Alan McDonald: Employers and Manufacturers Association head of advocacy on the National Land Transport Plan

The country could be driving towards a need for cross party agreement on transport. 

The Government's National Land Transport Plan will see almost $33 billion pumped into roading, public transport, and maintenance. 

Employers and Manufacturers Association head of advocacy Alan McDonald told Ryan Bridge there should be a broad agreement on what the main priorities are. 

He says that's critical if we want to get value from these projects and keep costs down. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sorry, cyclists, roads for cars and trucks are getting the
lines here of transport money through to twenty twenty seven.
By the way, we tried to get labor on about
this to see whether they were zen kombaya with the government,
but no response from them. However, thirty three billion dollars
announced yesterday over three years Auckland a big winner. Seven
billion for state highway improvements, five point five billion for

(00:21):
pothole prevention, us just prevention, six point four million on
new public transport, walking, cycling. The funding has been harved.
Alan McDonald is the Employees and Manufacturers Association head of
Advocacy and strategy. Allen, good morning, morning Roll. I mean
you'll obviously be pleased about the spending on some of
these roads, and particularly some of these routes the alternative

(00:44):
to the Brindwans. How important is.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
That, Oh, that's very important for unlocking the potential. It's
a Northland but also just getting some of those exports
to and from not just Auckland but through to Tower
as well. And as we're seeing with the terrible weather
events in the recent couple of years, that road there's
just such a vital link and it's basically at times

(01:08):
falling down literally?

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Can you are you confident that we can get the
work done for the price that is being claimed, just
given cost blowouts on writing projects. I mean, do you
have faith when you see plans like this?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'd like to have faith that they'd get underway the
costs themselves. Like any major project anywhere around the world,
is subject to cost pressures, so it's not something that's
unique to New Zealand. You tend to see these things
as well. That's roughly what it costs today, but by
the time we get it done, what's it going to cost? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
The National Land Transport Program is what they've announced. As
we mentioned, it's thirty three billion and it just lists
the priorities in terms of, you know, where they want
to start and get the shovel in the ground, that
kind of thing. Are you disappointed that there's not more
agreement between political parties on what needs funding.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I think we're getting to that point where everybody agrees
that we need some kind of not a consensus because
you're never going to get that, but some kind of
broad agreement on what the main priorities should be. And
I think it's critical really if we're going to extract
the value that we want from these projects and help

(02:26):
keep some of the cost down. That we do get
some kind of broad framework agreed and we stick to
it because it's the constant or the consistent, Oh we're
going to do this, but we're coming and we're not
going to do that. And it's that kind of flip
flopping and direction or even wiping out projects that costs

(02:48):
the country more money and intrustrates people that want to
use these things to know.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Allen, thank you for that. Alan McDonald's who's the I
should say the Employees and Manufacturers Association.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
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