In their rush to come up with some election bribes for regional New Zealand, the National party has made a serious financial blunder. Not only has John Key claimed that the regional roading projects he announced at their pre-election conference on Saturday would be paid for by the profits from asset sales (money already allocated to other areas), it appears that nobody bothered to check whether such projects are even required.
Today, Stuff reports:
The government has effectively wasted $100,000 of hard earned taxpayer dollars in their attempt to bribe rural voters.
National's failure to check whether the bridge needed replacing before announcing their election bribes was bad enough, but when you consider that they've been starving regional areas of much needed funding for roads for a very long time, and their election bribe starts to look rather cynical!
There's no question that regional New Zealand needs more funding. However that investment needs to be properly costed, strategic and required. Wasting money when the country is in so much debt is simply unacceptable!
Coupled with the fact that the 14 projects will provide very little economic benefit for struggling rural areas and that the government hasn't bothered to release any cost to benefit analysis and you get the picture that National has no answers at all.
Image credit: nintendoug
Today, Stuff reports:
The Government has almost finished a $100,000 project to strengthen a bridge it will now tear down and replace as part of its new roading package.
Prime Minister John Key unveiled the Government's $212 million roading package at the party's annual conference in Wellington at the weekend. It includes the replacement of the one-lane Motu Bridge between Gisborne and Opotiki.
Strengthening of the bridge began in April and is due to be finished in the next fortnight.
The government has effectively wasted $100,000 of hard earned taxpayer dollars in their attempt to bribe rural voters.National's failure to check whether the bridge needed replacing before announcing their election bribes was bad enough, but when you consider that they've been starving regional areas of much needed funding for roads for a very long time, and their election bribe starts to look rather cynical!
There's no question that regional New Zealand needs more funding. However that investment needs to be properly costed, strategic and required. Wasting money when the country is in so much debt is simply unacceptable!
Coupled with the fact that the 14 projects will provide very little economic benefit for struggling rural areas and that the government hasn't bothered to release any cost to benefit analysis and you get the picture that National has no answers at all.
Image credit: nintendoug
