Simeon Brown: Tolls to pay for new roads

New roads of national significance will be paid for by tolls. 

Seven roads are being fast-tracked and construction is set to begin within the next three years. 

The projects are Belfast to Pegasus, the Hawke's Bay Expressway, State Highway 1 Cambridge to Piarere, State Highway 29 Tauriko, Takitimu North Link Stage 2, Mill Road, and Warkworth to Wellsford. 

Transport Minister Simeon Brown joins Mike Hosking to discuss. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New roads of national significance are coming. They'll be denounced
by the Minister sibmi in Brown. Seven are being fast
tracked and construction are set to start within the next
three years. The projects are Belfast to Pegasus, the Hawks
Bay Expressway, State Highway one, Cambridge to Pierreri State Higway
twenty nine at Telco, take a Temu North Link Stage
two Mill Roads in Auckland and walk with to Wellsford

(00:23):
and so Transport Minister Simmy and Brown Joyce, we now
hello simeon good morning. Will these be.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Told what we've said we will toll all roads were
enz Intiat recommends they should have a toll. Effectively, tolls
are away to raise revenue to bring in prastructure investment forward.
And importantly, people have a choice. They can choose to
go on the tolled road, which is faster, more efficient
and safer, or they can go on the alternative road
where they don't have to pay, but it may add

(00:51):
a few extra minutes to their time. So ultimately it's
about choice, but it's also about raising the revenue to
bring that investment forward so we can have the modern,
reliable roading infrastructure that New Zealanders need.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
So you ask the ns in TA, can you please
tell them that they decide.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
But ulfinitely ministers have to sign off on any totlling recommendation.
They do a tolling assessment to determine whether or not
it's suitable for that particular road and what the and
what it would be. We then sign it off. We're
saying where they make a recommendation, the government will sign
it off because ultimately we want to bring that infrastructure forward.
We want to see it built and constructed quicker. We

(01:26):
want to be able to ensure the New Zealanders and
get where they want to go quicker and faster and safer.
So if they're going to be tough about getting things done, so.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
If they're going to be told how much will the.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Toll be, well that would be determined as part of
that process and the assessments that goes into it, and
there will be a range of variables in terms of
you know, how long is the stretch of road, what
are what are the impacts in terms of how many
people may choose to go on the alternative if you
if you increase the toll to the range of go
into a tolling guest got a rough guess of no,

(01:57):
I don't. I don't have any rough guesses on it
because ultimate it's an assessment that has to be undertaken.
But what I would say is it's all about raising
the revenues to be able to build that infrastructure faster
so that New Zealanders can get where they need to
go quicker and safer and we can have a more
productive economy around them.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
At first, taxpayers are still going to have to stump
up the money, aren't they going to build it? And
then they have to wait for the coffers to be
refilled by the tolls.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Right, Well, I mean if you look around the rest
of the world, this is how infrastructure is built. Tolls
can be used to bring forward infrastructure investment. It's also
a way to attract private sector investment to actually take
that upfront capital risk as well. If you look around
the world, that's what's done. You see PPPs which are
used where a private sector makes it up for an
investment and then it gets that money repaid via a

(02:41):
toll over a long period of time.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
But the tolls are post construction, so you're still going
to have to stump up the money to get them built.
In the first place.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, that's where a public private partnership can step in
and bring private sector capital upfront and take that development.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Risk, so these will be covered.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
While we've said we're up into all time to funding
and financing arrangements to get infrastructure built in New Zealand,
the reality is of the country we have an infrastructure deficit.
We have had six years where we've had nothing done
and we need to get actually get things done faster
in New Zealand. And so we've said all options are
on the table to get infrastructure built faster in New Zealand.
That's why we're putting fast track on the table because

(03:20):
otherwise these roads will take years to get consented. New
Zealand is a sick and tired of how long it
takes to get anything done in New Zealand, and as
a government we are we're frustrated about the time it
takes that we're breaking through all of those barriers so
we can get things done in New Zealand, just.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Trying to figure out how much it's going to cost
us in our cost of living. But here's the thing.
When the tolls stop and the fore cost has been recouped,
will the tolls continue to remain.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, that's a that's traditionally how it's been done in
some of the tolling roads in New Zealand, such as
the Harbor Bridge. If it's a public private partnership, there
may be other contractual arrangements as part of that.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
What are oh simeon constructing those.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Roads and those decisions we made then?

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Because if you invested in a new network for the SVIATO,
you just dropped out briefly there, but there we go.
How did you choose these first seven roads, whether economically
or politically? Because I know that Wayne Brown says as
a road of national significant and says opposed to national
significance if you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, many of these roads have been in the pipeline,
the planning pipeline for some years. They were all canceled
or many of them were canceled by the last Labor
government because they ultimately wanted to build Auckland Light Fail instead,
which they failed to do. These are roads which are
part of the main state highway network. Were the high
volume roads which are critical to our national supply chains

(04:37):
and also unlocking land for houndling and growth. So they're
all critically important infrastructure we campaigned in them in the
last election. New Zealanders voted for us, and we're delivering
on what New Zealanders voted for us to deliver the good.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
So Saba, I thank you so much. That is a
local government Minissipian Browning.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
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