Mōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, December 9 are:
Warkworth residents are angry that Transport Minister Simeon Brown has blocked work on a long-planned upgrade to a dangerous intersection because it included plans for walking and cycling, RNZ’s Peter de Graf reported on Saturday. It’s the latest National electorate where Brown’s abrupt and ideological rulings have overturned locally driven plans and expectations for safer and toll-free roads.
The Greens launched a set of alternative emissions reduction policies yesterday that co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said would cut emissions five times more than the current Government’s policies. The policies included a jobs guarantee, a Green Ministry of Works, removing forestry from the Emissions Trading Scheme, subsidising solar rollouts, investing heavily in regional passenger rail, possibly buying back the gentailers, reinstating the Clean Car Discount Scheme and banning oil & gas exploration again.
Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk will today release new insulation standards designed to reduce costs by between $2,300 to $15,000 per home, The Post-$$$’s Luke Malpass reports this morning, although the reported shift to a ‘modelling’ approach from a ‘prescriptive’ appears little different to changes proposed by the previous Labour Government.
ACT Leader David Seymour’s proposed legislation to get rid of red tape isn’t necessary, says the new Regulation Ministry he set up, The Post-$$$’s Andrea Vance reports this morning.
The Government is expected to announce by Wednesday what will replace the iRex Cook Strait ferries canceled by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. The focus is on whether any new ferry or ferries include capacity for rail freight to ‘roll on and roll off’ as trucks and cars do.
Both the NZ Herald-$$$ and the ODT−$$$ ran editorials this morning calling on the Government to reverse Kāinga Ora’s decision to stop buying local wool carpets in a quest to cut costs.
(Normally at this point we would have a paywall for free subscribers and only paying subscribers could both listen to the podcast/video above and read the analysis and detail below. But during our ‘Gravy Day Fortnight’ until December 21, we have opened everything up for all immediately to give everyone a full taste of the public interest journalism your subscription supports. And here’s our ‘Gravy Day Fortnight’ deals, including the 50%-off introductory offer, the $30 for under 30s deal and the $65 for renting pensioners deal, respectively.)
Yet more provincial voters angry at Simeon Brown’s dogma
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has managed to aggravate another set of voters in the provinces and suburbs with his pro-speeding, pro-tolling and anti-cycling views of the transport system.
Fresh from alienating the Wairarapa and Manawatu by planning to toll the new motorway linking the provinces, Brown has angered residents of Warkworth by cancelling the upgrade of a key intersection to make it safer because it happened to include some cycling and walking infrastructure. Residents in Whangapararoa Peninsular are also unhappy about Brown’s plans to toll the Penlink motorway now being built. There are also a number of grassroots campaigns in provincial electorates against Brown’s rulings lifting speed limits outside schools.
Here’s the detail in this Peter de Graf article via RNZ from Thursday on the latest shock ruling from Brown (bolding mine):
One Mahurangi Business Association manager Murray Chapman described it as particularly dangerous.
"If you can imagine an intersection designed by somebody going through emotional turmoil. There's five roads leading into it. Some people bully their way through. Some people will sit at the give-way signs for what seems like hours because they're too scared to go anywhere," he said.
Warkworth Lodge owner Liz Bays said the intersection actually had traffic coming from seven directions.
Warkworth residents have been lobbying roading authorities to fix the intersection for decades, and plans have been floated since at least 2010.
In 2023, Auckland Transport announced a solution involving two roundabouts had finally been found, and construction would start within 12 months, funding permitting.
However, a rejig of priorities meant the project no longer makes the cut in the government's 2024-27 roading funding plan, and it is not clear when it could be built after that. Peter de Graf article via RNZ
Then all became clear…
By Saturday, the reason for the rejection had become clear. Simeon Brown didn’t like the speed bumps and the cycleways included, so dumped the whole thing. Here’s the detail via RNZ’s Peter de Graf again (bolding mine):
Transport Minister Simeon Brown said that was because the Northern Motorway extension and the new Matakana link road had reduced traffic through the intersection, but also because the design included at least five new speed bumps and three sections of cycleway.
Brown said that did not align with government policy or his expectation that investment in transport infrastructure would get back to basics. If Auckland Transport wanted to advance the project, they would need to redesign it, then re-submit it to NZTA to apply for co-funding, Brown said.
Dave Stott, who co-chairs the One Mahurangi Transport and Infrastructure Forum with MP Chris Penk, said he was "extremely disappointed".
"We were appalled by the minister's comments about having to redesign the intersection with particular reference to cycling and pedestrian access, given that we've had a process of design engagement with Auckland Transport and NZTA … In fact, we felt insulted.
"This process has been going on now for about six years. We've had a number of our own engineers working side by side with the engineers at Auckland Transport to come up with what we believe to be the most economic and most effective design for that intersection."
Stott, a former roading engineer, said a raft of groups and government agencies had been involved in coming up with an integrated transport plan for the town that took into account the needs of motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and public transport.
The cycleways had been designed to link up with cycleways planned by three new housing developments in the Hill Street area - Arvida, the Kilns project and Templeton - as well as with the Matakana Coastal Trail.
"So what we are doing is tying in to a network proposed by a number of other parties, but also taking account of the fact that there's probably going to be up to 10,000 people living in the northeast of Warkworth in future.
"They, in particular school kids, are going to have to come through that intersection, because all the schools are to the west or the south.
"So we're looking at huge safety issues for schoolchildren and cyclists to get in to Warkworth," Stott said.
While it was true the number of vehicles using the intersection had fallen since the motorway extension had been completed, Stott said projections showed that once the three housing developments had been built, traffic volumes would be even higher than they had been pre-motorway. RNZ’s Peter de Graf
Simeon Brown is increasingly a political liability for Christopher Luxon
Brown’s anti-cycling, pro-speeding and pro-tolling crusades are making him and National increasingly unpopular in the provincial and suburban seats it currently occupies.
Warkworth-raised transport commentator Connor Sharp summed up the reasons for the rejection this morning via Greater Auckland:
When news broke that, after decades of going in circles (as we wrote over 10 years ago on this very blog), this construction-ready community-led design has had its funding pulled by NZTA, meaning the project is effectively cancelled – it’s safe to say the local community was furious.
This is a direct result of the Minister of Transport Simeon Brown’s crusade against safe streets and cycleways. His Government Policy Statement on transport essentially forbids NZTA from co-funding any multi-modal designs, especially if they include safety elements for walking, cycling, rolling and scooting, and even if communities want them. Connor Sharp from Greater Auckland
Connor doesn’t hold back, and he’s right, in my view:
This is what happens when your politicians are more concerned about ideological purity than actual people: they make up issues that are divorced from reality, and leave communities in the lurch.
Keep in mind that Warkworth is traditionally a National stronghold – having a solution snatched away, after decades of delay and failed attempts. Led and progressed by, and with, the community – then cancelled, because one Minister personally doesn’t care about safety and is somehow triggered by cycleways.
How many more millions will be spent redesigning this project to suit this one Minister’s conceit? How many more years will this take? What does that mean for safety in the meantime? And how lethal will the redesign need to be before this Minister will approve it? What if he’s not even the Minister any more, after Warkworth has been put through a whole stupid process all over again, just to please him?
In my view, Simeon Brown and Shane Reti are now Christopher Luxon’s main political liabilities, alongside Luxon’s own personal unpopularity. Their rulings and approaches on provincial projects could yet be the source of revolts from National’s back bench, which is packed with provincial MPs being peppered by complaints from their home towns.
Luxon may find it more convenient to ditch Brown and Reti before the revolts reach the top.
Cartoon du jour: The only way is up, baby…
Timeline-cleansing nature pic
Ngā mihi nui
Bernard
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