Brian Rudman: Bloated Wellington piglet squeals

COMMENT

Those poor old Wellingtonians really take it hard each time they're reminded that the Government is not just a charity show put on for their benefit.

Their apoplectic response to the $8 million to $10 million contribution the Government is offering to save Westhaven Marina from foreign hands was a classic. The squeals were like those of the bloated piglet appalled that an interloper might have the temerity to seek a little suck at the public teat as well.

"Where's our share?" wailed the Dominion Post's front page headline. This from a town that is little more than a Government-funded make-work scheme. One that without Parliament and the assorted bureaucracies needed to prop it up would be little more than the Picton of the North Island - a place to buy a hot pie from cuddly hobbits while waiting for the ferry south.

And don't they know it. Talk about sensitive.

Up popped former mayor Mark Blumsky whining that Auckland has the Government "round their little finger now".

Mayor Kerry Prendergast spat the dummy completely. Auckland, she raged, "was like an obese and lazy child that got all the support" while "a fit and healthy Wellington got none".

But isn't this the same Wellington that recently saw the Government hand over $8.5 million to buy their dilapidated central railway station, and pledge another $12.5 million so it could be upgraded to make it habitable for Victoria University's commerce faculty?

Isn't this the same Wellington that received a Government handout of $4 million to fund a movie premiere about elves and hobbits and things?

Of course Wellington mayors have long tried to guilt-trip Governments over expenditure outside the capital. Mrs Prendergast was beside herself 15 months ago when state road builder Transit New Zealand declared an intention to repair years of underfunding of Auckland's state highway network by playing catch-up over the next 10 years.

She was up on her hind legs again when the Government subsequently came up with a catch-up funding programme for transport in general.

It's funny how during each of these outbursts, Mrs Prendergast suffers total amnesia about the disproportionate buckets of taxpayer dollars that, year after year, pour into the Wellington economy.

Auckland mayor John Banks talks about Parliament itself costing $8000 a minute to run. My brain can't do those sorts of sums but the last Budget recorded $88 million as the cost of running the Beehive and paying the staff, along with another $13 million to service the politicians and another $45 million to provide support to ministers.

Then there's the cost of all those public servants. When you throw in the health and education sector, more than 290,000 people work for the Government.

The State Services Commission talks of a "core public service" - the true bureaucracy - of around 32,000. Of these, 39 per cent are clustered in Wellington, in hailing distance of the Beehive.

Of course, these intelligent policy makers require intellectual stimulus, so, sensibly enough, they've ensured that major tax-funded entertainment organisations such as the national orchestra, the national ballet and another I heard Mrs Prendergast pleading for on Friday, a national singing school, are all head-quartered in Wellington.

The biggest cash cow of all amongst these, of course, is Te Papa, the national museum. National, of course, in name only. This is Wellington's biggest tourist drawcard. Some would whisper, its only drawcard. It cost taxpayers $317 million to build and vast amounts to run each year. Last year the taxpayer injection was $18 million - of which Aucklanders paid about $6 million.

Mrs Prendergast's city council's contribution was a miserly $2 million in sponsorship. The above figures mask the true cost. Last year's annual report admitted a deficit for the year of over $11 million. The only cheery thing they could think to record about that disaster was that it was less than the previous year's $13.7 million loss.

In time we Aucklanders will be called upon to bail Wellington's white elephant museum out yet again.

And in the same breath as she's trying to block Auckland's sip at the public teat, Mrs Prendergast wants the Government to build a $1 billion four-lane escape route out of town up the Transmission Gully fault line.

Now I'm no expert in tectonic excitement, but isn't a fault line the last place you'd want to be near during an earthquake? And the last place you'd want to pour public funds? Especially when most of it comes from taxpayers living outside Wellington.