Friday, April 17, 2020

Essential Development Vs Shovel Ready Planning


The following text was penned for NZ Herald a few days ago....

New Zealand’s immediate response to the pandemic includes prioritisation of essential services and protection of essential workers. Central Government has focused upon the food, health and financial needs of people, families and communities across the country in the sort of forced paradigm shift not seen since the Great Depression and after World Wars I and II.

Global norms and political priorities previously considered immutable by the rich and powerful have been torn asunder in the public interest. National governments have sacrificed their economies in radical actions to protect public health. Lockdown measures and rocketing unemployment are the new normal. Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, has called for businesses to “hibernate”. Around the world media reports of daily infection and death statistics sit uncomfortably beside the usual reports of GDP dips, exchange rate changes, and stock market swings.   
   
The pandemic has exposed gaping holes in public health systems and forced the world to redefine what is essential and to plan and act accordingly. Many of those changes should not be temporary just while there is an emergency. The priorities that underpin them need to be incorporated into a new social contract between government and people, a contract which protects and promotes what is essential.

Already there is discussion and debate about what sort of response will be needed in future after the worst of the pandemic has passed. Commentators around the world are thinking and writing about climate change and carbon emission changes, about changed work and commuting practices as people have adapted and learn and work from home, about changed travel demands as airlines are grounded and cruise ships are refused entry, about the need to prepare for the next pandemic, and about the importance of social networks within communities and families as they look out for and look after the vulnerable.

The New Zealand Government deserves much credit for its pandemic response on behalf of the people. Unfortunately this approach is not evident in preliminary accounts of what is planned for its post pandemic response which have focussed on “shovel ready” roading and poorly planned transport infrastructure projects, and a return to the old paradigm.

My grandfather was one of thousands of men employed in the 1930’s using a shovel and wheelbarrow to construct the Waitaki hydro-electric dam which still supplies our country with renewable electric power. An essential service if ever there was one, and a project with a huge benefit cost ratio.

Which is more than can be said for roading and light-rail projects that are apparently “shovel ready” for New Zealand’s economic recovery. Many of these transport projects are based on urban population growth assumptions and scenario planning that must be questioned. Rushing to build roads for a future that has changed and that are not economic is a poor use of resources and will serve to reduce the country’s productivity.  

Surely the investment emphasis needed post-pandemic is lots of essential small-scale health, education and community infrastructure projects throughout the country, rather than a few high-risk think-big projects that are based on high population growth projections. Already there are positive signs such as an educational TV station, providing school kids with computers, and internet in all homes.

Rather than put the country’s post pandemic project decisions into the hands of a few captains of industry, it would be better to establish local Community Pandemic Recovery Agencies (based on the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Agency model) working in partnership with local government to identify and lead local economic development projects. Some of these will already be planned and be “shovel ready” such as cycle paths, bus shelters, and footpath improvements, community infrastructure including day-care and drop-in centres, sports facilities and playgrounds, and environmental projects such as wetland restoration and coastal protection.

Projects like these would kick start local economies across the country, provide the revenues needed to bring smaller businesses out of hibernation, create employment opportunities, and bring the economic multiplier effects that stimulate community retail and entertainment enterprise.

These are the essentials of a post-pandemic recovery package that continues the paradigm shift and political priorities and values in action now.

No comments:

Friday, April 17, 2020

Essential Development Vs Shovel Ready Planning


The following text was penned for NZ Herald a few days ago....

New Zealand’s immediate response to the pandemic includes prioritisation of essential services and protection of essential workers. Central Government has focused upon the food, health and financial needs of people, families and communities across the country in the sort of forced paradigm shift not seen since the Great Depression and after World Wars I and II.

Global norms and political priorities previously considered immutable by the rich and powerful have been torn asunder in the public interest. National governments have sacrificed their economies in radical actions to protect public health. Lockdown measures and rocketing unemployment are the new normal. Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, has called for businesses to “hibernate”. Around the world media reports of daily infection and death statistics sit uncomfortably beside the usual reports of GDP dips, exchange rate changes, and stock market swings.   
   
The pandemic has exposed gaping holes in public health systems and forced the world to redefine what is essential and to plan and act accordingly. Many of those changes should not be temporary just while there is an emergency. The priorities that underpin them need to be incorporated into a new social contract between government and people, a contract which protects and promotes what is essential.

Already there is discussion and debate about what sort of response will be needed in future after the worst of the pandemic has passed. Commentators around the world are thinking and writing about climate change and carbon emission changes, about changed work and commuting practices as people have adapted and learn and work from home, about changed travel demands as airlines are grounded and cruise ships are refused entry, about the need to prepare for the next pandemic, and about the importance of social networks within communities and families as they look out for and look after the vulnerable.

The New Zealand Government deserves much credit for its pandemic response on behalf of the people. Unfortunately this approach is not evident in preliminary accounts of what is planned for its post pandemic response which have focussed on “shovel ready” roading and poorly planned transport infrastructure projects, and a return to the old paradigm.

My grandfather was one of thousands of men employed in the 1930’s using a shovel and wheelbarrow to construct the Waitaki hydro-electric dam which still supplies our country with renewable electric power. An essential service if ever there was one, and a project with a huge benefit cost ratio.

Which is more than can be said for roading and light-rail projects that are apparently “shovel ready” for New Zealand’s economic recovery. Many of these transport projects are based on urban population growth assumptions and scenario planning that must be questioned. Rushing to build roads for a future that has changed and that are not economic is a poor use of resources and will serve to reduce the country’s productivity.  

Surely the investment emphasis needed post-pandemic is lots of essential small-scale health, education and community infrastructure projects throughout the country, rather than a few high-risk think-big projects that are based on high population growth projections. Already there are positive signs such as an educational TV station, providing school kids with computers, and internet in all homes.

Rather than put the country’s post pandemic project decisions into the hands of a few captains of industry, it would be better to establish local Community Pandemic Recovery Agencies (based on the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Agency model) working in partnership with local government to identify and lead local economic development projects. Some of these will already be planned and be “shovel ready” such as cycle paths, bus shelters, and footpath improvements, community infrastructure including day-care and drop-in centres, sports facilities and playgrounds, and environmental projects such as wetland restoration and coastal protection.

Projects like these would kick start local economies across the country, provide the revenues needed to bring smaller businesses out of hibernation, create employment opportunities, and bring the economic multiplier effects that stimulate community retail and entertainment enterprise.

These are the essentials of a post-pandemic recovery package that continues the paradigm shift and political priorities and values in action now.

No comments: