Cam Slater: So What Do You Propose to Replace Roads With?

Politicians really give me the screaming dabdabs sometimes. The latest fool to utter foolish words is Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who has declared that NZ needs to “get real” about its vulnerable roading network.

Say what?

New Zealand needs to “get real” about its vulnerable roading network in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle and build roads with greater resilience, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says.

The cyclone wiped out sections of the only roads linking some communities on the east coast of the North Island around Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, as well as along the Coromandel Peninsula, cutting off communities devastated by flooding.

Some of the washouts happened in roads along the Coromandel Peninsula which had only just reopened after the storm at the end of January: “That’s not a sustainable picture,” Hipkins said during a visit to Gisborne-Tairawhiti on Thursday.

“We have experienced this in other parts of the country too, the Manawatu Gorge for example. We have to actually get real about some of the roads and the fact we’re going to have to move some of the roads to places where they can be more resilient.”

Stuff

Get real?

Would these be the same roads that your Government failed to fund properly, while you were taking billions in road user charges and excise precisely to keep roads maintained?

Would these be the roads you cancelled maintenance on and the new roads you delayed while dreaming up pipe dreams to fund instead of maintaining them?

While talking about money, shouldn’t you now be dipping into that rainy day fund set aside for precisely that reason?

Oh wait, the Covid recovery fund of billions was squandered on painting maraes, funding liberal elite arts wankers and a plethora of other wasteful spending.

Labour carped and moaned and criticised John Key for the Christchurch recovery cost. This event makes that look like small beer now. The cost of this event will surpass even the Covid billions that this government showered on us.

Coming out with a ridiculous statement about “rethinking” roading is a bit rich.

No doubt some lefty mouth breather will suggest we can get by with cycleways and cart tracks.

And while we are talking about idiots: how are those electric car drivers getting on around the country with no power to charge their gay cars for days on end? All those emergency vehicles that everyone is clamouring for, the diggers, the bulldozers, the trucks, 4WD vehicles… all run on fuel and are unaffected. The same goes for all the hospitals and emergency areas utilising generators which use fuel that these morons want us to stop using.

It’s right about now that people should realise the futility of the electric pipedream.

Rethink roading? How about just thinking, that would be a fine start.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE.