Why the RoNS are even more unthinkable now
Our open letter to Chris Bishop, imploring him to bring some sense to the overblown Roads of National Significance juggernaut, has sparked a lot of discussion and some very good questions about the way ahead.
Once upon a time, the RoNS were a shiny election bauble, a vision of brand-new highways sweeping across the country.…
53 Comments Our PC120 feedback to central Local Boards
Currently, Local Boards in Auckland are being asked to consider two different options when it comes to PC120. In our view, Option B is ideal as it focuses upzoning around existing infrastructure and strong transport links, within the central isthmus. (By contrast, Option A does only the bare legal minimum.)…
Presenting the Bridge proposal to Auckland Council
Yesterday, Patrick and I presented Nicolas Reid’s bridge proposal for the next Waitematā Harbour crossing to Auckland Council’s Transport and Infrastructure Delivery Committee.
We got a good hearing from councillors, and some great questions – you can check out the full presentation, about ten minutes followed by about twenty minutes of Q&A here,
You can see our presentation slides here.…
Top 10 politicians who made City Rail Link happen
This year will see the opening of the City Rail Link project.
A transformational change to Auckland.
CRL will double the potential capacity of trains that can run across the network, provide new stations in the city centre (Te Waihorotiu, and Karanga-a-Hape), upgrade the Maungawhau station at Mt Eden, and connect to Britomart.…
When transparency might stop a bad project
Six months ago I lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman, appealing a refusal by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and the Ministry of Transport (MoT) to release information related to the Warkworth to Te Hana Road of National Significance project.…
The Road Toll of the RoNS
How many people have been killed or seriously injured because of a myopic focus on over-scoped highways?
This isn’t a rhetorical question.
The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) – the name of which is a political slogan – are a number of State Highway projects first proposed in 2009, by then National Party Minister of Transport Steven Joyce.…
The nation’s most expensive road (so far)?
If built, it will be the most expensive road ever constructed in New Zealand.
$3,500,000,000 to $4,000,000,000.
Over twice the cost per km as Transmission Gully.
And it is not a good project, by any measure.
And it’s currently being rushed towards construction, with a Public-Private Partnership contact set to be signed by July, locking in a generation of New Zealanders who’ll be paying the bill over the next few decades.…
The government’s fossil fuel folly
The following is an op-ed I wrote which ran in The Post on April 7th 2026. It’s not often a government’s chickens come home to roost so quickly, let alone within a single term. But here we are.
Fuel supplies are strangled by a war halfway across the world, revealing the folly of a system so reliant on fossil fuels.…
We already have a plan for the fuel crisis
The world’s fuel situation is becoming clear, and it’s beginning to feel a lot like early 2020, where an incoming crisis is looming on the horizon.
America’s war in Iran has resulted in a drastic cut in fossil fuel supply from the Middle East.…
Greater Auckland’s Annual Plan feedback
Feedback on Auckland Council’s Annual Plan close 11.59pm this Sunday (29th March). If you want to make a submission and haven’t yet, you need to get onto it now. Giving feedback is easy – and you don’t need to answer every question if you don’t want to!…
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