The govt wants to be seen to be funding projects not people. So paying holiday pay to nurses, or pay equity to say, women, is a bad look vs saying “we spent it on this road”. Labour costs are hidden by the contract. Contract goes to lowest bidder who pays peanuts, but gvt has plausible deniability.

The degree of outsourcing of basic government functions in NZ is wild. Local elections are outsourced. Even Crown prosecutions are outsourced to private lawyers!

These are core functions, not one-off events -- it would be much better and cheaper for the government to bring them in-house.

and if we're outsourcing everything, who is there in-house with the expertise to make sure contract bids and timelines are realistic and we're not being ripped off?

I accept it could make sense on one-off projects where you can't maintain the resources all the time. But even then, why can't we have national state-owned organisations that can contract to/consult with local councils?

No excuse for basic services though.

So stupid, and limiting.

It really doesn't feel like very long since the Moa Pt plant was built, so it does my head in that it's failed so spectacularly already.

How does this basic mathematical reality escape so many voters.

That’s a question for Chris Bishops dad.

Another reason why the Govt wants regional councils gone. They have water, air, soil and data scientists, river engineers, planners, ecologists, economists, maritime and biosecurity experts etc.

Dead men tell no tales

Excellent question!

Never going to happen with a govt of jerks...

And at a rate they can make a profit from!?

So exactly this, dare I say it we need a ministry of works

I think the problem is not so much "can't" but "won't".

Council jobs are super safe with limited accountability.

A lot of the big fails are "human factors" where staff have simply not been held to account to do their jobs...

Too many senior managers are there for "lifestyle"...