Is the pressure mounting on government over the RoNS?
This blog has long been critical of the government for its Roads of National Significance (RoNS) program. This not because of political ideology (us bloggers have different political views) but because many of them they are being progressed under the guise of improving the economy despite the evidence suggesting that many of them, like Puhoi to Wellsford, don’t pass basic economic tests.…
26 Comments Is Brownlee stretching the truth? Fuel prices, vehicle demands, and the RoNS
Gerry Brownlee made some quite remarkable statements in parliament recently (this video is worth watching; Lockwood’s response to Julie’s point of order about halfway through was a moment of quite some mirth in my flat). To summarise Julie’s questions and Gerry’s answers (NB: I have quoted Gerry verbatim in some places, hence some of it is incoherent): Are the RoNs an appropriate use of money? …
NZTA Fudging the Figures on the NLTP?
The NZTA has announced their three yearly National Land Transport Programme 2012 – 15:
Spending on roads and public transport by central and local government over the next three years will increase by almost 13 per cent with much of the additional cash coming from fuel tax and road user charge hikes, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says.…
Brownlee is a Roads Scholar …
It’s been quite sad watching some of the recent exchanges in parliament.
The Minister of Transport Gerry Brownlee, and the Associate Minister Simon Bridges, have been swimming furiously against the arguments put forward by Julie Anne Genter from the Green Party.…
NZTA borrowing discussed further
A lot of discussion in parliament yesterday around the news that NZTA will be able to borrow money to a greater extent than it has been able to previously.
It seems that Brownlee is playing down the impact of the proposed change – saying that it’s not much change from the status quo and perhaps even that the change is only related to changing the mechanism for funding toll roads.…
Brownlee really does hate the CRL
Another testy exchange in parliament yesterday between Phil Twyford and transport minister Gerry Brownlee over transport matters in Auckland: Firstly, it seems pretty obvious that the government is unlikely to support any scheme to raise additional funding through congestion charging mechanisms, regional fuel taxes and so forth.…
NZTA use of consultants questioned
Radio NZ broke a story on Monday about the amount of money the NZTA had spend on consultants to look at the Roads of National Significance showing that all up just over $200m had been spent on consultants. Here is the story:
Some $216 million has been spent since 2009 on investigation and design work for five of the seven roads – Puhoi to Wellsford, Auckland’s western ring route, the Waikato expressway, Wellington’s northern corridor and Christchurch motorways.…
Integrated Ticketing in Parliament
The HOP Card fiasco has continued in the last couple of days, with articles in the NZ Herald, on the news, on the radio and now in parliament – with Phil Twyford asking some questions yesterday around whether Auckland Transport were pressured by the government to allow Snapper to launch its product as a rebranded HOP card back in the first half of 2011.…
Petrol tax to increase
As expected, today the government announced that petrol taxes and road user charges will increase (by 2c a litre and 4.1% respectively), as of August 1st.
Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has today confirmed increases in petrol excise duty of two cents a litre and an equivalent increase in road user charges of an average of 4.1 per cent.…
Govt: We don’t care as long as the roads are built
Julie Anne Genter was been back in action in parliament yesterday asking questions of the government, this time around what it plans to do about future shortfalls to transport funds that are being predicted by the Ministry of Transport. The answers are quite frankly shocking and reveal that the government really care about the future impact the current expenditure as long as they get the roads built.…
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