Meeting with Chris Bishop
Early in the week we met with Transport Minister Chris Bishop at the transport industry forum which is a quarterly meeting started by the former minister Simeon Brown. The forum also includes representation from AA, MTA and the importers of new and used vehicles.
For me, it was a chance to see what level of continuity Chris Bishop would bring and he didn’t disappoint. He’s only three weeks into the role and had read what appeared to be a reasonably solid briefing the night before so he had a grasp of the major issues. We’ve also shared our 2025 sector briefing with him and Associate Minister James Meager.
Minister Bishop also holds the Infrastructure portfolio, which is highly useful as we continue to emphasise the strong link between investment in roading infrastructure, increased productivity, and New Zealand’s economic recovery.
The Minister sees no need to change the growth-orientated Government Policy Statement on land transport policies. He sees the value of extending the life cycle of the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) from 3 to 10 years which will bring much greater certainty, and he is well aware of the risks to revenue streams for investment in roading.
I like that he wants to make a difference and appreciates that things need to happen to make that change. In my opinion the change in recent public polls showing a declining support in the Coalition Government are a result of things not happening across this portfolio and others, and there is now a stronger focus across Cabinet on making things happen.
On several occasions said we need to “crack on”, so if he can bring about some changes particularly with deliverables from the Ministry of Transport and NZTA then this will be good for our industry.
Proudly backing our industry advocacy
Last week, Transporting New Zealand and other leading transport associations (including the AA and MTA) were accused of utilising tobacco industry-like tactics in our submissions to government in order to sustain car-dependence and further the commercial interests of the so-called “road lobby”.
While the article, published in the Journal of Transport and Health, made for interesting reading, I think the conclusions were way off the mark. I’m proud of the fact that our advocacy is evidence-based, transparent, and driven by member feedback and priorities.
Responding to the article in the media, I emphasised that Transporting New Zealand is firmly committed to decarbonisation, as demonstrated by our Green Compact emission reduction framework that guides our submissions and member projects, and our staunch advocacy around removing barriers to low and zero emission technologies.
However, we’re also clear that transport policy and investment must support the resilience of the supply chain, avoid unaffordable cost increases for consumers and businesses, and support jobs and growth.
All in all, I think the study was a great endorsement that we’re doing a good job – communicating our member’s views in a transparent manner and ensuring the 30,000 people working in road freight across over 5,000 firms have their perspective represented across central and local government.
Everybody knows where Transporting New Zealand stands on sector issues, and we advocate on the basis of what will practically support transport productivity, safety and sustainability.
A country highly regarded for good traffic engineering increases its speed limits
As NZTA gets on with removing some of the blanket speed limit restrictions it had imposed and consulting on others, we’ve heard a number of media reports by experts that this will lead to more people dying.
The reversals and reviews were something we had lobbied hard for on the basis that the previous changes weren’t risk-based and the variability in speed limits between local roads and state highways had created a scenario where unless you saw a posted sign, it was a lottery for drivers trying to assess and determine the speed limit.
Therefore I read with interest that in the Netherlands, which has a much better road fatality rate per 100,000 inhabitants than ours, and is even better than Australia – which NZTA tends to hold up as a leader and a place to copy – is actually raising speed limits on some sections of highway. In 2020 the limit was cut to 100 km/h but the Dutch government is now bringing back the 130 km/h limit on sections of the A7 and A6 freeways where studies showed that proposed increased speed didn’t increase noise, pollution, and more importantly, accidents. This Country Isn’t Lowering Speed Limits, It’s Raising Them. Let’s hope this will help support our regulator make a shift in thinking to a more engineering and risk-based approach.
Fuel supply resilience not well understood
Media was also interested in our view on the future of the Marsden Point Refinery and the announcement about it becoming a special economic zone.
Having spent over a decade in the fuel sector I believe I have a better than average understanding of that situation. Clearly, the loss of refining has had a massive impact on the community and I do feel for individuals that have had their livelihoods affected. However, the reality is that in terms of resilience in fuel supply and price we’re better off now than we were before.
This is an area where there are different views and messages coming from the road freight sector and I am concerned that this runs the risk that more time, money and effort will go into doing work in this area that is ultimately a poor investment in time with a low rate of return. I’ll cover this in more detail in next week’s blog.
Interest in survey high
I was also pleased to see media interest in the national road freight industry survey that is going live in March.
Too much work is being done based on perception and not hard data. And this is in an era where there is so much change going on, both in technological change and change in customer demands.
It’s important we base our strategies on evidence and data. It’s over twenty years since a survey has been undertaken like this and the results will be key to informing our choice of what we work on and that it actually aligns with what the industry feels and wants.
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