Let’s get moving

• By Andy Baker, Franklin ward councillor

The release of the first-ever National Infrastructure Plan lays bare the reality that this should have been completed years ago.

It also exposes the way in which our three-yearly political cycles, the chopping and changing of priorities based on political ideology and at times egos, have created a state where we are having to rush to play catch-up, deal with current pressures and plan for the future.

Not only does this plan need cross-party support and agreement, but there needs to be better collaboration between central and local government and the private sector. For this to happen meaningfully, there will need to be a significant shift in trust, which is not something that currently features highly between any of those three entities.

Trust is something that is earned, which is the same as distrust or mistrust. We all need to have confidence that others will do what they say they will do and not try to shortcut or abuse a system. The focus must be on the end outcome and the community good that comes from the provision of much-needed infrastructure.

Something I didn’t see much mention of is commentary about what things cost. It talks about “affordability”, but what does that mean? Is it perception or reality that what the government or council builds always costs far more than if a private entity builds?

In the last few years, value for money and doing things cheaper have been talked about a lot here in council, and we continue to try to be more efficient, but it seems we still pay over the top when building stuff. Whether that is because our standards must be higher due to how and where things are and they are used by the public, etc., or is it because those providing the service or product think it is ok to pump up the prices knowing they’ll get paid?

I think it is a bit of both, but it shows we also need to commit to providing needed infrastructure so we can create certainty within the business sector that there will be opportunities coming at them.

I commend Minister Bishop for initiating this plan. The challenge now will be for his political colleagues to leave their ideological guns at the door, agree on what is a common-sense and politically neutral way forward for the benefit of the country.

We need to remove the politics and just get moving.