Kerre Woodham: The pothole fund gives me hope

Do you know what we need after a big night of celebrating Newstalk ZB cleaning up at the radio awards?  We need pothole chat, that's what we need. Have a listen to Simeon Brown, the transport minister, talking about the $4 billion pothole prevention program that was announced this morning.  

“This a step change. This is about actually ensuring that the funding goes into not just the patchwork quilt we've seen on our roads under the last three years of the last government, but actually saying we need to be resealing, rehabilitating our roads to those long term renewal standards of 2% being rebuilt every year, up to 9% being resealed every year, and actually getting drainage under control, and actually managing that to get the water off our roads. So, this is about putting long-term targets in place for the agency. It's not just giving them more money, but it's actually clear targets that they need to meet in order to actually ensure our roads are being properly maintained, rather than sort of the patchwork fix that the last government approach was to road maintenance, which was actually more expensive in the long run because you just patched over it and you had to patch over it again and again and again.” 

Whoever would have thought? That was Simeon Brown talking to Mike Hosking this morning. What utter joy checks and balances and targets are. Not just chucking billions and billions of dollars into the air and walking away. Actually having targets, having percentages. Having very clear definitions about what the money must be spent on, what the expected outcomes are. Well, hopefully, hopefully, there will be measures in place —and I'm expecting there will be— to ensure that every cent goes into actual repairs and not into layers and layers of management and orange cones.  

But honestly, it is work like this, programs like this, and talk like this from the Minister that makes me feel that not only can we get out of potholes in the middle of the road, we can actually get out of this economic hole. I don't know about you, but when you see the targets, when you see that it's not just patchwork stuff, it's actually a programme of work, a programme of maintenance, it's ongoing, it's designed to ensure the roads run smoothly, that we can get there on time, that we don't break axles, that we don't have to risk injury if you're a motorcyclist. I never thought I'd say it, I never thought numbers could be sexy. That expected outcomes chat could be sexy. It is.  

You know, you just know that there is money that has been set aside and that the money will be looked after and that's all I ever wanted personally, was not to have my tax money squandered or treated with cavalier contempt. I understand that I have to give up some of my money so that I can live in a society where there is infrastructure and there are public services and that's fine. What is not fine is having that money disappear and then gone on projects where there is no accountability where even the government auditors go, well we don't know, we can't measure if this programme is a success because there's nothing by which we can measure it. That's what got my goat. And to hear this gives me hope. And I'm going to be checking in, because it's all very well talking the talk, but I want to make sure that exactly what does happen. I want to know that when Mike, or myself, or Heather says to Simeon, so where did that money go? He can say one moment please, and he'll have it all there. And if he does, then that hope that I have will be fulfilled. Good chat. It sounds organised. It sounds capable. Let's just see if it is. 

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