Why Entrust Needs New Leadership
I am part of a new team running in the Entrust election in October.
Entrust is a community electricity trust representing a significant swathe of Auckland, and set up to serve the community. It is governed by five trustees, who are elected every three years in an election the trust itself oversees.…
39 Comments Cross-party consensus: there’s no pipeline without good faith
There’s been a lot of talk recently about a cross-party agreement to develop a pipeline for infrastructure, including transport. Last month, outgoing CRL boss Sean Sweeney talked about the importance of securing an enduring infrastructure programme. He outlined the high costs of the relentless political flip-flopping of priorities, which drives away skilled workers, drives up the cost of delivery, and hamstrings our future .…
Our transport planning system is fundamentally broken
Ever since Wayne Brown became mayor (nearly two years ago now) he’s been wanting to progress an “integrated transport plan” with the government – which sounded a lot like the previous Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) with just a different name.…
NLTP 2024 released – destroying pipeline of shovel ready local projects
Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Waka Kotahi yesterday released the latest National Land Transport Plan (NLTP) for 2024-27. The NLTP sets out what transport projects will be funded for the next three years, including both central and local government projects.
As expected, given the government’s extremely ideological transport policy, it’s terrible, not just because of what it does fund – focusing much of the country’s transport investment into a handful of roads that carry less traffic than the average Auckland arterial – but also because of what it doesn’t fund: destroying a pipeline of shovel-ready local projects, right at a time when the government claims to care about having an infrastructure pipeline.…
Throwback Thursday: The Great Auckland Transport Debate
Ten years ago this week in August 2014, with an election on the horizon, Greater Auckland (then known as Transportblog) co-hosted a transport-themed debate with the Campaign for Better Transport and Generation Zero – inviting speakers from the political parties to share their transport visions for our city.…
The Policy and Memory Vortex
When you start doing research into transport and urban topics and policies, one thing you realise is how messy and chaotic many government websites are. Given that these are (in theory) the most accessible version of the official archive, that’s a challenge.…
The Government Declares Total War on Localism
In a recent conversation, the person I was talking to outlined the purpose of central and local government in the most simple and clear way I have yet heard:
Central government is for nation-building. Local government is for city-building.
This was in the context of Auckland, so I would expand the local government definition to community-building, to cover those councils and authorities that are a little less urban.…
Speak up on the Emission Reduction Plan – by Sunday 25 August
The government wants to know what you think about its Emissions Reduction Plan for the years 2026-2030, the critical second half of this critical decade for climate action.
The second emissions reduction plan (ERP2) will outline the actions that we intend to take to reduce emissions in New Zealand during the second emissions budget period (2026 – 2030).…
Road Policing Reduction
Enforcement is a critical aspect towards achieving and ultimately improving road safety. Yesterday Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government’s new Road Policing Investment Programme. While some parts of it are positive, others are puzzling and ultimately will see a reduction in funding for road policing.…
Of Boundaries and Balance: Redrawing Auckland Council Wards
Auckland Council is proposing some changes to local ward boundaries. Consultation closes this Thursday August 8th at 4pm.
There are a number of fairly minor tweaks proposed – below, I’ll note a few points of interest.
To learn more and have your say, head to this page.…
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