National leader Christopher Luxon and transport spokesman Simeon Brown. Photo / Mark Mitchell
National leader Christopher Luxon and transport spokesman Simeon Brown. Photo / Mark Mitchell
EDITORIAL
In a timely but unrelated coincidence, a main arterial road between downtown Auckland and some of the most expensive homes on the northern slopes of Herne Bay slumped into a sinkhole last week.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon appeared to mimic the yawning chamber of College Hill after beingchallenged on his figures for a major policy plank, a $24.8 billion transport package. For about 20 seconds, Luxon prevaricated and paused on the Mike Hosking Breakfast show on Monday morning, finally relenting with, “I’ve got that detail not in front of me”.
The party had announced the package based on 20 transport policies - many roading projects previously cancelled by the then freshly-elected Labour Party - with four lanes from Whangārei to Tauranga, Mill Road in Auckland, Petone to Grenada and the Cross Valley Link, Belfast to Pegasus and the Woodend Bypass north of Christchurch.
Labour has wasted no time in attacking the costings in the package. Transport Minister David Parker put out a statement and called media to watch him read it out, claiming there was a $2.8 billion dollar hole in the costings.
National’s costings are, in all but a single case, the most up-to-date available to the public, and were provided by none other than Parker’s office. On being questioned about that, Parker countered that the figures were now out of date and were being revised for Labour’s transport budget to be announced next month.
All of this is great sport, of course, if one enjoys the political equivalent of tennis; serve and volley; backhand and spin return. However, the debate over figures is a bridge to nowhere. It also little comfort for those who desperately want to free up time-wasting congestion and fatally dangerous highways.
Labour knows fiscal holes in policies can damage a party’s credibility and polling chances. During the lead-up to the 2017 general election, incumbent National Finance Minister Steven Joyce alleged there was an NZ$11 billion hole in the then-opposition Labour Party’s fiscal plan. This was stoutly refuted by Labour ministers but, as they say in politics, explaining is losing.
All parties are aware that drawing an opponent into an argument over figures is a minefield where no footfall is safe and would have been delighted with Hosking’s questioning. More so, Luxon’s flubbed response.
However, roading projects or any public infrastructure projects for that matter, are rarely delivered anywhere near their budgeted cost. Arguing over decimal points months or even years before the first shovel hits the ground is merely hollow dialogue that inevitably slips into a sinkhole of its own making.
Both sides of Joyce’s claim about the $11b fiscal hole still claim they were right. Few voters would now consider it matters, such is the void that arguments about costs for policies not-yet-initiated ultimately fall into.
What this latest spat has revealed, as the Herald’s deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan pointed out, Labour and National are both considering these roading projects and that’s why Parker’s office had figures, up-to-date or not.
