So I get unwell, turn my back on things for a week-or-two, and the country just falls to bits. 

This time last week, the Prime Minister and his “A-listers” were stuck on the tarmac after yet another air force breakdown. 

Then a few jokers got the toolkit out up north, loosened a few things on a power pylon up there, and then the thing came crashing down. Black-outs. Simeon Brown trotting out his serious face.  

These things surely don’t happen in threes, do they? If you’re in New Zealand - yes, they do. 

And if Simeon had put-away the serious face on Friday night, he had it out again on Saturday morning and right through the weekend - saying he wasn’t happy with KiwiRail and how they’re looking after their “assets”, after the steering on the Aratere packed a sad and it ran aground.  

Assets? Remember this is the outfit that’s been told since the coalition government came into power late last year that it needs to be more “Toyota Corolla” and less “Lamborghini”. 

I wonder how Nicola Willis is feeling about the old Toyota Corolla line today?  

When the Finance Minister pulled the plug on the big upgrade of the inter-island ferries because she reckoned Labour had gone ga-ga and was just writing-out blank cheques for KiwiRail, she said: “The Ferrari is not the only car in the garage, I think it’s time to see if there’s a Toyota Corolla”. 

And, naturally, there is no shortage of people lining-up to say our infrastructure isn’t even Toyota Corolla. Because the thing about the Toyota Corolla is that they keep going, don’t they? Our national infrastructure doesn’t. And I’m more than happy to jump on the bandwagon and say, yep, it’s an absolute embarrassment.  

But first, here’s what Infrastructure New Zealand’s policy director Michelle McCormick had to say when she was on with Mike earlier. She said we’re dreaming if we think it’s just the ferries that are the problem. 

And Michelle McCormick reckons we are lucky people weren't injured or worse with the ferry grounding. And I think she's spot on. You don’t need to be an infrastructure expert to know that. 

And I thought she made a very good point, when she said that it’s not just about being miserly when it comes to spending on repairs. We’ve also been miserly when it comes to training people to do the repairs. 

Then we had Associate Finance Minister David Seymour dancing on the head of a pin when he was on with Mike. But, eventually, he admitted the air force plane breakdown was internationally embarrassing. 

Which of course, it is. 

And, maybe if the ferry thing hadn’t happened over the weekend, we’d have more people making a noise about that power pylon falling over because that just doesn’t happen on its own, does it? 

So surely, that meets the threshold of being something of a national embarrassment, as well. 

And I’d be willing to put money on the power pylon issue being another outcome of this oily rag mentality that seems to have taken over when it comes to building and maintaining key infrastructure in New Zealand. 

Because what other excuse do we have? It’s all just been a run of terrible bad luck? Yeah right. Dream on. 

We are a bunch of scrooges when it comes to spending money on infrastructure. I don’t think we used to be. But we certainly are now. 

Scrooges, Skinflints. Whatever label you want to use, that’s what New Zealand has become. And we are paying the price for it. 

And the only solution is to start spending serious money where it is seriously needed. Because, whether we like it or not, we need to accept that New Zealand has become an infrastructure basket case. 

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