What amazes me when the political Right scream about potholes are all the things they ignore when attempting to blame Labour.
They ignore that extreme weather events caused by climate change that create vast wet events followed by extreme heat are impacting our roads, that’s not too surprising I suppose because most Right wingers believe climate change is a communist hoax.
The second thing is far more difficult for them to pretend isn’t true because they did it! Back in 2010, it was Steven Joyce who increased the weight of trucks in a capitulation to the trucking industry…
Change lifts truck load limit to 53 tonnes
Up to 5000 trucks will be eligible to carry heavier loads on public highways from next month.
The change has raised concerns about motorists’ safety from the Automobile Association and the Green Party, which are also worried about damage to roads from the juggernauts.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce has announced that trucks carrying up to 53 tonnes will be allowed on specific routes from May 1, subject to the new permit system.
Even heavier rigs would be allowed “in very specific instances”.
The nine-tonne increase on the standard limit of 44 tonnes is the equivalent to the weight of nine small cars.
Green Party transport spokesman Gareth Hughes said trucks were already involved in 16 per cent of all road fatalities despite comprising only 4 per cent of the vehicle fleet.
“Bigger trucks have got more mass, more weight – that means worse accidents.”
…it was National who lifted the weights of Trucks which do so much damage to the roading network but the Right always like to pretend they didn’t do that!
The third thing the Right always love to ignore in regards to Potholes is that National froze upgrades when they were in power!
Wood went further, accusing Bennett himself of freezing funding for road maintenance when in Government.
“His assertions are baffling given when he was associate transport minister they froze road maintenance investment and ran our roads down,” he said.
“We’re boosting road maintenance after years of neglect, and stepped in to provide $2 billion of financing to keep our roads up to scratch.
This has been warmly welcomed by councils across the country, business groups, and Federated Farmers.”
So the Right deny global warming is even happening, they ignore the fact they put heavier trucks on the road and they hide the truth they froze roading maintenance.
Isn’t incredible how many lies the Political Right can spin to hide their involvement in creating the problem we see now?
How many lies must the political Right spin to pretend they weren’t the reason for the pothole problems we have and why do the voting public of NZ believe these fucking liars?
Why does the mainstream media allow National to get away with these lies?
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We look forward to the sheepshaggers and other assorted Natzos comments & squareoffs on this article…
The other salient point is that the Natzos and trucking industry contribution to the crap roads of NZ is down the memory hole substantially because of capitalist media channels–Mi Cockskin on ZB talk is hardly likely to lead with a story like Martyn has written here is he? No he is not for rather obvious reasons.
A mostly-collapsed rail network, a tramway and trolleybus network that has completely collapsed, no metro systems at all (not even one underground rail loop open yet!). Barely any divided highways, no modern interprovincial highway network to speak of. A freeway system that belongs in a museum map exhibit.
There were more ways to get around in the 1950s! Disgraceful!
Fair enough on the weight of trucks, however on my residential road there are no large trucks, let alone the even larger trucks that National allows on the road. We have lots of potholes and subsistence. Aside from the wet winter, covid etc, I’ve also seen less preventative maintenance of the roads, so problems get worse and quicker than a few decades ago. We can blame the neoliberals for this one
Your regional and local road is the responsibility of your District council not NZTA. Talk to your mayor about your issues.
Joyce ,the man with no imagination, and let’s face it ,no idea, had this right wing wet dream of an idea that if you increase the population of a country by 10% in the space of just 8 eight years, then, and only then, will there be reason enough to build extra capacity for motorways and a tube system.
He didn’t factor in, that while rapidly increasing population into an already stretched transport system, you would very rapidly create gridlock, which in turn slows down productivity levels and the speed at which you can build new infrastructure. Thus costing significantly more. This is from the party that consistently tells all in sundry that they are the masters of business and the economy. Nothing could be further from the truth!!
No party can turn that level of stupidity around in 5 years especially with 2 of those 5years being crippled with a virus that has turned world infrastructure on its’ head.
I would love to have seen National in charge, or more to the point , not in charge. Can you imagine Luxon on the podium day after day, sweating profusely, answering all the media questions by talking his usual bullshit corporate talk about ‘looking for green shoots’ by ‘ picking the low hanging fruit’ ‘going forward’ etc etc
I don’t think people have got a clue about how clueless National are.
Joyce ,the man with no imagination, and let’s face it ,no idea, had this right wing wet dream of an idea that if you increase the population of a country by 10% in the space of just 8 eight years, then, and only then, will there be reason enough to build extra capacity for motorways and a tube system.
He didn’t factor in, that while rapidly increasing population into an already stretched transport system, you would very rapidly create gridlock, which in turn slows down productivity levels and the speed at which you can build new infrastructure. Thus costing significantly more. This is from the party that consistently tells all in sundry that they are the masters of business and the economy. Nothing could be further from the truth!!
No party can turn that level of stupidity around in 5 years especially with 2 of those 5years being crippled with a virus that has turned world infrastructure on its’ head.
I would love to have seen National in charge, or more to the point , not in charge. Can you imagine Luxon on the podium day after day, sweating profusely, answering all the media questions by talking his usual bullshit corporate talk about ‘looking for green shoots’ by ‘ picking the low hanging fruit’ ‘going forward’ etc etc
I don’t think people have got a clue about how clueless National are.
Because they’re hypocrites, although Labour won’t have much high ground either when the boot is on the other foot.
What I have noticed on a regular basis by National and their Party Faithful is they have an inability to admit that they make mistakes.
To admit making mistakes makes one human but for National to be incapable of admitting that they make mistakes whilst in government renders them arrogant.
It is like they have some superiority complex that means they are incapable of making mistakes. Blame for National government mistakes is often passed onto someone else eg a faceless over-enthusiastic office worker in parliament.
Over too many decades National continue to beat an out-dated Blame-Game Mantra Drum that should have been consigned to the History Books once Muldoon was booted out. But to this day they still beat that out-dated Drum and now it is starting to sound childish.
National have over many decades made some huge and expensive to the NZ taxpayers blunders eg Think Big comes to mind. But they are too damned arrogant to admit being human.
With the Nats it’s not about blunders and mistakes – what they did over many years was their policy, supported and campaigned on by their adherents. It was on purpose, because it’s what they believe in.
Little Simeon Brown is also unaware of the fact that as climate change impacts the ..uh..um.. GLOBE… the incidence of Potholes is happening everywhere. In places where flash flooding occurs relatively frequently, drivers are wanted constantly, not to drive through floodwater as the roads can simply disappear. Sinkholes are more prevalent. But then, you can’t actually fix stupid.
The Egyptian river is alive and well here.
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