Originally Posted by
elZorro
Of course that graph is a list of all projected cash costs for the next electoral term. Some of those costs are for capital works, so they are defrayed with interest and capital payments to be spread over the life of the assets. If Labour chooses to speed up light rail to save some of the billions of dollars of human time that is wasted in traffic jams in Auckland, they don't deserve to be pilloried in such a basic and crude graph - that is meaningless.
Where is the other side of the graph that shows cost savings in other areas, for example? Disbelievers just need to go back to Stats NZ to see that when Labour was last in office, they grew the economy, increased the tax base painlessly, had near-term record unemployment, and tidied up a lot of the mess left behind by Rogernomics, our giant neoliberal experiment foisted on us by Treasury boffins. A big chunk of old debt was repaid, the one action that saved this useless National Govt, who borrowed it all back, plus a lot more.