It’s worth reflecting on how this came about.
It was the last important contract left by the Craig Brown mayoralty back in 2004.
An $8 million budget as a design and build by local contractor Kerr Construction, which was overseen, with the project manager, by a councillor and staff subcommittee which met weekly.
A significant local input saw the 10 magnificent seven-metre-tall pouihi which define the entrance, representing the cultural and ethnic diversity of Whangārei District.
Opened by Prime Minister Helen Clark in May 2006, this was an on-time, within-budget, locally built, and architecturally significant project with a real sense of community input and pride. A great place to visit and browse.
My latest book is Steven Joyce’s On The Record.
This is a fascinating detailed account of the business and political life of one of the most effective government ministers in recent times.
Joyce started and built a publicly listed radio media company over a period of 18 years before it was sold to a multi-national.
He subsequently re-organised the National Party and was elected to Parliament in 2008 in the John Key Government.
He was straight into Cabinet and eventually became known as the “Minister of Everything”. His combination of business nous, hard work, discipline, and hands-on negotiating skills had a significant impact on how New Zealand progressed between 2008 and 2017.
One thing which sticks out from Steven Joyce’s narrative is the way he used this background to make sure the numbers and expected outcomes he was presented with for decision made sense.
He called it sense-checking, and he provides a number of examples.
From reconfiguring a silly road configuration on the Mangere Airport highway to reducing the $2.8 billion Waterview tunnels with two lanes each way in the initial proposal, to a $1.4b six lanes project with 40 per cent fewer tunnels in a cheaper, more effective and sensible mobility solution.
He also describes the $1.5b ultra-fast broadband national rollout as an initial sense-checking exercise.
The thing is that, with all the expertise surrounding some of these projects, they need people to take a helicopter view, ask dumb questions and recognise there may be a wider sense of understanding and reality that may not be captured in the narrower thinking of the initial detail.
That is the role of governance and of elected members, both of local or national government - and is sense-checking.
But this is not just common sense. In fact describing something as common sense could be seen as an arrogant and narrow perception of the presented reality.
Albert Einstein described common sense as “Nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind before you reach 18”. Recognising these prejudices and personal preferences is a valid start to sense-check a proposal.
In this context, I wonder about the extent of sense-checking around some of the speed limit changes in Northland over the past few years.
In the last couple of weeks we’ve made several trips to Whangārei Heads.
The speed limit changes are somewhat apparent but confounding.
The sense of crawling at 30km/h through the whole Parua Bay village and comparing that with the context of 50km/h in the Whangārei CBD seems a bit silly. I believe a similar situation exists in Mangawhai.
Speed limits have got to make sense to the everyday driver and be nationally consistent against the nature of the road and the surrounding environment.
Speed limits have no effect on the high-risk driver, and a safe driving speed should be obvious based on the look and feel of the road.
It’s little wonder that the new coalition Government has canned speed limit reviews, because micromanaging speed limits just does not make sense.
