Opinion by Mark Knoff-Thomas.
Monday 3rd April, 2023

2023 has felt a bit like the third part in a Peter Jackson Trilogy, actually that’s unkind to Peter Jackson - he makes great films. Basically, the rolling bar brawl of the past few years has continued. The year did not kick off like any of us expected. We saw the extraordinary flooding in Auckland, followed very quickly by Cyclone Gabrielle. The tragic loss of life, and the devastation unleashed on so many has been very challenging to watch, I cannot imagine how hard it must be for those front and centre.

The horrendous weather events didn’t take long to reveal some of our vulnerabilities as a country. Here we are around the same size as Japan, or the UK, stretched long and thin, but with a population of only 5 million – that’s just 4% & 7.4% of Japan (125M) and the UK’s (67.5M) populations respectively. That means we have a very small rate and taxpayer base to fund infrastructure across a significant geographical area. An area that needs power and water supply, stormwater networks, sewerage treatment plants, internet and gas connections, roads, bridges, sea & air ports, railway lines etc etc – all the things most countries have in order to function. As we know this year our infrastructure in Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, East Cape and Hawkes Bay took an absolute hammering. Roads were ripped up like tissue paper and bridges snapped like toothpicks.

I hope we take this opportunity to stop and think carefully about how we go about the gigantic rebuild that is needed. NZ is reigning world champions at short-termism, I guess in part that is due to our population v geography ratio.  We seem to be our own worst enemies however and make doing infrastructure, and developments in general, overly complicated and layered with, seemingly at times, absurd bureaucracy, regulations and restrictions, and yet we still end up with some average solutions (looking at you Mangamuka Gorge, Brynderwyns, Dome Valley, Waikato Expressway, Transmission Gully). No one thinks health and safety isn’t important, but the lengths here are extreme. (I actually had a Facebook group called Road Cone Watch a few years back – a great recent example is the army of road cones around the new Boston Road roundabout in Mt Eden).

To allow New Zealand to rebuild successfully we will need to release the shackles, we need agility, we need to think laterally, we need to engage across local and central government with political unity, and tap into private sector resources and capabilities, as well as partner with overseas organisations who do this stuff in their sleep. This does not mean we lose sight of quality control and safety, but we have to find a way to build back better, safer and faster than ever before. For our regions to thrive they need to be connected to major cities with robust and safe motor ways - the Far North is a glaring example, it has been neglected by governments of all shades for far too long. How often is SH1 closed, or major detours in place? – it’s a weekly occurrence. Truck drivers attempting to deliver freight, logging trucks heading to ports,  tourists in buses, holiday makers, campervans, the road is a disgrace.

So before we jump in gumboots and all, let’s look overseas and see who is doing it better and faster than us.

Take care and see you here soon, 

Mark Knoff-Thomas 

CEO, Newmarket Business Association