Kiwi developer had to pay local council $118k to build town houses

A YOUNG New Zealand version of Elon Musk is employing artificial intelligence programs to expose the gross inefficiency and malfeasance of councils and other government agencies that are ripping off the general public.

David Baker’s campaign is gaining traction and is also exposing shocking cases of council extortion of money from struggling businesses across the nation. Baker is a quantity surveyor and has adapted his skills to a commercially available AI system.

Speaking recently to former MP Rodney Hyde on Reality Check Radio, Baker explained how the application of his system was exposing massive financial scamming by councils and other parts of government in NZ.

In one case the large municipality of Tauranga increased its so-called “developer contribution” (the same sort of “fee” is charged by Australian councils) for a small town house development from $58,537.89 (excluding GST) to $118,627.27 (excl. GST) in the space of a year.

The developer was given the first quote about a year ago, but when he enquired again after the time for the first quote had expired, it was nearly double.

Or there’s the case of the bureaucracy called Auckland Transport that pays the Sydney-based, listed company Ventia $225 million over five years to maintain all the region’s transport services, from roads and footpaths, to cycling, parking and public transport.

Transport Auckland boasts that it can fix any pothole within three days. A local builder provided a video of one of their shoddy jobs.

Speaking of roadworks, Baker discovered that Gisborne City Council can do a speed bump for about $NZD10,000, including delivery, labor and machinery, which sounds reasonable, until “associated costs are included”.

Those costs can be $NZD50,000 for “traffic management” and a handly little $NZD100,000 for consultancy fees, which brings our speed bump up to $NZD165,000. Racketeering is a word they might apply under US law.

Baker has won no friends among the council bureaucracies and has experienced shadow banning on the social media channels he uses. He says his council “hit piece” videos would gain up to 100,000 views. Baker admits that his phone-based hounding of council officers is actually good marketing for his business. He wants to bring his campaign to Australia.

But Baker’s anti-waste campaign has won him thousands of supporters NZ-wide and his AI-based quantity surveying business model is one of the very things that could save multiple millions in waste by local and central governments.

As is the case in Australia, Kiwi builders are finding business tough, despite all the government talk of addressing the housing shortage exacerbated by their immigration policies and greedy bureaucracies at all levels.

“If you’re a homeowner and I come to you saying ‘hey, my your project to do your extension should cost $65,000 but unfortunately the paper work and council fees are 25 grand, and you go ‘well I’ve only got a budget of 65 grand and I can’t stretch to 90 or 85, I’m sorry but I’m going to have to pull the pin’. That hurts,” Baker told RCR’s Hyde.