Ryan Bridge: Wellington's endless spending on pen-pushers and reviews

You can't escape bureaucrats in Wellington; it's an occupational hazard.

Despite the bad press they get, they're not all useless. But it depends on how you use them, and how often. 

Take the Golden Mile disaster in Wellington, as just one example. 

The council agrees to a project it can't afford. Expensive. Crazy. Ratepayers revolt. The cost blows out from $160m to $220m. The blowout is $60m - or 30 disco toilets in Wellington dollars. 

A new Mayor comes in. A review is ordered. 

Then enter the reviewers: a nine-person panel, supposedly independent. 

The review is costing $400k, which is at least one bike rack for cyclists in Wellington dollars. 

Then yesterday there's a meeting. They basically say this thing is still somehow affordable for Wellington, despite the fact the city can't afford a 50c mix at the dairy at present. 

Enter the Mayor. The Mayor is asking some questions about mission creep. He's not so subtly suggesting that political judgements are being made by these reviewers. Leave that to the politicians, he says.

They want their big project, and they don't care which poor old Wellington ratepayers funds it. 

This is not entirely the fault of the boffins doing the reviewing. Because, as I understand it, the review was set up not to actually make major changes, just tweaks. 

Which begs the question: why was a review ever needed at all? And why'd it cost $400k?

You either don't want to spend $60m, in which case, don't. 

Or you do, in which case, do. 

Why the endless spending on pen-pushers and reviews?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You can't escape bureaucrats in Wellington. It's just an occupational hazard,
isn't it of living there? Despite the bad press that
they get. They're not all useless, but it depends on
how you use them and how often you use them.
Take the Golden Mild disaster as just one example of this.
Council agrees to a project that can't afford expensive crazy
ratepayers revolt. By the way, a lot of the money

(00:20):
coming from US taxpayers generally cost blows out from one
hundred and sixty million to two twenty that's sixty million
blowout or thirty disco toilets and Wellington dollars. New mayor
comes in. Review is ordered. Then enter the review. It's
a nine person panel, supposedly independent. Review is costing four
hundred k, which is at least one bike rack for

(00:43):
cyclists in Wellington dollars. Then yesterday there's a meeting. They
basically say this thing is still somehow affordable for Wellington,
despite the fact the city can't afford a fifty cent
mix at the Derry. At present enter, the mayor Mayor
is asking some questions about Mission Creep. He's suggesting that
political judgments are being made by these reviewers. They want
their big project and they don't really care which poor

(01:05):
old Wellington ratepayer funds it. This is not entirely the
fault of the Boffins doing the reviewing, because as I
understand it, the review was set up not to actually
make major changes to the Golden Mile, just tweaks, which
begs the question why was a review ever needed at all?
And why did it cost four hundred k. You either

(01:26):
want to spend sixty million dollars, in which case do
or you don't, in which case don't. Why the endless
spending on pen pushes and the reviewers at all. For
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