National is no nation builder

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, August 8th, 2023 - 16 comments
Categories: climate change, Environment, national, public transport, same old national, sustainability, transport, water - Tags:

Nation building projects always take multiple terms, and the risk of Labour losing puts at risk some of the largest and most important we’ve seen in generations.

Each loss will damage the sustainability of our regions, networks and cities for decades to come.

In no particular order, here’s a few.

The Road To Zero programme which is a multi-year programme by NZTA to improve highway and arterial and highway road safety to bring down New Zealand’s worsening road death and injury toll. National Transport Spokesperson Simeon Brown says he will gut it.

Let’s Get Wellington Moving including light rail will if National gets in be scrapped, according to their transport policy.

National will stop the existing Auckland to airport light rail project which has been in advanced planning since 2015. National will also stop light rail to Auckland’s North Shore.

This is consistent with what National did in 2011 when they killed off the Christchurch plan that included light rail.

And again in mid 2017 when the idea was brought up again.

National will scrap the NZ Battery Project at Lake Onslow.

There is no other existing plan for enough generation to enable the full transition from combustion engines to 100% renewable electricity. At the moment New Zealand consumes about 41 billion Kilowatts. To convert away from combustion engines we’d need at least another 9 billion kilowatts. We’ll need big new generation available by 2030 once our fleet gets to 20% electric.

National will scrap the entire Three Waters programme. Local councils will get the assets back unconstrained, with no attempt to reverse 55% of our rivers being impaired and 45% too poisoned to get into higher than gumboot level.

National will reverse all attempts to get New Zealand agricultural emissions into the Emissions Trading Scheme. That’s 50% of our national emissions that Luxon will ensure continue without any pricing signal at all.

I have not yet seen their plans for Kainga Ora, but as a successful mass-builder it would surely be in the frame for privatisation and floating on the stock exchange. Kainga Ora’s remaining mass developments are capital-hungry and ripe for being spun off beforehand.

National’s leader Mr Luxon has a high repeated priority to go through Departmental expenditure line by line, so we can expect more major projects to be proposed for cuts as the campaign progresses.

16 comments on “National is no nation builder ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Patricia Bremner 1
    8 August 2023 at 10:57 am

    So personally greedy, and not wanting any community projects unless money partners benefit, looks a very grim prospect.

    I worry the progress of many social wellbeing schemes will be handed to the money making charity arms, or donators.

    Plus the constant dissing and rubbishing of us as a people and the worship of "productivity" which is just another name for "economic growth" as if that can continue for ever on a contested planet.

    Investment in people will go as financial and property as a wealth vehicle come back.

    Unemployment will become rampant as the "cost cutters" fail to count human need as part of the bottom line, and the pivot to AI will be painful as current supports will again be thinned and pushed out and become 13 week stand downs… "why haven't you got 3 months savings?" Wage rises will go back to derisory 50c an hour.

    It will be worse than last time as we deal with fractures caused by covid, as their ideology of individual clashes with family and community goals.

    Back to "oh you won't work for that? there are ten other people wanting your job." Back to contracts and the spiral to the lowest pay and no conditions.

    Perhaps Ad you had different ideas of why we can't afford a Nat/Act Govt. but I agree..

    Plainly we need to cement in the current gains, look at all improvements made in spite of covid. The many long term projects which are showing promise, and the rebuilds needed in flood prone regions. So much is at risk, especially R and D.

    Act's promise to stop dead all projects "to save money" is so destructive and wasteful of all the mahi put into MBIE. Seymore sees 3000 job cuts as progress and causing competition created for the remaining jobs. Funding will again be a decreasing pool to be contested and valuable expertise will be lost in the process imo.

  2. AB 2
    8 August 2023 at 10:59 am

    National is no nation-builder – it is a private wealth builder. They call this a "strong economy" and claim that a viable nation results from it. Surprisingly, some of them genuinely believe it.

  3. Mike the Lefty 3
    8 August 2023 at 11:55 am

    Sorry National, multi-billion dollar four-lane King's highways so your mates can race each other in their Ford Rangers is not "bread and butter". Nor is Labour's undersea dream tunnels either, for that matter.

    National makes a big thing about the cost of living, but what is it actually saying and promising? Nothing really. National is not promising to remove or reduce petrol excise tax or reduce GST. So are people stupid enough to believe that the cost of living will fall if National gets elected? It won't but National is happy enough to let people believe it will without actually saying it because they have their sycophants in Newstalk ZB to help spread the innuendo.

    I've got to the point where I am totally disillusioned with the attitude of both National and Labour. The desire for each to outspend the other to satisfy the Kiwi car culture is sickening.

    Not such a surprise as regards National, they have and will always promise a glorious world for a vote (and deliver a barren moon if successful) but as a consistent centre-left supporter it is very disappointing to see Labour being suckered into playing the same game.

    • Tony Veitch 3.1
      8 August 2023 at 2:13 pm

      Nor is Labour's undersea dream tunnels either, for that matter.

      For a fraction of the cost of the undersea dream tunnels, the government could import hundreds of electric buses, make them free and frequent in all the major centres and, coupled with congestion charges, all but solve the car use/traffic jams of our population concentrations.

      But, like free dental care, it's a no-brainer, which is probably why major political parties haven't suggested it.

      • Adrian 3.1.1
        8 August 2023 at 4:45 pm

        Hundreds? You would actually need 10s of thousands for your utopian dream and where are your drivers coming from to keep buses on all those routes at least 16 hours a day 7 days a week, thats 2.4 drivers per bus. This isn't 10 million Londoners with the footprint of Auckland, its 5 million Kiwis with the footprint of the UK.

        You're dreaming.

        • Mike the Lefty 3.1.1.1
          8 August 2023 at 5:19 pm

          If the standard transport model of bus operation in NZ of covering workers and students 9-5 in cities is continued to be the norm then yes, you are right, we would need a whole lot more vehicles and drivers.

          But if public transport was better targeted to serve people's needs (different needs in different cities and regions) it could be a lot more effective and efficient. Timaru is an example.

  4. bwaghorn 4
    8 August 2023 at 12:44 pm

    Yeah but I'll get $10 more a week in tax cuts, (this is just a made up figure based on nationals track record of the rich get richer while the country decays, and they sweep a crumb my way)

    • Patricia Bremner 4.1
      8 August 2023 at 12:54 pm

      That crumb (y) $10 will have to pay for chemist charges, and other user pays servicessad

    • alwyn 4.2
      8 August 2023 at 2:06 pm

      Would I be equally fair if I suggested that I will, if Labour lose power, not have to pay an additional $1,500/week in taxes (this is just a made up figure based on Labour's track record of Robertson's wasteful expenditure while the country decays)?

      This seems just as likely as your own calculation.

  5. alwyn 5
    8 August 2023 at 2:19 pm

    Can you really see that the Lake Onslow scheme providing any increased power generation, much less the 20% increase in production you are proposing?

    I cannot see any real increase in the countries generating capacity at all. All it seems to be supplying is a possible storage of potential power from using water that will otherwise be spilled from the existing hydro lakes in the South Island to fill the Lake Onslow storage.

    How much surplus water do we have in the lakes at the moment and how much are we spilling at the moment? Can we not simply leave the water in the existing reservoirs behind the hydro dams if wind, or solar, power is available to supply the power demand for the country and simply stop generating hydro power from the existing stations with the water remaining where it is above the existing power stations.

    • KJT 5.1
      8 August 2023 at 5:05 pm

      How about actually reading up on the purpose of Lake Onslow before criticising it.

      There could be issues with it. But the idea of using excess sustainable generation to pump up a pumped storage "battery" is sound.

      Pumped-storage hydroelectricity – Wikipedia

      Pumped storage is by far the largest-capacity form of grid energy storage available, and, as of 2020, the United States Department of Energy Global Energy Storage Database reports that PSH accounts for around 95% of all active tracked storage installations worldwide…

      • alwyn 5.1.1
        8 August 2023 at 5:36 pm

        I wasn't commenting on what Lake Onslow might be useful for. I was commenting on what Advantage seems to be proposing it will do. He said that National would scrap Lake Onslow. Then he says that

        "There is no other existing plan for enough generation to enable the full transition from combustion engines to 100% renewable electricity. At the moment New Zealand consumes about 41 billion Kilowatts. To convert away from combustion engines we’d need at least another 9 billion kilowatts. We’ll need big new generation available by 2030 once our fleet gets to 20% electric."

        I read this as stating that Lake Onslow will provide us with an additional 9 billion kilowatts, which is about 20% of the generation (41 billion) that we currently have. That isn't just using the lake as a battery. It is saying that it is an additional, enormous, generator in its own right.

        • KJT 5.1.1.1
          8 August 2023 at 6:13 pm

          It is obviously not a generator, but it allows for storage when an excess of sustainable energy is generated. I'e. In times of high winds or rainfall smoothing out power demand and stopping the need for backup fossil fuel generation, or even extra generation to smooth over shortages, overall.

          I've yet to be convinced it is the best option, but it beats having backup coal, oil or gas plant, and could save on the need for lots more backup generation of any type. Effectively increasing the load capacity of the whole system.

  6. newsense 6
    8 August 2023 at 4:11 pm

    Verity lays it down- the main parties don’t want Auckland votes.

    Who’s an Auckland MP who’s known and trusted across the isthmus and has enough clout to stand up to Chippy, Robertson, Woods, McAnulty et al?

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/300944849/last-week-shows-our-politicians-dont-understand-auckland-right-now

  7. SPC 7
    8 August 2023 at 5:35 pm

    Robinson's main focus during his second period as mayor was his advocacy for rapid transit system for Auckland. Robinson's proposal for a bus-rail rapid transit plan was "to provide fast, mo The proposal had passenger trains every three minutes running from an underground subway terminal in the city centre with above ground tracks leading to Howick, Auckland Airport and a tunnel to the North Shore. The scheme was heavily criticized for its cost (an estimated $273 million in 1973) and both the ARA chairman and most of its members opposed the scheme. The Third Labour Government reneged on an election pledge to pay for the scheme and the rapid rail proposal disappeared. Retrospectively, Robinson's idea to implement rapid rail was seen as a possible long-term solution to Auckland's subsequent transportation difficulties. The phrase; "If we'd only listened to Robbie…" has become common speech in Auckland whenever the city's transport system is debated.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove-Myer_Robinson

    Music of that bygone time.

    Lay Down

  8. adam 8
    8 August 2023 at 7:40 pm

    My guess is the same tory's moaning loudly now, will be, the same tory's moaning when the whole country comes to a screaming halt via global boiling.

    Think before you vote.

    national act have got nothing, but do nothing – like that has ever worked.