Mike Hosking: Havelock North water, petrol prices reveal incompetent public service

Opinion

God I am depressed. Well actually I am not, but I could be, if it wasn't for a permanently positive disposition.

Just yesterday could have tipped me over the edge in frustration.

The MBie report on petrol is out: margins are through the roof, we are getting ripped off to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Then the water makes us sick, up to a million of us drink crappy water, and we drink that water because, as another report pointed out, we have ineptitude all over the countryside from those supposedly in charge of it

And then, like night follows day, they've had a good hard look into the way health services are delivered in this country. Guess what: the ministry is a shambles, failings at all levels.

Now the issue here, and let's start with petrol, is that it's all very well to wander round barking out "rip off" but what (and you will notice no one has come up with an answer) just what is it we are going to do about it? Finding trouble is never hard, fixing it is.

With petrol prices finding trouble is never hard, fixing it is.

Is the Commerce Commission going to fix petrol? Don't hold your breath.

They don't, as we sit here this morning, even have the power to do anything about it.
That law is yet to be passed.

But the other very sad, disturbing or infuriating theme here, is when it comes to the public service, yet again, we see waste, ineptitude and incompetence.

Literally every time the public service is looked into, it's found wanting. People who are more than happy to collect taxpayers' or ratepayers' money, to not do their job.

At least in the council area, it's partially our fault - it's a self fulfilling prophecy.
We don't care, we don't turn up to vote. Those who stand are the bewildered, unemployed, do-gooders who may or may not have any particular skill.

There are people who stand literally with no opponents against them, and get voted in by default. Not all of course. I don't want to be completely unfair.

But you simply can't hide from what these reports say.
In one day, in a single 24-hour period, major critical services have been exposed as haphazard, wanting, below par... pick a phrase.

And like petrol, the key here is not what's wrong, but who's fixing it, and when.

And why, having said that, do I have little or no faith in the fact we won't be here again next time round, saying exactly the same thing.

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