Unless the council can effectively bring pressure to bear on the government, it seems likely that the taxpayer contribution will be less than $10 million, leaving ratepayers to find the rest.
The good oil is that if that eventuates the council won't be looking for $30 million from you and me, but will do what it can afford, leaving already under-maintained roads in even worse shape than they were before the damage was done. Brilliant. And the government's $36 million, even if it is forthcoming, will only restored roads to the fairly ordinary state they were in before last winter.
It would be a little cynical, perhaps, to suggest that Mr Brownlee's rush of generosity had anything to do with a looming general election, but it should not have escaped anyone's notice that his National Party colleague and Northland MP Mike Sabin has spent the last three years working to enable his electorate to achieve what he quite properly says is unrealised potential.
One would have thought that a local road network that exceeded Third World standards would be pivotal to economic development, but perhaps not. Perhaps Mr Brownlee and co would be happy to see the people who contribute to national wealth from this corner of the country resorting to punts to get their produce to market and their kids to school.
And it has to be said that the Puhoi motorway extension means diddly squat to a district where roads have collapsed and can't be repaired. Unless Mr Brownlee is one of those who think New Zealand ends in Whangarei.
The bottom line is that the Cabinet Minister responsible for transport made a promise to the Far North, and to resile from that undertaking now that the immediate crisis is over represents the sort of behaviour that gives politicians a bad name.
The district council plans to fight for its money, and so it should, but the signs aren't good. Mr Brownlee is no longer the Minister of Transport, and his office, which didn't actually promise anything, last week referred inquiries to his successor, Simon Bridges, whose office referred inquiries to the NZTA. The NZTA is a government department that does at it's told. It has made no promises, and clearly feels no obligation to offer more than the least it is obliged to offer. The decisions are made by politicians. So are the promises. And if this promise is broken, we might well ask themselves why the hell we persist in supporting a political party that doesn't keep its word.
God and Mr Brownlee know that our loyalty is poorly rewarded. In fact the last time we were actively wooed by National was in 1969, when no expense was spared to ensure that Logan Sloane regained the seat he had lost to Social Credit's Vern Cracknell three years earlier. The perception that we are being taken for granted is difficult to resist.
Storm-damaged roads may only be the tip of a very expensive iceberg, however. Last week Northland Regional councillor Joe Carr warned that much of the district council's roading network was in a state of collapse, and in urgent need of on-going investment, albeit on a scale that is piddling in terms of the NZTA's budget, and even relatively modest in terms of the council's annual spending. Affordable as it might be, Cr Carr said however, the fact was that the work wasn't being done, and the problem would only become more serious as time went by.
He also blamed the government for failing to ensure that the district council had competently and effectively monitored and administered the public roading system. Prima facie it would be difficult to argue against that, but the horror story doesn't start and end with roads. Mayor John Carter said earlier this year that the council needed to quantify the work needed to restore infrastructure in general, not least sewerage and water systems, to a satisfactory standard.
We're still waiting to hear the result of that exercise, but Mr Carter has already offered a guesstimate of $100 million. Dollars to doughnuts that will prove to be conservative.
The only consolation might be that the Far North is not unique in needing to invest heavily in basic infrastructure. It's a fair bet that Auckland is in an equally perilous state, as many smaller communities will likely be.
If Mr Carter's instinct is anything close to well-founded, the Far North will be facing a very, very long programme of investment, unless the taxpayer comes to its aid, and that seems unlikely. And even if Wellington is sympathetic, our current experience suggests that nothing should be taken for granted until the cheque clears.
Perhaps it's time for councils around the country to conduct a stock take, so they, and the government, can devise a plan to stop the rot. That process, as far as the government is concerned, might also include an assessment of current spending, to ensure that every dollar is being used to the best possible effect.
It could make a start on that by abandoning its plans for $26 million worth of flag referenda. Not only is this country facing much more urgent issues than placating those who can't tell the difference between one flag with red stars and another with white ones, but the timing of this supposed exercise in democracy could hardly have been worse, given that we are now embarking upon four years of commemorating a war that robbed New Zealand of thousands of young men, at huge cost to their families, their communities and their country.
We seem to have a problem in this country with priorities, and $26 million would at least go some way towards resolving one of the more pressing issues in this neck of the woods. It would also help the Hon Mr Brownlee to at least partially keep his promise. We need a plan that local and central government can agree to, and now wouldn't be a bad time to start working on it.
