It comes in the same week the plane didn’t work and the same week a transmission tower fell over.
It's pathetic. This country is on its knees and it's embarrassing.
As we said last week, the upside is it might just be so embarrassing we actually now get around to doing something about it.
KiwiRail need an investigation into how they have run the business.
Sadly, I note Helen Clark yet again weighed in via social media with another one of her petty barbs about cancelling the ferry contract.
What we need are adults. Read the papers that have been released publicly between KiwiRail and Grant Robertson.
Even he was aghast at the blowout in the ferry budget, despite KiwiRail over and over again reassuring him their latest estimate was the final figure, until it wasn’t.
When Grant Robertson is aghast at a blowout you know it's gargantuan.
So this is as much on KiwiRail as it is on any Government.
But you can only embarrass yourself so much and so often before that becomes part of the country's psyche.
A recession is one thing and its outworking has an effect on us all both psychically and psychologically.
But you want to, in some way, feel there is something about this place that is decent and proper and rewarding. You want to feel good about your country.
The Prime Minister can't travel the world promoting business and saying we are open when the planes don’t fly and the ferry runs into stuff and the power is out because towers fall over.
We must do better.
We have to wake up to the fact this country has, in too many respects, been run into the ground. It looks increasingly third world.
The fear is the battle between the size of those who care and those who don’t is not that obvious.
The fact we can be in this mess and all former Prime Ministers can do is snipe is an increasing worry.
We are reaping what we sowed.
If this doesn’t strike you as an emergency, we are in deeper trouble than I thought.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
KiwiRail need an investigation into how they have run the business.
Sadly, I note Helen Clark yet again weighed in via social media with another one of her petty barbs about cancelling the ferry contract.
What we need are adults. Read the papers that have been released publicly between KiwiRail and Grant Robertson.
Even he was aghast at the blowout in the ferry budget, despite KiwiRail over and over again reassuring him their latest estimate was the final figure, until it wasn’t.
When Grant Robertson is aghast at a blowout you know it's gargantuan.
So this is as much on KiwiRail as it is on any Government.
But you can only embarrass yourself so much and so often before that becomes part of the country's psyche.
A recession is one thing and its outworking has an effect on us all both psychically and psychologically.
But you want to, in some way, feel there is something about this place that is decent and proper and rewarding. You want to feel good about your country.
The Prime Minister can't travel the world promoting business and saying we are open when the planes don’t fly and the ferry runs into stuff and the power is out because towers fall over.
We must do better.
We have to wake up to the fact this country has, in too many respects, been run into the ground. It looks increasingly third world.
The fear is the battle between the size of those who care and those who don’t is not that obvious.
The fact we can be in this mess and all former Prime Ministers can do is snipe is an increasing worry.
We are reaping what we sowed.
If this doesn’t strike you as an emergency, we are in deeper trouble than I thought.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
All these so called emergencies are basic engineering.
Plane breaks down due to lack of maintenance or it’s old. Same thing for ferries. Nothing lasts forever.
The pylon issue is a maintenance mistake. Luckily no one was killed.
If you look at all these issues the one staring us all in the face which could be a major disaster is the ferries.
These things have had their day and people are being put to sea in them.
Mother Nature is not kind and the Cook Strait is no place to be taking chances.
Once again Mike you are on the button when someone as ancient as Helen Clarke keeps making inapropiate comments it just shows how desperate she is to try and cover for the last hopeless Labour government.
Some solutions while NZ is getting back on it's feet, lease two planes fit for purpose from all the ones still parked in a desert somewhere, or do a three year deal with Air NZ to transport the defence troops and government officials. Remember it is costing seventy million every two years to maintain what we have.
The ferries same solution lease two for how many years it will take to get others fit for purpose purchased and opperating, after all the lost income plus all the maintenance costs must go a long way towards paying the lease.
As for the pylon falling down well how do you fix stupid.
Kiwi rail also run the auckland trains, which used to be ok, but now they are cancelled 50% of the time and you can't understand any announcements, due to them being in te reo. So rather than fix the existing mess, they decided to make a disaster even worse, by digging up the streets to make a city rail, that will go where no one wants to go, and will also never be on time. The trains are already not fit for purpose.
Is it all the result of the modern general lack of personal accountability? At school no one is seriously punished or even admonished for failure to measure up. At work huge reliance is placed on legislated safety measures to the extent that the worker barely has to consider. After any accident remote higher management and the insurance company suffer the most pain, not the immediate perpetrators. Much work is contracted. With incentive to just meet the letter of the contract there is no inclination for the contractor or staff to take a conscientious long term interest. If not part of the contract, no incentive to look for flaws.
Much is made of old planes, old ships etc but accumulated use is surely the deciding factor. What determines the life of a ship in a fixed limited competitive situation?.
As previously many of the public are moderately technical. Some hint of the general steering system would be of great interest. Was the machinery recently replaced or just the control electric/electronics/computer/software? The loss of a propeller a few years ago passed with almost no comment. Yet same sunk the Tahiti about 1930 with what would have been considerable loss of lives if the weather had not improved whilst the ship lingered for hours.
Base problem is low GDP due to unwillingness to go get a job & actually contribute to your country!
Too much nanny state welfare for years over both political parties has created a state dependency mindset.
Any western country with a well-educated & willing workforce must do well& prosper. We do not have this, lack of basic skills, basic education & lack of motivation, after all, if you pay someone NOT to work,why should they?
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