Here’s a little story about Pukekohe.

Pukekohe, the eighteenth largest city in New Zealand with 31,000 souls, 50 kilometres from Auckland. Possesses the best soil on earth and an awful lot of lettuces and carrots. Birthplace of Possum Bourne, Jonah Lomu and my mother. Home of the mighty Counties rugby side.

A friend of mine has just transferred from the Wellington newsroom to Auckland. She and her husband are looking for a place so until then she decided to get the best and cheapest renter she could and so she chose Pukekohe. It’s relatively cheap. There’s a train. The train costs her $7.50 and takes 1 hour and 10 minutes and in that hour she gets loads of work done. Occasionally she brings her car into town. It takes longer. The parking is more expensive and she gets no work done.

So the other day she asks me why she has to change trains at Papakura which is 33 kilometres from Auckland. That’s because when the lines were electrified it was decided to save money to stop at Papakura. So two-thirds of the way home she has to get out and transfer to a diesel-electric.

This all happened 4 years ago and instantly people realised this was a mistake. So the council came up with an idea to buy a couple of trains that had chargeable batteries on board so they could carry on for the extra 20 kilometres. The new government has realised that was a monumentally stupid and expensive band-aid over the problem so they have given some money to complete the electrification job. The whole process is going to be vastly more expensive than if they had just done it all in the first place.

When I told my friend the story she said, “well that’s stupid and short-sighted”. Welcome to New Zealand.

Today we are talking about the decision by Tasman not to fund the Waimea Dam. Even though the government and Treasury were so into the idea they were throwing money and interest-free loans at it. Even though the district is already short of water and will only become more so. All for the sake of $50 million. You will build the Waimea Dam one day Tasman. You will have to. And it will cost an awful lot more the $50 million and you will go through water deprivation while you wait for it to happen. And people will be muttering why didn’t we do this years ago.

This morning we also hear that Auckland Central Rail Link is probably going to run over budget. I’m sure it will but that’s not enough excuse to not carry on. It’s already costing too much money because it should have been done decades ago. Sydney built their underground and Harbour Bridge in the thirties when their population was just $1 million. Imagine how much it would cost today and imagine how bad the last 80 years would have been if they hadn’t done it and how much money would have been lost.

Sometimes it seems to make sense today to not spend money but it’s a false economy. A good idea is a good idea. And sometimes it’s expensive. But if it’s a good idea, in the long run, it’s always worth it.