You're listening to the Andrew Dickens Afternoons podcast from news Talks at b SO.

You're listening to the Andrew Dickens Afternoons podcast from news Talks at b SO.

I went to a party in the weekend. Yes, I know. It was quite a swanky one too. The benefit of getting older was full of all sorts of people of quite serious note, judges and doctors and people who are owned advertising agencies. There were musicians there and even a talkback host. Me. It was Negroni's and Burghers delicious. Anyway, an old mate was there, fella I've known for like forty years, card carrying lefty, always has been. And we're chatting away and he goes, oh, yeah, I'm part of an urbanism group, you know, studying and advocating for urban development. He says, you write wings zeb Beg types would hate it. And I said to him, I beg your pardon. He said, you write wing zeb Beig types would hate my urbanism group. I said, would I what part of having a well designed and functional city is either left wing or right wing? Surely it's not about politics. It's about practicality. It's about making cities at work. Who does not want a functioning public transport system so poor people in young people can get to work? Who does not want accommodation solutions for the poor and the young, so they don't have to leave the cities for a house. Right wingers love trains. What's a Leani made them run on time? What makes urbanism left wing or right wing? I don't know, but that politicization of how we run a city is why these days nothing happens and our cities as a result to get worse and worse. So look, I found it quite good that on Sunday I opened up the pap PA and I saw an article from Wayne Brown, the Orka mayor who now has a regular column, and the Orka mayor was talking about Auckland's aboard of light rail plans, and he said it was good that the government killed neighbour's plan off because it was disastrously handled. He pointed out that the light rail problem was mainly the cost, which in Auckland was calculated at four hundred million dollars a kilometer. Mayor Brown said he was recently in a town in France anger the size of christ Church, and that built a very successful light rail at the cost of fifty million dollars a kilometer, not four hundred million dollars a kilometer nearly ninety percent cheaper in a country where the labour costs are higher than here, So how the hell did they do that? And then he went into all the reasons why it was cheaper in France. Well, I actually know what he really said was why a big project so expensive in New Zealand. He mentioned the gold plating of design. He reckons he could have done the Holiday Highway for four hundred million dollars less, which meant it could have gone further. We talked about the contracts granted to constructors who are also suppliers of material and they have no reason, no motivation to contain costs. They just want to sell their stuff. And then of course there is the politics. What idiot wanted to put light rail into a tunnel? Well, Michael Wood, that's who. But was it left wing or right wing? No, it was just dumb. And the problem with all of this is that what could have been a good idea was thrown away because of bad management. When Labour came in in twenty seventeen, At had a six billion dollar light rail plan ready to go, but Labour thought, oh, we could do that better, and then the New Zealand Superannuation Fund thought we could do that better too, And suddenly that six billion dollar plan was a fifteen billion dollar plan because of the tunneling, and it stalled and then Nashal killed it, and much as we made of the two hundred and twenty eight billion dollars that was spent, was no track laid. But that shows you how little people know about how projects work. Because that money was spent on good stuff geotech reports and servers and buying land and planning. It's all still valid now. To throw it out is a blatant waste of taxpayers money because life rail light rail is not left wing, and light rail is not a bad idea. Labor was just the bad government who cocked it up.

I went to a party in the weekend. Yes, I know. It was quite a swanky one too. The benefit of getting older was full of all sorts of people of quite serious note, judges and doctors and people who are owned advertising agencies. There were musicians there and even a talkback host. Me. It was Negroni's and Burghers delicious. Anyway, an old mate was there, fella I've known for like forty years, card carrying lefty, always has been. And we're chatting away and he goes, oh, yeah, I'm part of an urbanism group, you know, studying and advocating for urban development. He says, you write wings zeb Beg types would hate it. And I said to him, I beg your pardon. He said, you write wing zeb Beig types would hate my urbanism group. I said, would I what part of having a well designed and functional city is either left wing or right wing? Surely it's not about politics. It's about practicality. It's about making cities at work. Who does not want a functioning public transport system so poor people in young people can get to work? Who does not want accommodation solutions for the poor and the young, so they don't have to leave the cities for a house. Right wingers love trains. What's a Leani made them run on time? What makes urbanism left wing or right wing? I don't know, but that politicization of how we run a city is why these days nothing happens and our cities as a result to get worse and worse. So look, I found it quite good that on Sunday I opened up the pap PA and I saw an article from Wayne Brown, the Orka mayor who now has a regular column, and the Orka mayor was talking about Auckland's aboard of light rail plans, and he said it was good that the government killed neighbour's plan off because it was disastrously handled. He pointed out that the light rail problem was mainly the cost, which in Auckland was calculated at four hundred million dollars a kilometer. Mayor Brown said he was recently in a town in France anger the size of christ Church, and that built a very successful light rail at the cost of fifty million dollars a kilometer, not four hundred million dollars a kilometer nearly ninety percent cheaper in a country where the labour costs are higher than here, So how the hell did they do that? And then he went into all the reasons why it was cheaper in France. Well, I actually know what he really said was why a big project so expensive in New Zealand. He mentioned the gold plating of design. He reckons he could have done the Holiday Highway for four hundred million dollars less, which meant it could have gone further. We talked about the contracts granted to constructors who are also suppliers of material and they have no reason, no motivation to contain costs. They just want to sell their stuff. And then of course there is the politics. What idiot wanted to put light rail into a tunnel? Well, Michael Wood, that's who. But was it left wing or right wing? No, it was just dumb. And the problem with all of this is that what could have been a good idea was thrown away because of bad management. When Labour came in in twenty seventeen, At had a six billion dollar light rail plan ready to go, but Labour thought, oh, we could do that better, and then the New Zealand Superannuation Fund thought we could do that better too, And suddenly that six billion dollar plan was a fifteen billion dollar plan because of the tunneling, and it stalled and then Nashal killed it, and much as we made of the two hundred and twenty eight billion dollars that was spent, was no track laid. But that shows you how little people know about how projects work. Because that money was spent on good stuff geotech reports and servers and buying land and planning. It's all still valid now. To throw it out is a blatant waste of taxpayers money because life rail light rail is not left wing, and light rail is not a bad idea. Labor was just the bad government who cocked it up.

For more from Andrew Dickens Afternoons, listen live to News Talks at b or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

For more from Andrew Dickens Afternoons, listen live to News Talks at b or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio