What about Auckland? Council pushes back on new Govt transport plan 

A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown.

A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors accusing the submission of politicking and potentially biting the hand that feeds.

Council’s submission expressed particular concern about proposed public transport funding cuts, which council staff warned could force Auckland Transport to significantly increase fares or reduce service levels, potentially leaving whole suburbs without public transport.

The submission calls for a commitment for Government to work with Auckland Council on an integrated transport plan and to put more focus on the country’s biggest city.

It also targeted what it called a lack of focus on mitigating the climate and environmental impacts of the transport system, the lack of reference to the importance of working with Māori, and reduced funding for active modes and safety initiatives.

Council transport strategy manager Robert Simpson said the omission of any reference to the uniqueness and special needs of Auckland was a chief concern.

“Enhancing economic growth in productivity in an urban area requires the use of different levers than in less urbanised areas,” he said.

He was also worried about the ability of Auckland to pay for committed infrastructure projects such as the City Rail Link and Eastern Busway if the proposed funding regime comes to pass.

At the lower end of the prospective range of nationwide allocated funding for public transport infrastructure, underway projects would require 131 percent.

“Our recommendation is that these projects be funded from elsewhere and be treated in a similar fashion to the Roads of National Significance, that they are nationally significant projects,” Simpson said.

Other aspects of the policy statement that council were in agreement with included its commitment to taking a long-term view of projects and promises to focus on rail projects in Auckland.

The majority of councillors supported the submission, with several hoping it would provoke some big changes in the eventual policy that will be rolled out.

Waitakere councillor Shane Henderson was highly critical of the policy statement, which he said put “politics over evidence-based approaches” and locked in huge carbon emissions to the extent of “climate vandalism”.

He also took issue with the removal of speed-reduction programmes.

“Speed tables and slow speed zones get a lot of press … but I just want to remind everyone they don’t get built for no reason. There isn’t some Snidely Whiplash figure going around Auckland looking for ways to slow down cars. That doesn’t happen,” he said.

“Speed tables are there because schools ask for them. They ask me for them. For those that want to make politics out of that, well, when the next primary school principal emails asking for help, I’ll send it straight to them for an explanation. Straight to them.”

Meanwhile, North Shore councillor Richard Hills called the policy statement a “dramatic step back for Auckland and New Zealand” which would lead to more congestion, deaths, serious injuries and carbon emissions.

“This is the opposite of what every major city in the world is doing,” he said. “We are losing talented New Zealanders to cities in Australia and all over the world where public transport is far better than it is here.”

But other councillors said this line of thinking was political and they didn’t want to support a submission opposing central elements of the Government’s policy.

Former National MP and Pakuranga councillor Maurice Williamson was in this group, and criticised the amount of time councillors had had to go over the submission before being asked to support it.

According to Williamson, he received the document just over an hour before the meeting began.

He called opposition to the policy “tone-deaf”, pointing to the enormous vote the National-led Government received in Auckland.

“What they were putting up as policy was welcomed by the voters of Auckland,” he said. “It had to have been, because they voted for it.”

Meanwhile, Manurewa-Papakura councillor Daniel Newman said he was angry the process had turned into what he called a “political slugfest”.

“This leads me to the conclusion that if this submission is about knocking over a [Government Policy Statement] and trying to stick a thumb in the eye of the Government, then I need to record a vote against that.”

Newman ended up voting for the submission, although recorded his opposition to several piecemeal parts of it.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown encouraged his councillors to let the submission go through, calling it “very reasonable”.

Though there were aspects of the transport statement Brown won’t be happy with, it appeared he saw the wisest path as keeping the submission even-handed.

“The point of this is it’s a submission to influence a new government who have put out their policy which has significant changes from the past, and we’re wanting to support the bits we like, change little bits here and there that we don’t, and point out the impacts of some of that stuff,” he said.

“I think the tone of this is excellent. There’s no sense throwing a rock at the person who’s got the money.”

Ultimately the submission was agreed on by 16 committee members, allowing it to go to Wellington before the submission period closes next Tuesday.