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Friday, February 17, 2023

Mike Hosking: Somehow our roading dilemma is new to Chris Hipkins


Quick question for you - do you laugh or cry?

Newly-minted Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has had some sort of road, excuse the pun, to Damascus experience by announcing we need to "get real" about our roading

He says some of them will need to be moved to be more resilient. No kidding Chris, you road-hater from the political party of road-hating.

The political party that killed any number of significant roading projects that would see major state highway improvements. They jettisoned them so we could have bus lanes, cycleways and light rail that is $70 million deep on consultants without a millimetre of track laid two years after it was supposed to finish.

Look at the Brynderwyn mess in the third world that is Northland because the so-called holiday highway, a vital link to a region smashed yet again, can't have a roading system that looks remotely like the 21st century. Or, actually, the 20th century.

A motorway north of Auckland that hits the Johnstone Hills and turns into a goat tract for 20km with the replacement years overdue and millions in the red because of bureaucracy, red tape and lawyers.

I am praying at some point most New Zealanders wake up to this fraud, if you haven't already.

This from Chris “I-have-a-truancy-announcement-to-make” Hipkins, despite the fact, as Education Minister, he ignored the issue for years. 'But I can't make that this week because I have an emergency to deal with as Prime Minister.'

'And as Prime Minister I have seen roading in a state that it shouldn’t be, despite the fact I sat in cabinet for the past five years promoting e-bikes and buses that don't turn up, because we have no drivers, because my Minster for Auckland, who is also Minister for Immigration, doesn’t let anyone into the country.

You can't make this stuff up. This guy is the biggest, bewildered wonk we have seen out of Wellington in many a long year.

The upside is at least he is present. Jacinda in emergencies relocated to Wellington and hid.

Chris at least is about the place. But the problem with that is in an emergency you see the real “them” and the frightening part of the real Hipkins is it seems he's never left Wellington and when he did he couldn’t believe what he saw.

The rest of us have lived it for five years and he didn’t quite get the message.

So, Chris - the roads are an issue are they? Who do you think has overseen that particular disaster?

Spend the weekend joining a few dots.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.

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