Simeon Brown: Transport Minister on the Government's new National Land Transport Plan

The Transport Minister says today's National Land Transport Plan shouldn't surprise councils.

Simeon Brown's unveiled the new $32.9 billion scheme, which includes $5.5 billion for pothole prevention, and $7 billion for state highway improvements.

Brown says this is the end of funding for speed-bumps, a change councils were already told about in the Government Policy Statement published in July.

He says Kiwis are sick of councils slowing drivers down.

"Councils are the road-controlling authorities, they can still go and do other things on their roads - they just won't be receiving a subsidy from the Government for that." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afternoon. The government is putting roads front and center and
it's three year land transport plan. This is a plan
all the way through to twenty twenty seven. They're spending
thirty three billion dollars. That includes more money for fixing potholes,
more money on building new roads, lease money on rail
and the walking and cycling budget has been slashed actually
frankly by more than half, from one billion to four

(00:21):
hundred and sixty million. Transport Minister Simeon Brown is with
us now, Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Samn, good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
How many roads are you going to have built or
at least under construction by the next election.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, we've got seven new roads of national significance which
have been put in place to be starting construction over
the next three years. So those include Mill Road in Auckland,
Walkworth to Welsford, Cambridge to pad Day take a team
of Stage two. You've got the road north of christ Church,

(00:50):
the wood End Bypass, and you've got a couple of
others as well. So there's a range of roading projects
that we are able to bring forward due to this
significant investment to be put back into roading and putting
roading Frankly, front and center for the money that people
road users pay when they fill up their cars or
paid road user charges. That's what they want to see.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
It going back into no funding at all for speed bumps.
No speed bumps in this plan.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
So no, we're cutting the funding for speed bumps with
In fact, I call it an infestation of speed bumps
that we've seen across our roads whilst potholes have been
remaining unfilled. So actually I want to see that money
going into filling potholes, not making it inconvenient for motorists
trying to get around.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
In fact, is it a zero, like it's a zero
for the speed bumps?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
That is correct, there's no further funding for speed bumps
under this National Land trend.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
To me, and did you tell the councils that?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, I think I've been very clear in terms of
all of the language, and in fact the Government Policy
Statement on Transport says that. So that's a public document
I published back in July. It says that, so that
won't come as a surprise. The reality is, I think
Keywis are sick and tired of councils up and down
this country simply trying to slow them down and cause

(02:02):
congestion rather than actually increase the efficiency of their local
roading network. So that's the focus of this National Land
Transport program. You know, councils are of road controlling authorities.
They can still go and do other things on their roads,
they just won't be receiving a subsidy from the government
for that.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Your public transport budget is going up from four point
nine billion to six point four what are you spending
that on?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
So that's really focused on reliability of services. So there's
a significant increase in funding for the public transport services.
So in Auckland we've got the City of rail Link opening,
so there's new services that need to be funded. The
Eastern Busway will be completed and including the Reefs Road
fly over there. So that's all about the reliability of
those services and making sure that they're efficient for people

(02:45):
using them. So there's a number of challenges in that space.
That's the real key focus.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
And are you sure you should be cutting the funding
for rail given the situation that we find ourselves in
Auckland's rail is in big trouble. Wellington's rail seems to
be in a bit of trouble as well well.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
There is increased funding full rail in terms of those
metro lines. In fact, we've allocated the in the budget
another one hundred and fifty nine million dollars to complete
the rail network rebuild in Auckland, and there's increased funding
also for the Wellington metros. But what we're not going
to be seeing is there is there's going to be
less money for some of those freight routes which frankly

(03:21):
don't have as many freight trains actually using them. The
focus will be on the metros and on the high
volume freight routes where there is a significant amount of activity,
rather than just spreading it thinly across the entire country.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Simon, thanks very much, really appreciate your time. That Simmy
and Brown Transport Minister don't know how the council is Again,
councils love a speed Bumpay, they're going to flip out
about this. Eleven past five. For more from Heather Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks. It'd be from
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.