They have announced they have appointed three of the four chief executives to lead what they have gloriously called Entity A, Entity B and you can guess the rest.
Here are several questions for you:
Who in their right mind would want to work for Three Waters?
In signing on now, do you even know you will ever actually start your job, given there is officially, as we sit here today, no Three Waters?
What happens if Three Waters never starts and what happens when the Government lose the election and Three Waters is unwound?
The answer, I suspect, is a pay out. In the mean time, if you're one of the four you get to join the transition authority. How fun does that sound?
Does this announcement of new CEOs indicate that the much hyped, vaunted and touted Chris Hipkins' "bread and butter reset" is not going to include Three Waters as has been suggested by many, if not most.
And if it doesn’t, does that not mean that the so called reset to try and get Labour into some sort of competitive form for the election is largely pointless, because one of the most contentious and radically, if not racially driven, ideas in many a long year will carry on as per normal?
It does lead to the very important overarching question around needless spending, not to mention time and energy. If you aren't doing something, how much of the aforementioned do you waste before you wake up?
The media merger, which we all agree appears dead in the water, must have run up hundreds of millions by now in groups and committees and explorations and consultants.
Some consultants for it are on $9000 a day. For what? Something that isn't happening?
In the Three Waters case we have offices rented out and kitted out, we have staff on boards and the bills are being paid for God knows what.
I haven't even got to the $44 million in fees so far for the Auckland light rail that has yet to lay a single centimetre of track, despite the promise to have the whole thing finished two years ago.
In a cost of living crisis, does none of this not concern us?
Are there not better uses for the money? Is it not a lesson in working out what you want to do, how you want to do it and how determined you are to actually deliver, before you open the wallet filled with money you don’t actually have anyway?
I just don’t see how a bloke, and they are all blokes, can take a job that doesn’t exist, in an entity that may never exist, accepting tax payers dollars - to twiddle your thumbs in a transition group going potentially nowhere.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
What happens if Three Waters never starts and what happens when the Government lose the election and Three Waters is unwound?
The answer, I suspect, is a pay out. In the mean time, if you're one of the four you get to join the transition authority. How fun does that sound?
Does this announcement of new CEOs indicate that the much hyped, vaunted and touted Chris Hipkins' "bread and butter reset" is not going to include Three Waters as has been suggested by many, if not most.
And if it doesn’t, does that not mean that the so called reset to try and get Labour into some sort of competitive form for the election is largely pointless, because one of the most contentious and radically, if not racially driven, ideas in many a long year will carry on as per normal?
It does lead to the very important overarching question around needless spending, not to mention time and energy. If you aren't doing something, how much of the aforementioned do you waste before you wake up?
The media merger, which we all agree appears dead in the water, must have run up hundreds of millions by now in groups and committees and explorations and consultants.
Some consultants for it are on $9000 a day. For what? Something that isn't happening?
In the Three Waters case we have offices rented out and kitted out, we have staff on boards and the bills are being paid for God knows what.
I haven't even got to the $44 million in fees so far for the Auckland light rail that has yet to lay a single centimetre of track, despite the promise to have the whole thing finished two years ago.
In a cost of living crisis, does none of this not concern us?
Are there not better uses for the money? Is it not a lesson in working out what you want to do, how you want to do it and how determined you are to actually deliver, before you open the wallet filled with money you don’t actually have anyway?
I just don’t see how a bloke, and they are all blokes, can take a job that doesn’t exist, in an entity that may never exist, accepting tax payers dollars - to twiddle your thumbs in a transition group going potentially nowhere.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
8 comments:
Those who have already applied for and been accepted for the jobs on offer display the sort of personal traits that must be required for the positions that do not even exist yet. You would have to be pretty much a bottom feeder to be only too willing to start slurping from the trough with the expectation that the job may not eventuate and you would be in line for a settlement. A true parasite.
That would be a real good look on your CV in the future, but only if applying for a position with a labour led government.
Well said Mike - do you think there are words in te reo for 'ethical' and 'honest' and 'gravy train?'
Over and above the basic 300 words, Te Reo is a made-up language so I feel pretty darn certain that some high-powered university type with a smattering of te Lingo could provide those words as required. It may cost a few NZ dollars in current legal tender as koha.
MC
Seems to me the prime attraction today of many very senior executive positions is the severance reward and the possibility of receiving, including engineering receipt of.
With such certainty of it all not proceeding, or not in pro maori form, devising the contracts for 3W must have been very lucrative for some lawyer (and likely will be for recipients)
(I wonder what $300,000 pa Auckland Watercare manager, who went after near empty reservoirs in Auckland, thinks as he counts his pile today in the rain.)
Working for Three Waters makes absolute sense. Here are the steps:
1. Get a job with one of the four water entities at a salary significantly higher than you are receiving from your current job with a local council.
2. Get to work, shifting paper from the in-tray to the getting-around-to-it tray.
3. Sit and wait. Enjoy the travel, wining and dining, conferences, and perks.
4. When the entities are cancelled, receive a sizable redundancy and payment for the remaining term of the employment contract.
5. Apply for your old job with a council, at the pay rate you were on with the water entity.
6. Go back to your old routine. Do stuff all. Shift paper from the in-tray to the getting-around-to-it tray.
7. Enjoy the travel, wining and dining, conferences, and perks.
8. Wait for the next government cock up.
Indeed, it's a appalling that a scheme destined for the scrap heap should continue to suck up taxpayer money in such straitened times. With the majority of the population against it, Labour has no mandate to continue squandering money on offices, salaries and, no doubt, golden parachutes. Politician heads should roll, and those lining up to take these CEO roles should be noted, for they are putting their own interests before those of their country.
But is it going to be scrapped. If by chance the socialist party win the election which under the ridiculous, undemocratic and failed mmp system is not impossible, witness the election when W Peter's installed red cindy as future dictator even though that choice didn't reflect the majority will of the 'people '. If the socialists do win very probably with their socialist/ communist mates 'the greens' and the useful idiot's ' the maori party ' it'll be absolutely full steam ahead with all the undemocratic policies and ideologies plus very probably a great deal more we haven't seen yet. Don't be fooled by hipkins, he's been right there and supportive of everything red cindy has been doing since the start probably even see the miraculous reappearance of red cindy after recovering from all the bullying she supposedly recieved from the disillusioned and broken people she and her mates caused
Grave robbers comes to mind…. thieves and rapscallions looting our dead democracy.
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