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6:00 am, October 31st, 2025 - 12 comments
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Step up to the mike …
The COC's infatuation with building roads that cost $200 million per kilometer continues, but local residents seem to be much better at cost/benefit analysis than the government's so-called experts:
"Numerous residents have questioned how the new expressway could save 38 minutes off the drive between Te Hana and Whangārei, given the current travel time for the 75km route is 59 minutes, according to Google Maps."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/labour-day-traffic-shows-need-for-18b-motorway-between-auckland-and-northland/JHSJBXBPCZGPVM2HG5YJUC2W5I/
The government could build the entire Lake Onslow scheme for less than the cost of this 100km Northland expressway that saves a few minutes.
Well BG, as you know, Its one basic tenet of NACT1 Ideology. IMO if it doesnt make sense, just make it.
Nothing will change for NZ….until they are kicked out. Our new Left Govt will need to hit the ground running with years of remedial work to even bring us back. I suppose the bright side ( cue Life of Brian : ) here will be lots of employment? I hope many about Sustainability !
The employment generated is tempered by the lack of competition in little NZ, which means that the oligopolistic road construction companies are able to make excess profits.
Oh sorry BG, I definitely meant Future employment with our New Left Govt. Hence the Sustainability….
And IMO many that already employed building roads to
nowhere…somewhere, mining carbon to burn, etc etc, can turn their hand to many much needed Renewable projects. I'm sure there will be plenty of big machine operating (also incl #2 roundmouth shovel : )Oh just wondering if you had seen/heard this? Microsofts Dark Lord pronounces..(ah "doomsday" ?)
And he blurts this ahead of next month's COP30 ?!
Climate Scientists push back….
Meanwhile in Climate Affected NZ..
I think Gates is probably talking about all the money that has been wasted on Climate Change alleviation methods such as carbon capture (CC). Despite much spending and research CC doesn't work very well at all, but has been used by many governments (including in the UK and NZ) as an excuse not to reduce carbon emissions.
From the quote above Gates doesn't seem to be arguing against spending on Climate Change, but just that inefficient spending such as that on CC should be shifted to fighting health issues such as pandemics, malaria etc.
The headlines from numerous news sources that Gates has abandoned the Climate Change fight are not accurate.
Hmmm "Gates is probably"? Nice of you to give him an out…
I am going not only by the RNZ article, but also The Guardian..(and watch the in Guardian video for how Gates makes money off both sides..: (
And a non mainstream article,which I feel calls him …
IMO Bill Gates is just another flawed philanthropist….who has also made shit loads of dirty money, and sometimes feels guilt..or not.
The Hope bypass is 4 yes 4 kilometres and will cost $1.2 billion unless it blows out even more. At $300 million per kilometre that makes Te Hana to Whangarei an absolute bargain!
https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360860489/tolling-likely-two-stage-plan-revealed-hope-bypass
That probably means that the Northland Expressway will cost $30 billion not $18 billion.
But think of the few minutes saved (sarc).
The Labour/Green government had it sussed. They spent plenty of money on roads (which is why Genter got pissed off in parliament when the Nats accused them of not spending much) but concentrated on improving existing roads and making them safer by installing more passing places, better signage, central dividers, improvements to dangerous junctions, installing roundabouts, traffic lights, bike lanes etc etc.
Most of the year Te Hana to Whangarei is fine, and there is no way any new road could save 38 minutes. Travelling at legal speeds it is easy to do this stretch in about an hour, plus or minus a few minutes. The summer holiday period is quite different with multiple slow sections and chokepoints. At summer holiday times a 38 minute saving is realistic. The correct phrasing would be "up to 38 minutes" with the "up to" doing a lot of heavy lifting.
But the only thing that strikes me as being of strategic economic importance for the region at the moment is an inland bypass of the Brynderwyns which are likely to keep slipping in more and more extreme weather. When the road is closed there, a lot of time is lost for freight and service vehicles. In future, holiday traffic congestion will get worse and worse as Auckland keeps growing . If the delays getting north deter Aucklanders from going there, then that is also a potential economic loss for the region – though it's likely that some of that money would get spent elsewhere in the country.
It seems to me that the insistence on building lots of roads comes from a place other that economic rationality. It may be simple pork-barreling or gifts to friends/supporters. But I think it's also an aggressive, but indirectly stated, expression of resistance to action on climate change. Roads and cars have a totemic cultural significance as an expression of the free individual hitting the road, experiencing liberation, and being unrestrained by the meddling of the State.
Well said AB. Obviously NZ should not be spending billions to cope with a few days of holiday traffic jams. But that is what the Nats are doing-read the article I linked to above.
The headline exclaims major world problem….hmmm
I had a wry smile at this….forced.to.revert.some.manual.processes. The horror ! At least some us can still operate with both sides of brain and hand/eye co-ordination ? (Did those capable staff get an extra chocolate biscuit?)
Maybe relevant? IMO sadly yes…on many levels, not least the fucking money involved ! (also the huge power requirement of AI)
There is always a bubble…
The kids are alright.
Former US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who was asked by Time to write a tribute to Maipi-Clarke, called the young MP a constant advocate for indigenous rights, who showed courage.
“Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke shook the world when she stood up on New Zealand’s parliament floor in protest last November,” Haaland wrote.
[…]
“In the grand scheme of things, she represents something that rings true: young people are not just leaders of tomorrow, they are also taking the helm and fighting for the future they deserve. She is a link in the chain of activists who sacrificed for us and inspire us every day.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/time-100-next-award-hana-rawhiti-maipi-clarke-recognised-in-new-york-for-influential-leadership/JQJGWKA6NVAZJJU4GB2C6ZPLWY/