EXPLAINER
The nuts and bolts: The Government has released its draft plan on what transport infrastructure it wants to prioritise over the next 10 years (the draft land transport Government Policy Statement (GPS). It includes a $7 billion-a-year spend on projects that, as expected, represent a swing away from public transport, footpaths and cycleways and towards roads, including 15 new four-lane highways.
There are several proposals to pay for the major projects, including public-private-partnerships and value capture.
Drivers’ wallets will also be hit, and not only by congestion charges, road tolls, and higher prices for petrol and vehicle registration.
In giving police a series of targets, the Government is sending a clear message: if you speed, or drink and drive, or take drugs and drive, there’ll be a greater chance of getting caught and having to pay a bigger fine.
Petrol will be 12c per litre more expensive in 2027, due to a rise in fuel excise duty, or fuel tax. This will jump again in 2028, this time by 6c per litre, and thereafter by 4c per litre annually.
This essentially defers by a year the increases that Labour campaigned on last year - 12c per litre over three years.
National has been accused of breaking a promise during the election campaign, when its transport spokesman - now Transport Minister - Simeon Brown said it would deliver a fully-costed transport policy including “13 new Roads of National Significance and four major public transport projects – and does not require increases to petrol tax”.
Whether this amounts to a broken promise is questionable. National has kept its promise to pause any increases in fuel tax and road user charges this parliamentary term. It would be fair to presume they’d be reinstated at the start of the next parliamentary term.
It’s also not unreasonable to interpret Brown’s quote as meaning fuel tax increases won’t be needed to fund National’s new roads, and it now appears they will be - albeit starting from 2027.
The Government has defended the proposed big hit in fuel tax in 2027 by saying that inflation will be much lower by then. Aucklanders will also no longer pay the 11.5c-a-litre regional fuel tax.
National didn’t campaign on increasing costs for vehicle registration, so this was a surprise.
The fee hasn’t been increased since 1994, and the proposed increases - $25 next year, and a further $25 in 2026 - would reset the fee to its 1994 equivalent, adjusted for inflation.
It’s a hefty raise. The current annual fee for a private petrol or electric vehicle is $106.15.
For most vehicles, the annual MVR fee will be $50 more expensive in 2026. For motorcycles, trailers and ATVs, it will be $28 more expensive, while for mopeds it will be $16.50 more.
Brown said on Monday that the lack of any MVR increase in three decades came to light after the election, and increasing it was something that was discussed and agreed to by Cabinet.
The increase in MVR will add approximately $530 million to the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) over three years.
There’s already provision for police to do roadside tests for drug-driving, but it hasn’t been used yet because there isn’t a suitable roadside testing device.
The Government wants to fix this (the draft GPS has no detail on how) so police can conduct 50,000 roadside tests annually. Drivers who fail the test for one qualifying drug can be fined $200 (and hit with 50 demerit points), or $400 (and 75 demerit points) if more than one drug is detected.
The Government also wants a greater focus on catching drink-drivers, and for police to do at least 3 million roadside alcohol breath tests per year.
That would mean as many roadside alcohol breath tests as the 3.1 million police did last year, the most they’d done in a decade and 26 per cent more than the 2.4 million they did in 2022.
Police will also have enforcement targets for catching speeding drivers.
The draft GPS says traffic fines will be reviewed and possibly indexed to inflation, though there are no details on how the indexing would apply.
Most fines haven’t increased since 1999. The draft GPS says: “As a result, a number of these penalties are poorly targeted, too low to deter unsafe behaviour, or misaligned with risk (which weakens the signal of risk to the public).”
A seat belt fine currently costs $150. This would rise to $278 if adjusted for inflation since 1999, and it would need to triple to bring it in line with Australia.
If you’re driving at less than 10km/h above the speed limit, your speeding fine is $30. If you’re 50km/h over the limit, it’s $630. These fines would almost double, if adjusted for inflation since 1999.
Police will also have a financial incentive to catch such drivers.
“A small amount of the NLTF that is available to Police will be dependent on performance against enforcement targets relating to speed, alcohol, breath testing, and oral fluid testing for drugs once the provisions come into force,” the draft GPS says.
Bigger fines and more police focus on catching drivers so they can issue these fines were about safety, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Monday.
“These measures are not about revenue-gathering. This is about sending a clear message to drivers that reckless behaviour and attitudes on our roads will not be tolerated.”
The extra revenue, though, will certainly not be unwelcome in a fiscal environment where the government books are tight, savings are being demanded across the public sector, and the transport wishlist is eye-wateringly expensive.
Labour had planned to spend up to $3.2b on public transport infrastructure over the next three years. This has been slashed by nearly $1b in the draft GPS, with an expectation of higher charges for public transport - though by how much will be up to local authorities.
“Ensuring local government pays their fair share, funding should also be supplemented by increased public transport fare-box recovery and third-party revenue,” Brown said on Monday.
Brown said there had been a 71 per cent increase in funding for public transport over the past five years, but patronage decreased by 23 per cent - partly due to Covid.
“The private share of funding for public transport over the same period has also fallen from approximately 32 per cent to 11 per cent which is putting significant funding pressure on local councils and the NLTF.”
The Government’s public transport priorities include Auckland’s City Rail Link and Eastern Busway. In Wellington, the Government will support the Lower North Island Rail Integrated Mobility project, upgrading rail network substations, and replacing rolling stock for the Wairarapa and Manawatu lines.
The draft GPS also signals that funding for walking and cycling should only happen “where there is either clear benefit for increasing economic growth or clear benefit for improving safety and demonstrated volumes of pedestrians and cyclists already exist”.
It adds that funds earmarked for state highway and local road improvements “will not be used to make multi-modal improvements, i.e., cycleways and busways”.
Funding for walking and cycling improvements has nearly been halved from up to $1b under Labour to $510m over the three years under the draft GPS.
The cornerstone of the draft GPS is 15 Roads of National Significance (Rons), which will be four-laned, grade-separated highways to be delivered “as quickly as possible”.
They are uncosted, and it’s possible they might cost $24b more than expected, though Brown said there are a range of estimates, and the Government’s plans for fast-track consenting should lower the costs.
There is also rejigging of Labour’s road maintenance funds; instead of $2.44b for state highway and local road maintenance under Labour, the draft GPS has put $2.69b to state highway and local road operations, including “pothole prevention” funds. There was also a top-up for “state highway improvements”.
This amounted to a new $500m pothole prevention fund (and an overall increase of $640m for road maintenance), according to Brown, which would include an expectation for state highway potholes to be fixed within 24 hours.
The 15 Roads of National Significance are:
Whangarei to Auckland, with the following stages prioritised:
Tauranga to Auckland, with the following stages prioritised:
Auckland roads:
Roads to unlock housing growth:
Other major routes:
The draft GPS also identifies Roads of Regional Significance that the Government “wants to progress” over the following 10 years, including:
Other commitments in the draft GPS include putting the remainder of the funding pot from the Auckland regional fuel tax towards the Eastern Busway, and an additional Waitemata Harbour crossing.
The public has until April 2 to provide feedback on the draft GPS.
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery and is a former deputy political editor.
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