13 May 2009

National makes right decision over Waterview

Transport Minister Steven Joyce has made a good decision, he has rejected the greenplating of the last section of Auckland's Western Ring Route, in favour of a trenched surface motorway.

About time, I was alone in saying this in July 2008!

In other words, the Waterview extension will be just like every other segment that has been built or is under construction now. Look today at the other segments:
- Greenhithe deviation (built trenched surface motorway)
- Upper Harbour bridge duplication (built as bridge not a tunnel)
- Hobsonville deviation (to be built as trenched surface motorway)
- Manukau extension (under construction as trenched surface motorway)
- Manukau Harbour crossing (duplicate Mangere Bridge, with widening of existing trenched surface motorway)
- Mt Roskill extension (recently complete trenched surface motorway).

Why was Mt Albert special other than it was in the former Prime Minister's electorate?

More importantly, why should the taxpayer subsidise this?

So he also saves the taxpayer from having to subsidise the motorway. It can now be fully funded from the National Land Transport Fund, which itself is funded from road user charges, all fuel taxes and motor vehicle registration and licensing fees. This is distinctly unlike the electrification of the Auckland rail network, which Auckland rail passengers aren't paying a cent towards, in fact they don't even pay half the cost of providing the existing trains.

Of course the property owners along the route will be upset, and rightly so. Labour was willing to pillage taxpayers to drill under their homes, will National force homeowners to sell? The better approach will be to offer to buy the route on commercial terms, rather like the French do. The French offer to pay well above market rates for land, so they have a range of route options - French motorway are mostly tollways admittedly so even paying a lot for the land can still mean a profitable route. Tolling this small segment isn't viable (the whole route may have made more sense, but has already been ruled out because Labour committed money to the other segments), but still a business-like approach could speed up route acquisition and get the road built. However, nobody should be forced to sell.

So now we have National making an economically rational decision. Labour wanting to borrow over a billion dollars to build an undersized motorway and put it in a tunnel to bribe an electorate (anyone want to shout pork really loudly?) and the Greens worshipping trains, which would not relieve congestion, provide an alternative for 99% of the freight that would use the motorway and no evidence that a rail line could be remotely economically viable. Although the Green's own transport plan includes a busway along this corridor - hmmmm?

Well done, I did say for the Nats to do this before.

MY PAST COVERAGE OF WATERVIEW:

In February 2008, Labour wanted to make the route a PPP, which would require heavy taxpayer subsidy, supported by Peter Dunne when he was whoring on the left side of the house.

In July 2008, Labour announced $5.5 million to further investigate the Waterview tunnel, and I commented then on how it could have been a surface motorway, before others did.

In October 2008, the Greens launched a transport plan that included a busway along a motorway between Waterview and Mt Roskill see the map here.

In January 2009 I advised Steven Joyce to spend another 6 months reviewing the Waterview extension, which he promptly did.

In February 2009, the MOT released the business case information about the Waterview extension. I noted the main reason the project is expensive is because the designation for the route was abandoned in the early 1970s by local government.

In May 2009 I noted that as an election issue it really shouldn't be that important, as only a National MP could ever make a difference.

Of course now, it wont make any difference at all. Neither a Green, Labour, National or ALCP MP will change this decision. So perhaps Labour can stop promising to spend money that isn't theirs, and the Greens can stop claiming they can make a difference, and the people of Mt. Albert can choose someone based on character and philosophy, not a pork barrel issue?

Post number 2000

There are times in one’s blogging life when it is an appropriate chance to look back at what one has done and why one blogs. This is my 2000th post so is a self-indulgent reflection on why I do this, and more importantly what’s important to me.

Bloggers generally blog as an outlet for their opinions and comments, with a particular bent politically and philosophically, and a particular focus on certain issues. For me, it is because, with the exception of Not PC, my views are consistently NOT represented in either the mainstream NZ media or blogosphere.

So what flavours of opinion do I add?

Well, I have specialised in New Zealand politics and in that sense the promotion of individual freedom. That being the freedom of being to do as they see fit with their own bodies and property whilst respecting the same right of others to do so. The banality of those who say this means the “freedom to hurt others” or “freedom to push drugs onto kids” does not detract from this core concept. It comes from the principle that adults generally know best how to run their own lives, and more importantly that other adults do not have a claim on their body or property. It is a principle that is almost universally disregarded across most of the political spectrum.

Those on the left treat private property with contempt, regarding the income and assets of people considered “rich” to be ready picking to supply what they see as the “rights” of the relatively poor – people who are wealthy by the standards of most of the world’s population. The sneering contempt that “the left” holds the financially successful is mean spirited and revolting. It implies that those who raise their heads above the average owe everyone else a share of their success, or at worst they must have earned it unfairly. However, the left does not confine its claim to people’s property, but to their bodies too.

The left proclaims the superiority of state provided health care and education, despite state health care regularly failing those who are forced to provide their services, and state education by definition standardising what and how children are taught. The idea that people might choose alternatives provided privately is seen as undermining these sacred signs of universal service, ignoring that monopolies rarely seem able to meet the varied needs of all those who use them.

However, the right is far from immune from claiming peoples’ bodies or property. Historically this was seen most specifically with conscription, but the conservative right also say its role to protect and reinforce “traditional role models”. Much of that is now gone, with few laws restricting or defining personal relationships or sex relations between consenting adults. However, the fight that many have had to demand equal treatment under the law was always resisted by some. Today the most egregious example of the right promoting interference in people’s bodies are laws on drugs. Criminalising people for what they put in their bodies is a gross infringement on individual liberty, when the real concern should be what people do to others – intoxicated or not.

So I start from the view that the individual is sovereign. That the individual should not be subordinate to other individuals, whether dressed up as “the public good” or “general will” or “will of the majority”. Those phrases are the tools of both the left and the right, both who believe the decisions of a small group of individuals (Cabinet, Parliament, bureaucrats) should be able to spend the money of others, and regulate them. The difference is I don’t believe in “public good”, as it implies that there is something higher than individual rights, and so individual rights can be sacrificed for the public good. Every dictatorship through history has justified its actions, and indeed every democracy has justified what it did for “the public good”, particularly when it was curtailing individual freedom and spending other people’s money.

The Greens, for example, appear to have a strong interest in many things that a lot think are good. Who argues against clean air, clean water and protecting cute animals from extinction? Yet the means the Greens wish to employ is violence – state force – to tax, to subsidise, to ban, to compel, to regulate. On top of this authoritarian desire to push people around is scaremongering against science and technology, such as genetic engineering and cellphone transmitters. The apocalyptic glee that evidence about global warming gives them to excuse their joyless agenda of restricting flying, driving, trading or even using appliances at home gives me despair. The forked tongue of opposing racism, but demanding racially separate Maori seats and saying it isn’t about race, when they are DEFINED by race. Meanwhile the anti-racist party promotes opposition to foreign trade and investment, because foreigners can’t have “our” interests at heart. No different from similar remarks Winston Peters used to have an audience for. Environmentalism has become the pathway for those who have a vision of changing people to fit a view of what they should be like. It has disturbing parallels with Marxism-Leninism in that respect, with the use of terminology like “climate change denial” to imply that those who debate science are debating actual events not theories of causation.

For me, I believe the jury is still out on anthropomorphic climate change, with contradictory evidence pointing in two different directions. However, I am most disturbed by the way that the climate change evangelists regard it all as an excuse to fanatically intervene in sectors from energy to transport to agriculture, without any serious analysis as to the implications of doing so except for the holy grail of CO2 emissions. Climate science is one thing, but the “answers” given are typically devoid of serious analysis then there is no wonder it is seen to be a religion.

Naturally, Labour and National pander for the middle ground, Labour especially now fertile fields for largely mediocre individuals to seek to spread their bile of envy of the successful, patronising the proletariat and scaremongering with the “we’ll look after you” attitude that sadly pervades this once proud party. National watches polls constantly, and forever runs away from principles even though so many inside it know that the state is largely incapable of delivering substantially better results in health and education. ACT has soiled itself lately with the gang patch law, and I await to see if Rodney Hide can cut the size of local government whilst he has been promoting the biggest council ever for Auckland.

The Maori Party being defined by race is a mix of good intentions and racial superiority, how else can one think of a party that treats the people it represents as being “special”.

Beyond that, religion has a low impact on New Zealand politics and for that I am glad. I am an atheist, and proclaim the doctrine of Voltaire in defending freedom of religion, but at the same time damning religion itself as being at best unnecessary, at worst a justification for murder and denial of humanity. My first priority for religion is to expunge it from the state, so that it has nothing to do with the supernatural. The secularisation of states that are populated primarily by Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists should be a priority project for the 21st century for all who support civilisation and humanity. For conflicts in the Middle East, South Asia and Sri Lanka can be linked to those who reject this. I’m an advocate for reason and an objectivist, and derive my values and morals from objectivism, not religion, though I rarely blog about that.

So for me, I blog about NZ politics, UK politics, occasionally US and Australian politics, the Middle East, dictatorships in Africa and Asia and Europe, the European Union. I focus regularly on sectors I have professional experience in, such as transport, communications, trade and broadcasting, with a particular distaste for the European Union Common Agricultural Policy, environmentalist worshipping of railways and damnation of aviation and the private car, and a hatred for those who seek to restrict trade based on random political geographies.

However, most of all I detest the attack on the human mind, on human achievement and on reason. Which is why my greatest advocacy is for the removal of the initiation of force (and threat of force) in adult relations, and that means between states and between states and their citizens. Most people will say yes to this at first then “but”. For me there is no “but”. After all, what right do you have to initiate force against another adult?

So after 2000 posts I thank those of you who read regularly, and have seen my average daily unique reads average at around 200 a day the last couple of months. I’m no supporter of ACT or National, but will praise and damn either when I see fit, the same with Labour, the Greens or any other party anywhere. I am not aligned by political tribe, but by philosophy. A philosophy that says that human individuals have the right to exist for their own purpose and own reasons, and no other adults have a claim on that at all, that anyone claiming this is selfish is damned right. Because unless I own my life, I am a slave to another – and I’ll be damned if I’ll support any who advocate running other people’s lives because anything else is selfish.

So to you all, be selfish, live your life to enjoy it, share yourself with whoever you see fit, who wishes to share with you, and to be yourself, respecting the same in others. Be benevolent in sharing yourself and your values as you see fit, but do so being true to yourself, not because you feel obliged to do so. You exist for your values, for if that is not your first priority, then nothing else can follow.

11 May 2009

UK allowances scandal

Perhaps the biggest outrage in UK politics in the past few days have been the detailed revelations through the Daily Telegraph of MPs, including Cabinet Ministers, claiming expenses for items that in the private sector would be paid for out of salary. The most damning revelations have been those claiming a "second home allowance" when their first home is either commutable to London, the second home isn't commutable to London or when the second home being claimed has expenses that are luxurious.

Most of those implicated are Labour MPs, though the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and even Sinn Fein are also caught up in the scandal.

The true scandal is that all of these were approved, apparently allowed under the rules, so there is little likelihood of any legal redress- the system itself allows MPs to featherbed at taxpayers' expense. At a time when so many taxpayers are struggling int he recession, it looks quite simply as if MPs see their salaries as a perk, while they can claim most of the costs of living from the taxpayer.

What is astonishing is the complete disconnect between so many of these MPs and their association with the general public. One MP, Margaret Moran, appeared on the BBC to justify claiming £22,500 to treat dry rot at her second home in Southampton, days after selecting it as a second home, (she is the MP for Luton South, not that far from Westminster). She said:

Margaret Moran: "I have to be able to have a proper family life sometimes which I can't do unless I share the costs of the Southampton home with him (her partner, Booker)."

Andrew Sinclair: "But why should the taxpayer pay for your home in Southampton when clearly you are not using it for work?"

Margaret Moran: "Well, I... I... I...you could argue that I use it to be able to sustain my work. Any MP has to have a proper family life.

Margaret - you chose to be MP for Luton South, you chose a partner living in Southamption, deal with it and take your filthy pilfering hand out of taxpayers' pockets to pay for your lifestyle choice. Pay it back you thief.

Further revelations include Sinn Fein MPs Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, claiming £3,600 a month for a flat in London that is rarely used as they never attend Westminster out of opposition to British control of Northern Ireland.

The Daily Telegraph has extensive details of all the claims, including how one Labour MP bought three beds in nine months, one Conservative MP claimed the cost of coathangers, one Conservative MP claiming chimney sweeping for a country home, one Labour MP claiming 23p for a lemon, one Liberal Democrat MP claiming a Sky TV subscription with family pack and now the Conservative MP who claimed money for someone to change a lightbulb for him (the Skills Shadow Minister no less).

However for the easiest summary try this slideshow.

The clearest implication of all this is how much this scandal brings into disrepute not only the Labour Party and the government, but MPs generally. The Daily Telegraph was accused early on of political bias for highlighting Labour MPs, and given the well known political leanings of the Telegraph ("Torygraph" being one commonly used description), that was not surprising, but the revelations about MPs across the political spectrum destroys that.

The upcoming local authority and European Elections are likely to see Labour punished, but one of the concerns is that people will vote for the closet racist BNP, as the "anti-politics" party in protest. UKIP (UK Independence Party) may also do well.

Sadly, whilst many Britons hold politicians in disrepute, the idea that politicians would give up control of the health, education, pension and welfare systems would remain an anathema. That is the disconnect that the fledging UK Libertarian Party ought to take advantage of. Sadly, socialism remains ingrained in British politics that so many fear they will be ripped off by the private sector in health and education, but don't recognise that is exactly what is happening by the state sector.

Gordon Brown has since apologised on behalf of all political parties and calls for public trust to be restored in the "profession". Guido Fox rightfully says:

"Politics is not a profession Gordon, it is a racket, and this has been going on for decades not days. Guido won't believe they are sorry until they pay back the money they have embezzled. Then they will be really sorry…"

Quite. However, will the public have long enough memories to damn those exposed in this scandal at the 2010 election?

08 May 2009

Road User Charges review sensible outcome

Transport Minister Steven Joyce has just released the results of the Independent Review into the Road User Charging system. Given that, with one exception, nobody else in the blogosphere knows this area more than I do, I thought I'd give it the once over.

Overall, most of its conclusions are wise. There is no case for diesel tax, as diesel tax would not be a charge for using the roads, but a tax on fuel. 36% of diesel is used off road, so those users would need to be refunded if a diesel tax were about road use. Diesel tax is easier for governments to siphon off for other purposes, but road user charges have always been dedicated to the land transport fund.

The economically rational idea of charging an access fee for road users was never going to fly, although I'd advocate getting rid of rates funding for local roads and for local road owners to charge access fees for driveways for adjacent properties.

Beyond that, the report recommends many tweaks to the system, including (finally) moving to buying RUC licences online, and the NZTA commit itself to improve service delivery. Frankly it needs to be open to competition from service providers, with NZTA wholesaling the activity.

Reviewing RUC annually would be helpful too, review meaning rates can go in BOTH directions.

A trial of an electronic system should be welcomed, but a far better approach would be to set the road operators free. The state highway network should be split from NZTA into a SOE, which could set its own charging system directly with road users if they wished. Council roads should be set up similarly, and all of these road companies would receive money based on usage, and would be able to raise and lower charges as they saw fit.

Funnily enough this was National Party policy until 1999, and is currently ACT policy. It's simple - bureaucrats cannot run an efficient customer service or pricing system that is responsiuve to demand and costs, and avoid politicians siphoning off the funds for other purposes. The sooner roads are commercialised, and then a trial of privatisation (the Auckland Harbour Bridge and its approaches are a good start), the better!

UPDATE: The Institute of Professional Engineers of NZ is supporting the outcome of the review. Given IPENZ understands highway construction and maintenance I am not surprised.

The Motor Industry Association is upset, because it supports a diesel tax (because it is simpler), and thinks that RUC is unfair because it doesn't recognise environmental advantages of diesel. Well, a system designed to pay for road maintenance wouldn't be, would it? Government doesn't pay environmental "costs", so you might ask why it should charge for them.

Tony Friedlander for the Road Transport Forum is pleased with the recommendations, no doubt focusing on introducing a new access fee that would mean RUC drops!

Budapest - museum capital of the world

Well maybe. Besides a good selection of art galleries, the Museum of Terror focused on communism and fascism, the Jewish Museum and Holocaust museum, national history, transport, and standard national and metropolitan museums, Budapest has ample evidence of a past when whole families were expected to go out on a Sunday and observe the past (going to church wasn't a big deal under Marxism-Leninism).

I haven't been to any of these, but it is rather sad that I am curious about more than one of them (and have no time to go now):

Pharmacy Museum
Museum of Actors and Actresses
Stamp Museum
Bible Museum
Underground Railway Museum
Military Baths Museum (baths would be too big a category)
Ambulance Museum
Electrical Engineering Museum
Museum of Hungarian Commerce and Catering (how did people cook in the past?)
Television Museum of the Technical and Programming TV (not just communist TV)
Marzipan Museum (see how unnatural it is?)
Agricultural Museum
Geological Museum (don't look at new rocks)
Foundry Museum
Postal Museum (not the stamp museum, don't expect stamps here!)
Museum of Crime (got to be worth a look!)
Museum of Medical History (not pharmacies though!)
Sport Museum
Telephone Museum
Textile Museum
Fire Service Museum
Flag Museum

So it is either the place for museum buffs, or a place to bore most kids senseless.