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The Green Party really does have very little grip on reality. First of all, Julie Anne Genter is proposing ‘pop-up’ cycleways and footpaths, in order to make social distancing easier, when we all know that the best way to practise social distancing is to stay in the car. These ‘pop-up’ cycleways will be at the expense of roads, of course, and will not remain ‘pop-up’ for long. They will never be removed. But if you think that was a bad idea, then wait until you hear their latest proposal.
Stuff reports:
The Greens want to spend $9 billion on a high-spec intercity commuter rail network to connect New Zealand’s most productive regions.
The party wants to upgrade train tracks connecting Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch with nearby regional towns, creating a network of regional hubs.
Eventually, they would like to upgrade the tracks to allow rail speeds of up to 160 km/h – far faster than the current top speed of Auckland’s commuter trains, which is 110 km/h, although the actual speed travelled is slower.
As the scale of the economic fallout from Covid-19 becomes clearer, the Government has begun to look at projects to stimulate the economy back to life after the lockdown ends.
$9 billion. Now I understand why they are so keen on planting trees. They really do think that money grows on them.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the package would “provide meaningful work whilst driving us towards a sustainable, green, zero carbon future”.
He never gives up. If these guys were genuine about the effects of man made emissions, they would be studying the effects that dramatically reduced traffic, air travel and general movements of people have had on the atmosphere, but it is ignored. They wouldn’t want a carefully manufactured crisis to be superseded by a real one, now would they?
I have a number of objections to this proposal, and most of them are based in reality. The economy is taking a huge hit from COVID-19. The government has already had to borrow large amounts of money to cover this, and it is not over by a long way. To borrow yet another $9 billion, when the government already has some significant infrastructure plans in place, most of which are the development of roading projects, is madness. The Greens have already had some influence in imposing cycleways and footpaths on projects that have been designed and consented. That should be the extent of their meddling with infrastructure projects at this time. Put simply, we just cannot afford this.
Secondly, in a country with a very low population like ours, train travel is never, ever cost effective. It is an expensive way of transporting people. I travel on the trains from the Hutt Valley to Wellington from time to time, usually at off-peak times, and they are virtually empty. The service is good, efficient, timely but hardly used. Why on earth would we want more of it?
If we had a population of 60 million people, it might be worth considering, although, even then, rail networks are rarely profitable. No one from the Green Party ever even considers doing any kind of cost-benefit analysis, mainly because their proposals would always fall at the first hurdle. This is white elephant territory at a time when the economy is going through a serious meltdown and the costs of this project seriously outweigh any benefits to be had. It is madness, Green style.
The Green Party really does need to be kicked out of parliament. They belong in Neverland. Their proposals never work, they never cost them out and they are paid for on the never-never.
Or, should I say, they are paid for from other people’s money. Always.
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