Wayne Brown and the spectre of safety: ‘We all die eventually’

Sunday, 22 December 2024

Wayne Brown is mayor of Auckland.

OPINION: It probably all started years ago when that dreadful prime minister Muldoon listened to someone about fireworks, something that countries all over the world enjoy regularly.

Any time the word safety is mentioned in Parliament they all bow down as if royalty has wandered in. There are now three times as many road safety workers as people actually doing the road repairs and that costs, not just the contractor but all of us via road user charges and the constant delays.

I went for the first swim in the open air saltwater free pool for the public in the western Viaduct, next door to Eke Panuku’s last stand, the lifting bridge repaired at only three times its original cost.

For me to swim a couple of lengths of this 33m pool it required two lifeguards and signing several pieces of paper as the last of the guardrails hadn’t been quite finished. All this for safety reasons, yet I am legally allowed to surf at North Piha by myself and I regularly do.

Company board meetings now regularly open with the item on safety, usually driven by some lawyer with a safety background who has managed to get onto the board. It has little to do with worker safety but lots to do with the safety of the directors from legal action should something go wrong.

After one of these meetings at Transpower when I was chairman, I suggested that at the next meeting we would all visit a substation to look at actual safety in an industry with real worker risks. Some of the female directors showed up in high heels and high fashion and others refused to go up the pylon in spite of the safety gear provided. So much for actual safety.

Lest weekend I visited the strangely named Rainforest Express which is in fact a tiny railroad through the Waitākere Ranges built years ago to service Watercare’s dams and pipelines that provide most of Auckland’s water supply. It is hardly an express, moving, when it is allowed, at a speed slower than Jo Biden walks.

A group of enthusiastic volunteers have repaired the engines and rolling stock plus cleared old tunnels in an effort to get this attractive little train going again, both for tourists who would love it and to provide much cheaper service access for Watercare.

So why isn’t this happening? Safety bollocks is stopping it. NZTA need to grant it an operating licence so all sorts of ludicrous hurdles lie in front of these volunteers. Apparently as mayor I can write to Watercare to say it should be open and I will, but then the dreaded lawyers raise voices about possible safety issues.

Not only does this stop Aucklanders visiting these lovely hills without spreading Kauri dieback through their shoes but it seems to be preventing Watercare from simply putting another line directly above the old functioning one rather than billion dollar tunnels through the hills.

Now that Auckland Transport is on the way back to council it is hoped that it can be forced to review some contracts that while budgeted, haven’t yet been started. Great North Rd is a prime candidate. There are 23 raised crossings planned for feeder roads to Great North. Government have instructed councils to stop doing these but AT is saying for safety reasons and being in the budget they should go ahead.

Council contends a review to save both council and the government all this money that can be spent on some real safety things, like the road surface across the city which bizarrely is not counted as a safety issue.

The reply is always, “what if someone dies?” This is lazy thinking. We all die eventually and the road safety people are always making totally unsubstantiated claims about the number of lives they have saved and the value of those lives. Even the value of life saved never looks at individual cases but uses a complex calculation based on absurd assumptions.

We need a fresh look at the cost of safety and how many jobs and opportunities are lost due to the fear of being on the wrong side of weakly thought through legislation.

What do you think? Email sundayletters@stuff.co.nz. Please include your full name and address.