"It may sound stark, but Wellington city no longer adds up."

The Aro Street Geyser. [Pic from Stuff]

"The Coalition Agreement between National and ACT states as a 'principle' that decisions now will be 'based on sound public policy principles, including problem definition, rigorous cost benefit analysis and economic efficiency.'
    "So what is cost-benefit analysis? It is not simply calculating the ratio of the benefits to costs of a decision and choosing to spend money when the benefits exceed costs. No, it involves calculating those ratios for all prospective projects and ranking them from highest to lowest. 

    "Given a limited budget, one must select projects with the highest ratios until the budget is spent. On such a basis, Wellington should be left to fail. Why? Because its vast infrastructure needs, ranging from Mount Victoria Tunnel to port facilities to shambolic water leakage problems involve relatively limited benefits & massive costs that make no sense when compared to the urgent needs of Auckland....

    "It may sound stark, but Wellington city no longer adds up. It is built on subsidies and the backs of others. The costs of running it are no longer justified. An unshakeable implication of the Coalition Agreement is that Wellington should be left to fail and many of its Ministries moved elsewhere.'

~ Robert MacCulloch, from his post 'If the Coalition Agreement Stands, Wellington Will Cease to Exist as a City and become a Town, maybe a Village'

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