Calling on hidden estimators

When Covid-19 arrived, we were all amazed at the number of public-health experts that abruptly appeared. Suddenly, there were university professors galore who were experts on the spread of viruses, the efficacy of facemasks, and how to correlate the risk from other countries with traffic lights. Some became household names from regular radio and TV appearances. Some became newspaper correspondents. Some became instant Cabinet ministers.

If all these experts were hiding in plain sight, where are all the professional estimators we need now? Daily, we are beset with estimates that bridges for people on bikes, once costed at $50 million, will now cost a sniff under $800m. Phil Goff is shown to have not fessed up that we need another $6.7 billion for the CRL, taking the total to well over $10b. Even the smarty-pants in Grant Robertson’s hood can’t get the cost of a little road in Wellington close to correct. If we had so many virus experts working away feverishly (pun intended), surely there must be a secret army of estimators that can now speak up and give us the correct cost of our dreams before Mike Hosking dashes them to smithereens.

I think I know the answer, though. Jacinda will announce there will be an announcement of the date on which an announcement will be made that a working party will be set up to design the terms of reference for a taskforce to be established to conduct an inquiry into how more estimator experts can be urged to speak up to confirm the estimates produced by Waka Kotahi and Treasury. The Government will then consider their report. I can’t wait.

Fred Wilson, Devonport.