Politics is often a choice between a bad option and one that is worse.
Our planning laws are dysfunctional. It is very difficult to get significant projects consented. The cost, time, and difficulty in getting planning approval is one reason infrastructure and housing are so expensive.
My suggestion is that after a limited timeframe, the fast-track planning legislation should expire. This will incentivise the Government to draft and pass planning laws that do allow projects large and small to be approved in a timely and efficient manner.
The original reason for the Resource Management Act was to integrate the planning process to make it cheaper and faster. The law got hijacked, just like every attempt to reform.
The impact of having planning laws that can be used to block needed infrastructure is enormous.
In my experience, Auckland’s traffic congestion is worse than New York’s. Auckland’s gridlock is not an accident. The city’s planners planned it.
When I was Minister of Transport I met with Auckland Regional Council. The council was stalling building roads that the Roads Board advised were essential.
I said: “I have got roading funding that you are not spending. Why is the council opposing building regional roads?”
The chief planner explained. “If there are no regional roads then people will live and work in their own locality. Auckland will become four cities, the north, west, central and south.”
“Where will you locate the three new airports?” I asked.
“Minister, we are opposed to any new airport.”
“With no regional roads, how do Aucklanders get to the airport”?
Auckland still has not answered the question. Light rail up Dominion Rd would not have helped most Aucklanders get to the airport.
It is a question that central government has been asking Auckland for half a century. When I was first elected the MP for Auckland Central, the Roads Board gave me a briefing on its priorities. Top of the list was an east-west link from Mt Wellington to the airport.
When I was minister, the city opposed building the link. When I left Parliament 30 years later, it had not been built. There is still no road connecting the east to the airport.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Minister of Transport Simeon Brown campaigned that National would build the East-West link. It is included in the proposed roads of national significance.
Auckland local body politicians are still opposed.
Mayor Wayne Brown has dismissed the link as a road of “National Party significance”. He says his Auckland integrated transport plan that is being developed will be more cost-efficient.
There are transport projects that have a higher cost-benefit return than the East-West link. Using existing transport assets more efficiently is a no-brainer. It is nuts to spend over $5 billion on the central rail link tunnel and then not remove rail crossings to increase the capacity and speed of passenger trains. The proposed northwest busway will deliver immediate benefits. And the mayor is right. A second harbour bridge is far cheaper than a tunnel.
A cost-benefit analysis is a way of taking politics out of decision-making. But, no matter how much cheaper a bus lane is, it cannot alter the fact Auckland needs more roads. You cannot take freight on a bus. The journey from Botany to the airport can take longer than the flight to Wellington.
Critics say roads only increase congestion. In January I visited the largest city in the world, Tokyo, with a population of 43 million. A friend drove me from Tokyo’s airport to his home. It was an easy trip, unlike my car journey to Auckland Airport.
Traffic congestion is not inevitable, it is a choice.
As we wait for the perfect plan, Auckland continues to gridlock.
The minister says he is waiting for the technology. I did not wait for the technology before implementing road user charges, so trucks pay their full cost of using the road. If every motorist paid their full cost of using the road, we can fund and maintain a modern roading network.
Pass the empowering legislation and the geeks will find a way to collect the charges.
We need to do everything on both Browns’ lists. Solve the traffic and Auckland is the best city in the world.
