Andrew Dickens Afternoons

Numbers - they get you every time.The problem with numbers is that they don’t fudge.They’re definite. Exact. Numbers don’t lie. But people lie.People fudge. People lie about numbers. People fudge numbers. But numbers are the truth. Which is why any politician worth their weight in gold, which is an inexact number, will avoid them at any cost.It’s a lesson this government fails to learn. The numbers have been causing all sorts of bother this parliamentary term.This is obviously the very hard lesson Phil Twyford has learnt this week, as the numbers came to bite him on the bum.There’s no doubt that New Zealand doesn’t have enough housing stock.  There was always doubt as to whether the government should become a private housing developer. Nothing wrong with running a social housing programme, but KiwiBuild was always to supplement the private market. There was always uncertainty as to what affordable means. But all that was debatable and defendable.But as soon as Phil Twyford started putting numbers on it he dre