone mean/worksafe rubbish
I worked fixing/ maintaining power ,water and sewerage infrastructure for last 30 years and it’s all been deliberately neglected, for short term incentives , greed and general incompetence also there’s not many quality people left here in the trades as the pay is so crap the jobs not worth doing . and a lot of existing trade people are getting old and retiring. And anyone smart and able goes to Australia and near doubles there income.
The cyclone poved how infrastructure has fallen way behind
Interesting point regarding the increased spending on motorways has done nothing to help commute times. That the times have increased is not any surprise, due to the massive increase in population , urban sprawl etc. In Auckland we had a mechanism to fund some of the transport costs but a couple of idiots have recently tossed that aside and now we’re going back to square one ! Good one ( not)
100% correct.
That is exactly what has been happening at councils across NZ.
3 Waters demonstrated that.
This is the price of low taxes and under investment by the govt: a timebomb for our futures. But hey, minor tax cuts are the priority, right?
Low taxes? Gst alone should cover all these expenses. It's because Govt depts and bureaucracies are not efficient. If they were run like private sector businesses with the goal being great outcomes for the public we'd be living in a utopia by now.
Good on you Q+A for covering this.Very Interesting.
The Wellington water issues look worthy of a high level inquiry.
Why have they NOT kept up with the standards that are council law. We have to abide by them but more important why?
laziness and disdain for tradition
This country is adverse to any form of preventive maintenance of the country's infrastructure assets, as seen over the last 40 odd years with the introduction of 'for profit at least cost' neoliberal economic thinking and short planning and action. It is cheaper to delay or ignore the various preventive maintenance of the country's infrastructure assets and leave it up to generation of tax payers.
The governing agency to ensuring our infrastructure is healthy, is completely not on par for their role. If they are unable to do their job right, how can they justify receiving taxpayer’s money and rates. In these moments, they simply offload their incompetency to taxpayers and rate payers.
Have some respectable processes in place to get these infrastructure where it should be. I don’t need people who are good at fluffing around and pushing blames back and forth. Be responsible, be accountable and get things done right. How can you accept a salary and just ignore commonsense like maintenance work? You just expect infrastructure to fix itself? As though no wear and tear could occur?
I do not want to hear one more time, for example, the weather is too hot, and so we will cancel trains. The hell? How does all the train run where countries are near the equator?
Also you need roads or transport infrastructure in place for people to get to medical centres to receive medical care. Both are just as necessary… please… no one just teleports to a hospital for instance 😭 I want to cry about how short sighted our country is 😭😭😭 It’s depressing how much incompetent people out there doing critical work… and still actually believe they are doing well…
Good call. We need to start paying no heed to the child-like indignant bleating of the incompetent. To stop letting them highjack our morals and values.
A lot of it comes from the constantly evolving standards demanded by govt. regulations. Sometimes it's best not to fix something till it breaks.
What you mean we can't just keep using 100 year old assets adding more and more users year on year and have nothing go wrong?
There's no Ministry of Works- the far cheaper way to go. Thank Douglas onwards.
Makes me laugh everytime national becomes government, they act and blame the last government and at the same time do fk all about the issue.
And labour did what exactly?
@@fabmanly1070 did you want a seat fan boy? And I'll take you to school on some things?
@@MediVacPack I could school you sunshine! Have been privileged to knowledge around government spending and fiscal operations for over twenty five years. Direct from Wellington through multiple political parties. I am not at liberty to discuss any of it over a public forum. Most parties are as useless as each other but the last Labour Govt in particular has been extremely poor.
@@fabmanly1070 your full of 💩 my boy, I'd school you and anyone you could sum up with less then 10% of my brain power. Sit down and drink your racist ☕.
Another excellent interview. Thank you both.
Not only Roads ,Wellington Hospital should be closed down , Fire safety is a disgrace 😞
It is grim. Country is a total mess.
Lets ignore the 2008 credit crash and Bill English relentless borrowing.
Australia gave John Key their highest award.
And the US gave John Key $9 billion dollars, then called N.Z the rockstar economy.
Quick before they turn off the comment function
Perfect example is new , huge, water reservoirs in Wellington. But 47% of the water leaks out and is wasted. That means that 47% of the investment in the new reservoir is completely pointless. 47% of the dollars are wasted. That money should have been spent on leaks. So a better investment is a half sized reservoir and fixing leaks with the rest of the money. We would be better off.
Wheres an article on national allowing foreign investors to own more tgan one rental and how rhis will inflate housing prices, create housing shortages and in tern increase rent prices
Yeah let’s be clear. We have so much consulting and so many checks in order to make anything happen in this country. So many environmental concerns, iwi concerns, local and national levels of consulting it takes fucking forever and nothing gets done after millions of dollars spent. It’s a joke, and the voice of the small actually can bend the outcomes. Sometimes it’s a good thing, but now with all the backlog we are paying the price for hesitancy
Try to build a hydro dam or (heaven forbid!) Waste to energy plant. I can't nutrient l believe how much a few NZ people with their heads in the sand can hold up any progress on holistic good projects?
We have been kicking the infrastructure cans do the road for nearly 40 odd years so future generations can sort out the fixes. It is part of this country's DNA.
Though the guy being interviewed claimed that compared to other countries NZ builds lots of stuff (especially roads). He claimed that we prefer to build new stuff than spend money on maintaining existing stuff.
Should have kept MOW
Programmed maintenance… only adult way
Maintenance should come under the same umbrella as cleaning, i mean you talk about revenue streams, but by the books are these government departments not paying lease fees back to the government? One thing i find interesting is Police stations have issues with mold, where is the cleaning? and if you excessively cleaning mold, then why is that not getting reported, or repaired as where there is mold, there is water. Is it residual or does it require constant cleaning in-which maintenance is required. Seems to me, with a single company having the cleaning contract that they are TOO BIG TO FAIL, and the quality is hit or miss as all the work is sub contracted and sub contracted and sub contracted which in terms of maintenance, it doesn't go up the list and when it does, it costs huge money to go back down the list to another subcontract to solve the problem.
But like the example of weather boards, its basic maintenance that any Joe should be able to complete, which begs the question with a bloated government departments, why is no one doing any sort of maintenance? The same way you have say a health and safety person, why isn't someone appointed maintenance officer for the maybe week of work over the period of a year to conduct basic maintenance like changing light bulbs. Would you rather pay an electrician $1000 to change a lightbulb?
Wellington to Singapore direct flights ✈️ available or not ??
Why is used pay such a dirty word. You pay for fuel to run your car. User pay is it not.
Much of the inefficiency is designed into NZ cities, the layouts especially the original large plot sizes, means that distances between houses is much bigger, meaning much more roading, wiring, piping etc is needed, this is ok when things are built, but basically becomes unaffordable to maintain. There are lots of studies that show this see: ruclips.net/video/tI3kkk2JdoI/видео.html
500 Rangatira signed Te Tiriti 39 Rangatira signed The Treaty 500 vs 39 TeTiriti has to be the recognised signed Document between the Crown and Ye Iwi Maori.
What is waihanga ?
Fascinating.
One thing id argue is we spend to much money on people, to write up reports.
Skypath, Light Rail and are example of 10's of millions spent, with literally nothing to show for it, because all that money was spent on people.
And we are seeing this trend to ward socially engineered solutions, rather then civil engineered ones.
Instead of building roads, we put all this money into getting people to catch the bus, we close off Auckland CBD, shut down Queen Street, reduce car parking, then wonder why we have more traffic. Well because all that investment is put into stuff we don't need, to hinder what we have further, to create this fantasy that people will change their behavior.
Civil Engineering solutions often advocate for the construction of better rapid transit solutions, as well as better active mode transportation. Many experts have advocated for NZ to adopt a multi modal transport system.
NZ has become so dependant on car's in the past few decades politicians have realised that proposing roading infrastructure projects every election props up their polling and public opinion, but building more roads won't help solve NZ problems, on the contrary it will only make them worse.
There are many Urban centres in NZ that don't need to build anymore roads, and actually building more roads only leads to more congestion due to a phenomenon known as "induced demand"
Buses are very efficient at moving people around, they are even better when allocated their own lanes seperated from general traffic.
Auckland CBD hasn't been closed off though, car's are still permitted.
Queen Street hasn't been shut down, only the section between Wakefield Street and Wellesley is prohibited to private vehicle's.
Change of behaviour isn't a fantasy, if it was Kiwi's wouldn't be as car dependant as they are now considering NZ used to have some of the highest rates of public transport patronage among developed nations during the early 20th century.
And the same goes for many people overseas, change of behaviour is and has been possible but the desired alternative just needs to be as if not more efficient and reliable as the status quo, people's choice of commuters dictated by circumstances. Many Kiwi's drive not because they want to but because there's simply no other viable alternative, and that sentiment is very similar to what has been seen in other countries.
With good planning and operations public transport has been shown to change commute behaviours.
@@rp7784 I have to disagree, the problem we have is the density of housing is putting huge pressure on infrastructure, not just roading, but sewage as we see with minor rain causing our combined waste water to flow into Auckland's Harbour, contaminating all of our beaches. Hence you have these stupid ideas like 15min cities where they want to build high density housing, but limit peoples ability to move around the city.
Its pure greed, where council wants more rates, but they don't want to invest in the infrastructure to support this rapidly increasing population, what is worse is they rely on solution that didn't work 100 years ago. In terms of buses and trains, because they used buses and trains in some other country.
Fact of the matter is, you could remove public transport entirely, if you just taught people how to drive and have viable solutions for those who can't. But again we end up with issues with parking, which if you consider Auckland CBD, hasn't seen a new car park built in decades. Infact i don't think i know of any car parks getting built in the last 20 years apart from at the bus station in Albany, which highly more questions about the Northern Bus Way inwhich many of these massive bus stations have zero parking.
There is nothing wrong with being dependant on cars, they are fast and efficient, they take you from your home, directly to where you are going. Hence they are so popular, while i would argue we could use more support for motorcycles, the fact is no one in a position of power rides a motorcycle, at most limited to a pushbike and we see that in policy and investment.
They do need to build more roads, because they keep building more houses.
You need the infrastructure to support a bigger population but they want buses because buses allow for greater density then allowing people to drive cars, despite the reduction in productivity and massive strain on the economy.
Queen street has been shut down, its been shut off from the outside world. Unless your in walking distance, or bus to the city for work.... But i am already hearing rumours about converting highrise buildings into apartments.
What i would say about changing societies behavior is its not support of democracy. The role of government, and council is to impose the will of the people. Not to miniplate the people to accept your will. Hence over the last few years we keep hearing murmurs of a dictatorship.
Fact of the matter is, its incompetence, and we have all these people that studied psychology at university having no applicable jobs, working for the council and like a man whos only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Auckland council, with its centralized system created under the pretense of not doing things twice, over two different councils not can't even do things once, because they have no engineers or even experts of water as they have put the reasonability onto other originations like water care.
Skypath was dismissed over a decade ago by an engineer, yet a few years ago over $50million was wasted on the project. It was literally looked at by an engineer, told the lobbyist that it couldn't be supported, yet somehow still got over $50million in funding and what do we have to show for it? NOTHING!
Its just a classic example, of people who know nothing, in decision making roles because we have socially engineering this concept that we need a 50/50 diversity split based on peoples sex, rather then have diversity based on peoples professions. Like actually have engineers in the building. How do you build a city, without engineers? and just a bunch of psychologists.
@@Unknown-gi1uj NZ cities, even Auckland are actually not that dense relative to what you see overseas, its actually our lack of density that's partly to blame in our economic woes which I will explain later.
dense suburbs actually fared better during the floods in Auckland compared to low density areas.
Quite judgmental to say 15-minute cities are a stupid idea because its taking off across the world with great success, even the Americans are beginning to embrace the concept and they are known to be the most car centric lot in the west. it's also ironic how you speak of limiting mobility for people because the status quo does just that, having everything spread out and only relying on roads has caused congestion in urban centers which has limited movement of goods and people which I will explain later.
Not greed, other countries like Australia allows local government to set their own taxes and funding systems, central also has shared funding programs with local governments from taxes like GST, personal Income etc.
In NZ no such system exists, Central Government commands most of the collected revenue within the economy, which leaves very little mechanisms for local government to raise their own funds. So, at the end of the day local government has no choice but to either beg central government for investment or raise rates, rates are pretty much the only major mechanism of revenue for local government.
buses and trains were working 100 years ago quite well too, back then the conventional thinking was that cars were the future to transport, they were a revolution, so governments began withdrawing funding from rail infrastructure and public transport and started investing into more roads and highways which incentivized people to start purchasing vehicles, but many didn't foresee the issues that came with car dependence.
@@Unknown-gi1uj You could teach the entire population to drive, that won't solve congestion, if you take away public transport you will only make standstills worse, talk about grinding the country to a halt.
Auckland CBD has close to ten thousand car parks in the CBD, so that doesn't seem like an issue. Regarding the lack of newly built parking buildings, that's because the dynamics of commute are changing, over 67% of people who visit the CBD do so by public transport, and that has been increasing for the past decade, and with the CRL a few years away its going to open more access points into the CBD for rail which will encourage more people to use trains.
Cars aren't actually that efficient. They use up a lot of space whilst having a maximum occupancy of 4 to 5 people, and in terms of energy their statistic are even worse.
PT can transport more people in a faster timeframe, while they do lack point to point commute and are not as flexible as cars in their routes that difference isn't as diverged as what many think, often people find public transport to be as convenient and reliable as taking a car, you also need to factor in the time it takes to find a park. Public Transport is also cheaper than owning a car.
Now this is where I explain the benefits of high density. Urban sprawl is one of the causes for NZ poor productivity, in the past governments have built nothing but roads, which has led to more greenbelt developments and more suburbs propping up etc. but this spreads the population out, meaning you need to build more infrastructure, more utilities, more social services which increases costs across the board, and that cost is shared by a smaller number of people due to the low density. It also increases costs for people, they need to commute further for work or to shop, they consume more fuel, more time which leads to a higher cost of living, less efficient time and energy use, it also makes infrastructure more expensive to build and maintain in the long run, because now we have another stretch of road but only a handful of people to help fund it and that raises costs.
higher density on the other hand allows you to use infrastructure that is already there, whilst increasing the number of residents in a single area, which gives the government a higher pool of people to help fund infrastructure and services more efficiently and using less space which lowers costs because you don't need to invest so much into infrastructure and assets. it can also help lower the cost of housing by rapidly increasing the supply and diversifying the types of housing in the NZ market. and it;s good for people who wish to live close to work and amenities, it offers a better life balance and cheaper living. it also allows for people to commute, live and work more efficiently.
@@Unknown-gi1uj Again, Queen Street hasn't been shut from the outside world, most of the stretch is still open to private vehicles and the station is literally a road across from it and recent reports of foot traffic exceeding pre pandemic levels indicate as such.
you seem to inflate the cohesiveness to what people want, there are those who wish to keep NZ just how it is and not solve anything, but there are a lot of kiwi's who have been screaming for freedom of choice in how they commute and live their life, many who are asking for better PT. Imposing the will of the people is only part of the governments job, because everyone wants something different, the other part is for the government to listen to evidence and make economic decisions, and that involves pissing off one group while appeasing another, will is never a uniform aspect across an entire population, which is why the government will always make decisions that annoy someone somewhere, what matters is, was that decision the right one.
Ah that is where you are at fault, thinking that building a city is the same as planning one.
first of all they aren't psychologists lol they are what the industry call "Urban Planners" they are like architects but they design cityscapes.
They plan cities, engineers turn their plans into reality.
It has nothing to do with ideology, race or whatever your thinking of.
Planning, and building, keep those separate.
Urban Planners are experts in economics, logistics, housing and transport.
What's happening on the ground, in the construction industry is diabolical and if it is government work holly fuck it's real bad, site management is abysmal.
Last Labour government excelled at wasting taxpayers money. Not much bang for your buck on infrastructure!
What would you expect ?Nothing new.
The current government has no plans to spend money other than giving tax cuts to the wealthy and property investors.
Then the nats come and cancel everything without a backup plan ( and more roads are not a backup plan) and we’re back to square one, if not behind . Nice one
@@user-im3hr1ed2l any successful country must have good efficient roading infrastructure. Railways in NZ can’t survive without being subsidised. This National coalition will have to make some hard decisions thanks to Jacinda & Chippies diabolical strai.
WOW so National scrap light rail, Ferry project, scrapping Trains haha scrapping major infratrusture projects, Educational Facility builds? Housing NZ builds & if they are like Keys will leave with a decicit haha FML
Ive been in the project work un the Engineering industry and honestly the whole country is fucked
the public are being rorted with riad building andvrepsrs by the major players in rhe industry and its got to come to an end
No surprises there … too much endless consultations etc when the Nz govt can get expertise from Japan
If I may respectfully say that I personally would not classify NZ as an "advanced country" when you look at the data, but more so of a developed country. I love NZ, it is an amazing country and I proudly now call it my home! Excellent segment btw.
Correct, we export raw commodities and rely on tourism, smells like third world to me.
Roading endless pit of money wastage one example
Te Pati labour were too busy giving money out to ridiculous causes which would have been best served on Infrastructure maintenance. Giving money out for what education would have be suffice, everything got out of hand under labour, even down to labeling people disadvantaged cos of race !!!!!!!! PLEASE,these people have more European blood in them, so obviously rather than money given out for what ever reason it should have been to educate them in various fascets of life, which is called consequences for decisions and choices made, a universal law which NO ONE escapes and EVERYONE IS COVERED BY, REGARDLESS OF RACE. This coalition is on track with this
Yeh just like John Key did, by crushing the Police budget 2011-2013, not to mention education…….
Now you got Mark Mitchell telling everyone he’s going to hire 500 more Police while having a meeting in Wellington last week telling them to cut spending, while stopping all new recruitment.
New Zealand; First World aspirations on a Third World budget.
Why is gareth southgate on nz tv ??
Isn't he allowed to be on NZ TV?
Tame was jacindas soy boy...never forget
Aw Jack, you used to be a bit likeable.
These people are trying to win some wasted dollars mm i know David. For your buddies.
He lost me when you started using Metaphors that only a home owner could relate to 😅
Start saving…….
@@fabmanly1070 or get richer parents
I make 100k a year plus odd jobs. Without outside help, the price goes up faster than my savings. And I don't intend on jumping into the property ladder with a minimum deposit.
@@fe6767 I came from a very poor dysfunctional family. Divorced parents, father spending his entire life on drugs to control mental health issues. Came back to this country broke, so broke I couldn’t afford the ticket home. I got a job down the road from my mothers house, so I could walk to work at the Warehouse. I managed to buy a $500 Toyota Starlet 3 speed auto. I used this until it was soooo bad even the welders were telling me to throw it away (they could no longer weld it) and buy something better.
I was living at home with my mother at 33 years of age. I sucked it up and got on with saving. No phones, no clothing, no new cars, electronics. I bought a brand new electric drill and an electric skill saw, plus a jig saw. I knew I would be buying a do-up. That was it! My social outings were limited to once a month and about 2-3 beers. I paid my mother rent and put everything else into a savings account.
I walked into the Westpac and asked for a loan. The lady took one look at my savings history and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. I’ll never forget that day, she just looked up from the screen and said, wow that’s an impressive savings history’ your own your own?
Bang, first home bought, done. I sacrificed absolutely everything to get a house, everything……
Lots of sound bites and cute meaningless phrases, but almost zero facts and a similar amount of explanation. So you are left with the impression that Geoff Cooper thinks NZ is doing it wrong but it is difficult to lay your finger on what he thinks we should do better (except that he likes the idea of an associated revenue stream to pay for and maintain each asset).
Geoff Cooper's idea that NZ is young and therefore hasn't much experience of maintenance is weird. OK NZ has no experience with castles or cathedrals or canals or other obsolete infrastructure, but who cares? In terms of the infrastructure we use today (airports, container ports, railways, tarmac roads, concrete bridges, modern hospitals, water pipes, sewers, stormwater drains, power stations, the electrical grid, fibre broadband, etc) NZ built those things at about the same time as other countries. New Zealand's maintenance experience is exactly the same as other countries. He and Jack were on stronger ground when saying maintenance isn't sexy, so politicians prefer to promise new stuff (which is why politicians rarely want to leave decisions about what new stuff to build to non-politicians), but again not an NZ specific issue.
Jack pushed him a little on the revenue stream idea but he couldn't come up with a difference between NZ and other countries on assets that don't have an obvious revenue stream. This isn't a problem specific to NZ.
Too much estrogen holding executive positions not doing enough to speed things up and not enough testrone keeping folks accountable.
Straining leadership, motivation and lacking reward for those doing the work on the ground.
Issues always start from the top
Haha why would moaris have a word for something they didnt even have.
Very vague explanations and feeble theories. As tax payers we deserve more.
This is a snapshot interview. You can find the report online if you can be bothered. Looking at some of the comments, we deserve smarter citizens.
Correction Alert ⚠️ Labours poor record of maintaining the roads!! Let's all be honest they were never this bad before labour took over!!
Actually correction…. Raising the maximum legal weight and size of trucks by Steven Joyce and John key has been the main contributor to the appalling condition of our state highways. But people conveniently look the other way in this regard.
It's both Labour and National that have a poor record in maintaining infrastructure. Many of Nationals policies have led to direct degradation of roads.
Just because you don't like labour doesn't mean you should just close your eyes to the faults of the National Party, as far as I can see, both parties are responsible for NZ issues.
Stop paying benefits to people who don't need them and repair the infrastructure....it's embarrassing
Exactly. Stop paying $2 billion in rent subsidies to landlords that don't need it and don't pay taxes. That money would be better spent on infrastructure
I know right, those super annuitants are scum, am i right?
@@stand_alone_complex5620they aren't scum, they should just pay their share too
@@growtocycle6992 - The do in their income of the the NZ Super which is taxed at 17.5%.
@@stand_alone_complex5620 retiree's receiving that payout have spent many years paying tax plus rates, ......what will be your contribution be?....gvt and local body have an obligation to fix infrastructure by using the taxes paid.
some get a rates bill and water bill