Brown cuts cycling and walking investments to $460m in 2024-27 transport plan by using money unspent from 2021-24, so no new funds; NZTA analysis shows new plan will increase climate emissions
I’m beginning to think we shouldn’t worry so much about a Regulation Ministry. Instead we should have Ministry of Truth. A ministry dedicated to plain speaking and deframing reframed doublespeak.
It seems it’s been that way since the 4th Labour Government, and just got worse and worse and worse.
Oh wait, that Government actually commenced in 1984 🙄
But seriously an independent ombudsman-like assessor would be useful. You know, like the job journalists used to do…
I used to think Postman was the most bang-on with his thoughts on “amusing ourselves to death”. I’m now fearing a merging of 1984 (including theocracies) arising on the top of the mind-numbing impacts of our brave new world. There used to be a debate about which were leaning to, I think few considered we would get a layer cake of one on top of the other.
Thank goodness for Substack I say, and the ability for independently minded folks to have a place to stand.
This - addressing the communication mess and giving clear focus in digestible content - is your super power with The Kaka.
Thanks Geoff. It’s useful and seems to work in my case, but has yet to create the scale to replace those big cardres of reporters at newspapers or TV. We’ll see.
My idle brain has often wondered where we'd be now if George Orwell had never written 1984. I don't imagine he ever meant it as a government blueprint.
Simeon Brown is referred to as "Five" in our household, due to his uncanny resemblance to the character from the Netflix sci-fi Umbrella Academy. Five looks and dresses like a 14 year old schoolboy and has a special ability to transport himself instantly to another timeline,
a skill that may prove to be very handy for Minister Brown if his policies come to fruition as expected.
Will ensure I watch this program, it might allow me to cope with the impossible announcements without research this current government is enforcing on our wonderful country.
'IRD’s long term insights briefing consultation paper (page 12) includes this Treasury/Stats NZ chart showing Crown Land Tax (ie not rates) and Estate and Gift Duties made up more than a third of the Crown’s tax revenue between the early 1930s and the early 1970s, before income taxes and GST took up the load progressively (or should that be regressively) from the late 1960s onwards.'
Just to clarify: I think we're talking here about a tax by central government (the state, the Crown) on all privately owned land, not a tax on crown land.
We need to bring back land tax, inheritance tax, and gift tax, and to introduce capital gains tax, to fund NZ Superannuation, and long-term infrastructure.
Or we could restart stamp duty. It is still on the books just set to 0%. Set it to 3% on every land transaction (no exceptions) tomorrow. Voila instant, fair, easy to administer revenue! Many other countries have this including Australia, Denmark, UK, Sweden and Singapore. In a short time it would become invisible.
Seems clear from Minister Brown’s comments he has never talked to New Zealander, this one certainly wants more investment in cycling and public transport.
The just released 2024-2027 transport plan is deficient in more ways than just the lack of provision for walking and cycling, a comprehensive inter-regional passenger and freight rail network, and the blatant climate change denial.
"The reality is the various road taxes now barely even cover the maintenance and operations costs for roads. Combined, they equate to $13.7 billion in funding, which is less than 42% of total transport spending and only just higher than the combined direct crown funding sources.
"In other words, the government plans to fund its roads-heavy programme by matching road taxes dollar-for-dollar with non-road taxes – the latter diverted from other potential beneficial uses (schools, hospitals, social services, other transport infrastructure, etc) while also actively cutting funding to schools, hospitals, social services, and other transport infrastructure, etc."
This funding shortfall - roughly $2.5 billion in 2027 rising to around $6 billion in 2030 - is intended to be covered by private rentier financing - aka financier welfare, catering to donors and lobbiests.
Seriously using benefit-cost ratio (developed using a proper comprehensive account of costs and benefits) as a major input into decision making over which active mobility, rail, coastal shipping, road and aviation is just my fantasy, compared to actuality of relying on the reckons of Steven Joyce and Simeon Brown and Chris Bishop.
Re benefit/cost ratio, maybe a better use of some of the transport budget would be to send Simeon Brown on a fact finding trip to some of the major cities in the world to see how they seamlessly transport millions of people every day on public transport systems which cater for every type of conveyance. He may even come back enlightened.
With cycling is just a posture, a culture war, he can’t really feel that is a save to forced future cycling expenditure below the current 1% of the annual transport budget.
Obviously not all New Zealanders are sick of cycleways. Across Auckland’s 26 cycleways counters from August 2023 to July 2024, a total of 3.37 million cycle movements were recorded, indicating a 9.5% increase compared to the corresponding 12-month period from the previous year.
Over the last forty years a significant amount of funds available for infrastructure has been spent on roads. The net result is that a significant proportion of our roads a clogged with traffic, with no chance of going fast. Even our provincial cities, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Nelson have so much traffic that it has a negative effect on the joy of living in such places. If we keep spending vast sums of money on roads and expect a different outcome then we really are stupid (see famous Einstein quote). Without quantitative evidence, I would hazard a guess that our total reliance on the motor car - to and from work, school, groceries - is having a detrimental effect on our health. Lack of exercise and emissions. Maybe if more people walked/cycled we would have less pressure on our health system. I have just returned from cycle touring in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy. A lot of these places reached the point long ago when they realised that the mathematics of fitting so many cars into limited spaces was not going to work. The bicycle and good cycling infrastructure has been part of the solution. A highlight for us was seeing whole families on cycle touring trips (including toddlers in trailers) and healthy looking older people going about their daily chores on old bikes. I’m sick of New Zealand’s reliance on the motor car. I am also sick of being landed with politicians like Simeon Brown who operate on prejudice and what their mates tell them rather than rational, evidence based thinking.
Bruce, I research transport and health and can confirm there is an extensive body of research (both quantitative and qualitative) which demonstrates a range of health benefits for active and public transport vs car dependent transport system. In fact, a NZ study has modelled the health harm of our current transport system and it’s similar in magnitude to the effects of tobacco or obesity. A transport system which gave people choice to walk or cycle safely would have long lasting benefits to health and reduce strain on health care system
Thanks for that, Alice. It was interesting that during Covid lockdowns a number of places in the world reported near zero number of people being admitted to hospital for respiratory problems.
Remember after the earthquake the christchurch cc proposed that ehen rebuilding the roads that they included separated cycle lanes and the earthquake recovery minister scotched the idea because it was going to cost an extra $100 million. Also the CDHB also urged them build them. This was around 2014/2015 so I can’t find the news item.
And just wait until we have an oil crisis, where petrol becomes too expensive to drive around anyway. Everyone will be wishing they had a bike! At least we’ll be able to just take over the roads then 😜
"But the total $8 billion price tag doesn’t actually buy new highways. The roads are several years, if not decades, away from becoming a reality. Instead, these funds will be dedicated to extensive planning, design and preparatory work, rather than actual construction."
"The approach effectively commits billions in taxpayer dollars to preparatory work without delivering any tangible infrastructure improvements. New Zealanders will likely find themselves stuck in worsening traffic, waiting for highways that may never materialise."
I would like journalists at stand-ups when any Minister says something like that, to immediately respond with "show us the evidence". (Especially when the cameras are there.)
The stands ups often look like performance rather than meaningful dialogue.
Bernard - interested in your take on effective strategies for more robust interviewing and questioning. Are many of the media people timorous because they fear being cut out of future opportunities/interviews if they ask the hard questions or contradict the presenter? Or are they insufficiently prepared to grapple on the spot with the topics because their time for any topic is stretched beyond a realistic workload? Or, depressingly, have they given up and accepted that their lot is to recycle press releases loaded with politically charged slogans and pass that off as news?
Maybe add the lack of mathematical abilities for most in the journalism sector to that list of 'excuses'. I'm constantly disappointed by the apparent lack of understanding when it comes to reporting quantifying virtually anything. Hectares become rugby fields, tonnages become jumbo jets or elephants, volumes become swimming pools and don't get me started on cms being confused with mms or metres with feet FGS.
How do you get an underspend of $460m? It peas me off when politicians say "New Zealanders have had enough" the only true reflection of that comment, is if it referred to Politicians and how they all bullshet. We deserve better. We work our backsides off and want to enjoy our time at mahi and more so when we get home, but these twats are determined to make life miserable for most, while putting smile on the faces of the few.
It seems clear this government is basing their policies on supermarket queue conversations and facebook anecdotes. They treat evidence that challenges or contradicts their agenda with an empty distain that seems to play well to the fringe dwellers. The result is their donors feel they are getting their money's worth and their supporters feel affirmed by their platitudes that make actually understanding the issues unnecessary.
It's a bit like the jerk who came up to me in the supermarket yesterday and in a loud voice said 'Masks are a waste of time - but you do you darlin' and looked around for applause
I need to re-paraphrase the final lines of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address! So that government of Fordrangerman by Fordrangerman for Fordrangerman shall not perish from this earth ( or what remains of it)
I’m beginning to think we shouldn’t worry so much about a Regulation Ministry. Instead we should have Ministry of Truth. A ministry dedicated to plain speaking and deframing reframed doublespeak.
It seems it’s been that way since the 4th Labour Government, and just got worse and worse and worse.
Oh wait, that Government actually commenced in 1984 🙄
But seriously an independent ombudsman-like assessor would be useful. You know, like the job journalists used to do…
Thanks Geoff. Indeed. There is an ombudsman too, but very underresourced.
I used to think Postman was the most bang-on with his thoughts on “amusing ourselves to death”. I’m now fearing a merging of 1984 (including theocracies) arising on the top of the mind-numbing impacts of our brave new world. There used to be a debate about which were leaning to, I think few considered we would get a layer cake of one on top of the other.
Thank goodness for Substack I say, and the ability for independently minded folks to have a place to stand.
This - addressing the communication mess and giving clear focus in digestible content - is your super power with The Kaka.
Thanks Geoff. It’s useful and seems to work in my case, but has yet to create the scale to replace those big cardres of reporters at newspapers or TV. We’ll see.
My idle brain has often wondered where we'd be now if George Orwell had never written 1984. I don't imagine he ever meant it as a government blueprint.
Simeon Brown is referred to as "Five" in our household, due to his uncanny resemblance to the character from the Netflix sci-fi Umbrella Academy. Five looks and dresses like a 14 year old schoolboy and has a special ability to transport himself instantly to another timeline,
a skill that may prove to be very handy for Minister Brown if his policies come to fruition as expected.
Ha! Now I can’t unsee that image.
Will ensure I watch this program, it might allow me to cope with the impossible announcements without research this current government is enforcing on our wonderful country.
It's worse than without research. There is research and data and advice on everything they did so far, they just choose to ignore it.
Seymour is well known as Rimmer, of course
He's also very annoying :)
He also has an uncanny likeness to Peewee Herman.
'IRD’s long term insights briefing consultation paper (page 12) includes this Treasury/Stats NZ chart showing Crown Land Tax (ie not rates) and Estate and Gift Duties made up more than a third of the Crown’s tax revenue between the early 1930s and the early 1970s, before income taxes and GST took up the load progressively (or should that be regressively) from the late 1960s onwards.'
Just to clarify: I think we're talking here about a tax by central government (the state, the Crown) on all privately owned land, not a tax on crown land.
We need to bring back land tax, inheritance tax, and gift tax, and to introduce capital gains tax, to fund NZ Superannuation, and long-term infrastructure.
Ah yes. I see the accidental confusion. I will correct that now.
Or we could restart stamp duty. It is still on the books just set to 0%. Set it to 3% on every land transaction (no exceptions) tomorrow. Voila instant, fair, easy to administer revenue! Many other countries have this including Australia, Denmark, UK, Sweden and Singapore. In a short time it would become invisible.
That’s not a bad idea
Seems clear from Minister Brown’s comments he has never talked to New Zealander, this one certainly wants more investment in cycling and public transport.
The just released 2024-2027 transport plan is deficient in more ways than just the lack of provision for walking and cycling, a comprehensive inter-regional passenger and freight rail network, and the blatant climate change denial.
Greater Auckland, at https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2024/09/03/nltp-2024-released-destroying-pipeline-of-shovel-ready-local-projects/ , sets out the magnitude of the funding shortfall arising from 2027. It comments
"The reality is the various road taxes now barely even cover the maintenance and operations costs for roads. Combined, they equate to $13.7 billion in funding, which is less than 42% of total transport spending and only just higher than the combined direct crown funding sources.
"In other words, the government plans to fund its roads-heavy programme by matching road taxes dollar-for-dollar with non-road taxes – the latter diverted from other potential beneficial uses (schools, hospitals, social services, other transport infrastructure, etc) while also actively cutting funding to schools, hospitals, social services, and other transport infrastructure, etc."
This funding shortfall - roughly $2.5 billion in 2027 rising to around $6 billion in 2030 - is intended to be covered by private rentier financing - aka financier welfare, catering to donors and lobbiests.
The alternative of overt monetary financing using the government's sovereign currency issuing power is ignored. Correcting the massive subsidy in the RUC system for heavy trucks is ignored ( https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/270436c5-965e-4df2-8d82-583cbf72b9c6 ).
Seriously using benefit-cost ratio (developed using a proper comprehensive account of costs and benefits) as a major input into decision making over which active mobility, rail, coastal shipping, road and aviation is just my fantasy, compared to actuality of relying on the reckons of Steven Joyce and Simeon Brown and Chris Bishop.
Re benefit/cost ratio, maybe a better use of some of the transport budget would be to send Simeon Brown on a fact finding trip to some of the major cities in the world to see how they seamlessly transport millions of people every day on public transport systems which cater for every type of conveyance. He may even come back enlightened.
Wonder if the cancellation fees for the iReX ferries have to come out of this fund as well?
With cycling is just a posture, a culture war, he can’t really feel that is a save to forced future cycling expenditure below the current 1% of the annual transport budget.
Obviously not all New Zealanders are sick of cycleways. Across Auckland’s 26 cycleways counters from August 2023 to July 2024, a total of 3.37 million cycle movements were recorded, indicating a 9.5% increase compared to the corresponding 12-month period from the previous year.
Source https://at.govt.nz/cycling-walking/research-monitoring/monthly-cycle-monitoring
Who says the public is sick and tired of cycling projects? I’ve only heard old tired politicians say such stuff!
More governance by anecdote from those unable or willing to read the f****cking report
Over the last forty years a significant amount of funds available for infrastructure has been spent on roads. The net result is that a significant proportion of our roads a clogged with traffic, with no chance of going fast. Even our provincial cities, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Nelson have so much traffic that it has a negative effect on the joy of living in such places. If we keep spending vast sums of money on roads and expect a different outcome then we really are stupid (see famous Einstein quote). Without quantitative evidence, I would hazard a guess that our total reliance on the motor car - to and from work, school, groceries - is having a detrimental effect on our health. Lack of exercise and emissions. Maybe if more people walked/cycled we would have less pressure on our health system. I have just returned from cycle touring in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy. A lot of these places reached the point long ago when they realised that the mathematics of fitting so many cars into limited spaces was not going to work. The bicycle and good cycling infrastructure has been part of the solution. A highlight for us was seeing whole families on cycle touring trips (including toddlers in trailers) and healthy looking older people going about their daily chores on old bikes. I’m sick of New Zealand’s reliance on the motor car. I am also sick of being landed with politicians like Simeon Brown who operate on prejudice and what their mates tell them rather than rational, evidence based thinking.
Bruce, I research transport and health and can confirm there is an extensive body of research (both quantitative and qualitative) which demonstrates a range of health benefits for active and public transport vs car dependent transport system. In fact, a NZ study has modelled the health harm of our current transport system and it’s similar in magnitude to the effects of tobacco or obesity. A transport system which gave people choice to walk or cycle safely would have long lasting benefits to health and reduce strain on health care system
Thanks for that, Alice. It was interesting that during Covid lockdowns a number of places in the world reported near zero number of people being admitted to hospital for respiratory problems.
Remember after the earthquake the christchurch cc proposed that ehen rebuilding the roads that they included separated cycle lanes and the earthquake recovery minister scotched the idea because it was going to cost an extra $100 million. Also the CDHB also urged them build them. This was around 2014/2015 so I can’t find the news item.
https://theconversation.com/healthier-happier-fairer-new-research-shows-major-life-benefits-from-decarbonising-transport-237660 hot off the press!
And just wait until we have an oil crisis, where petrol becomes too expensive to drive around anyway. Everyone will be wishing they had a bike! At least we’ll be able to just take over the roads then 😜
No, they live in some fantasy world where EVs just magically appear, courtesy of the "market"
Yet fail to realise, or acknowledge, EVs don't sole the car problem
Meh, 'sole', 'solve'
This column is a heartbreaking read.
https://theconversation.com/spinning-its-wheels-the-new-national-transport-plan-steers-nz-back-to-a-car-dependent-past-238066
"But the total $8 billion price tag doesn’t actually buy new highways. The roads are several years, if not decades, away from becoming a reality. Instead, these funds will be dedicated to extensive planning, design and preparatory work, rather than actual construction."
"The approach effectively commits billions in taxpayer dollars to preparatory work without delivering any tangible infrastructure improvements. New Zealanders will likely find themselves stuck in worsening traffic, waiting for highways that may never materialise."
Sigh.
I would like journalists at stand-ups when any Minister says something like that, to immediately respond with "show us the evidence". (Especially when the cameras are there.)
The stands ups often look like performance rather than meaningful dialogue.
Bernard - interested in your take on effective strategies for more robust interviewing and questioning. Are many of the media people timorous because they fear being cut out of future opportunities/interviews if they ask the hard questions or contradict the presenter? Or are they insufficiently prepared to grapple on the spot with the topics because their time for any topic is stretched beyond a realistic workload? Or, depressingly, have they given up and accepted that their lot is to recycle press releases loaded with politically charged slogans and pass that off as news?
Great questions!
Anyone know the answers?
Maybe add the lack of mathematical abilities for most in the journalism sector to that list of 'excuses'. I'm constantly disappointed by the apparent lack of understanding when it comes to reporting quantifying virtually anything. Hectares become rugby fields, tonnages become jumbo jets or elephants, volumes become swimming pools and don't get me started on cms being confused with mms or metres with feet FGS.
Wow that chart of the day really is something!
How do you get an underspend of $460m? It peas me off when politicians say "New Zealanders have had enough" the only true reflection of that comment, is if it referred to Politicians and how they all bullshet. We deserve better. We work our backsides off and want to enjoy our time at mahi and more so when we get home, but these twats are determined to make life miserable for most, while putting smile on the faces of the few.
> The results of the CATI and MOAT analysis are not inconsistent with the 2050 target and emissions reduction budgets
They're not breaking the law, they're not not breaking the law. Got it, clear as mud.
It seems clear this government is basing their policies on supermarket queue conversations and facebook anecdotes. They treat evidence that challenges or contradicts their agenda with an empty distain that seems to play well to the fringe dwellers. The result is their donors feel they are getting their money's worth and their supporters feel affirmed by their platitudes that make actually understanding the issues unnecessary.
It's a bit like the jerk who came up to me in the supermarket yesterday and in a loud voice said 'Masks are a waste of time - but you do you darlin' and looked around for applause
Hi Bernard
I need to re-paraphrase the final lines of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address! So that government of Fordrangerman by Fordrangerman for Fordrangerman shall not perish from this earth ( or what remains of it)
Patrick Medlicott