Do we need to think differently about transport funding?
Around $5.5 billion a year is spent on transport in New Zealand. This is a lot of money and usually makes up the largest proportion of budgets for local councils, as well as being the fourth or fifth largest area of spend for central government.…
28 Comments What happens if you get rid of the Regional Fuel Tax?
Yesterday Simon Bridges delivered a fairly major speech, outlining the National Party’s intentions ahead of next year’s election. Of particular relevance was him reaffirming that, if elected, National would cancel the Auckland regional fuel tax: If National is elected in 2020 we will:☑️ Repeal the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax☑️ Ensure no increase in petrol taxes during our first term☑️ Have no new taxes in our first term☑️ Repeal a Capital Gains Tax
— Simon Bridges (@simonjbridges) January 30, 2019 One term governments are pretty rare in New Zealand, with the last one happening in the early 1970s, but it’s worth having a think about what would happen if an incoming government got rid of the Regional Fuel Tax.…
2019 – The year ahead
With 2019 now underway, and following my wrap up of 2018 last week, I thought it would be good to look at some of the things we can expect from the year ahead. In no particular order.
City Rail Link
At the end of April the builder of the tunnels and stations is expected to be announced.…
2018 – A Year in Review
With 2018 drawing to a close, I thought I’d pull together a quick post wrapping up the most important things that happened during the year.
Thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and supported us in making Auckland greater.…
Letters of Low Expectations – tomorrow’s work at Auckland Council
It seems that almost every day we learn more about the urgent need for radical action to avert catastrophic climate change. Not only are the disastrous consequences becoming clearer, but after years of relatively stable emissions, they are actually increasing again.…
The Driver License Test Guide
“Faster. Faster. Faster… OK, pull over, and we’ll discuss that. Back there, if you go at that speed in your test, you’ll fail. It’s a critical error. That road is where four of my students have failed their test for driving too slowly.”
Sitting in the back seat during the driving lessons this year was an educational experience for me.…
AT Annual Report “talks a good talk” but we need to see results
Tuesday’s Auckland Transport Board Meeting included a statutorily required review of how they performed for the 2017/18 financial year against their Statement of Intent (SOI). The results are outlined in their annual report, which provides a useful opportunity to take a step back from the day to day news and consider what was, for Auckland Transport, quite a year of change.…
Nov-18 AT Board meeting
Tomorrow the AT board meet again and the
Closed Agenda
Items for Approval/Decision Northcote Point Ferry Wharf – This will likely decide the fate of the currently closed wharf. It’s noted that John Gillon (Kaipatiki Local Board), Cr Richard Hills and Dan Bidois (MP for Northcote) are attending to speak about this.…
Auckland Transport’s Restructure
There’s been some worrisome news in recent days after it emerged that Auckland Transport are disbanding their Walking and Cycling team as part of organisation wide restructure.
Auckland Transport is axing 84 positions and creating 112 new ones in an attempt to change an internal culture it says is based on “avoidance and oppositional behaviour”.…
Let’s Get Welly Moving – tough choices ahead
It’s been a while since there were any major updates on the Let’s Get Welly Moving project, so I had a look at their website to see whether there had been any major progress since the options that were announced late last year.…
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