“Lack Of Liaison At Mangere”

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30179, 10 July 1963, Page 16

“Lack Of Liaison At Mangere”

(Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, July 9. It could well be that millions of pounds of engineering work would lie idle at Mangere airport because planning was behind for the administration building there, said Mr H. Watt (Opposition, Onehunga) in Parliament today. As chairman of a sub-com-mittee of the Public Expenditure Committee of the House, Mr Watt was reporting findings after inquiries into the work of the Civil Aviation Administration. Mr Watt was critical of the planning of a cargo building at the airport and charged that there had been a lack of liaison between the administration and the Ministry of Works in planning the airport Mr W W Freer (Opposition, Mt. Albert) said there were too many clashes between personalities in the Ministry of Works and the C.A.A. “Departments should realise that this House is in no mood for waste of public money because of differences concerning personalities in departments," slid Mr Freer. “It is regrettable that there bas been this waste of money in Auckland

because of procrastination It is very hard to nail down It is a repetition of what we saw at Rongotai and it has not been possible to trace just where this procrastination originates.” There was no 1 .ther justification. in the opinion of the committee, for referring plans to an overseas consultant, said Mr Freer. The Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr McAlpine) said later there was no reason to doubt Mangere would not be completed b’ the end of January, 1966. That date was agreed on between the C.A.A. and the Auckland Airport Committee. He did not know of any major terminal building taking less than five years to plan. One in the United States would take seven years. Mr Watt said that the C.A.A. should make its requirements known to the Ministry of Works and the ministry should then be responsible for the architecture and engineering. “It became obvious that the C.A.A. could not have efficient administration while the heads of the department are spread over seven buildings in Wellington, all some distance apart, and with a bus service operating hourly to take files from one section to another. If we are going to have more efficiency something must be done to bring them together.” said Mr Watt

The committee found that the head office of the C.A.A. was planning the develop-

men! of airports and compiling briefs for the Ministry of Works These were rechecked by the Ministry of Works and this meant great duplication in work

Although there was cooperation at lower levels in the two departments, there was lack of co-operation between those on higher levels, he said. It was proposed that the cargo building at Mangere would be used initially as a passenger terminal, but there had been differences of opinion between the C.A A. and the ministry in determining this

The committee had been informed that the cargo building, costing £250,000 would be 500 ft long and 80ft wide. It had been told it .was large enough for all the air cargo arriving in New Zealand between now and 1970 to be stacked at one end of the building and it was far bigger than would be needed for many years to come in order to accommo-

date the passenger terminal. The decision had been made and a change would mean further delay The estimated cost of the Mangere administration building was £lBO.OOO, he said. The sub-committee had been told it would not be ready for tendering until March. 1964. and the ministry would not be ready for the letting of the tender until May. 1964 The ministry's estimate was that this key building could not be. com-

pleted until August, 1905. and when the building was completed the C.A.? would need six months to install equipment Mr Wyatt said it was unfair that civil aviation in New Zealand should have to pay for the specialised navigational aids required by overseas airlines. This special equipment would be fitted at Mangere, later at Harewood and, possibly, at Rongotai. Its cost would result in the raising of costs of the whole civil aviation system.

Iffie duties of the Director of Civil Aviation should be dearly defined, said Mr Watt, when discussing the roles of the director and the Air Secretary. “We may have two individuals in both positions who are not prepared to co-operate as the two are at present," he said.

The committee recommended that the Government should consider the merging of the work of the two positions.

Mr McAlpine said statements in the debate were lowering the prestige of the C.A.A He appreciated it was not always easy to get two competently-staffed departments to see eye to eye on some matters. That would always occur, so long as there was split responsibility The section of the Public Expenditure Committee’s report on the C.A.A was referred to the Government for consideration Just before the afternoon adjournment.