I spent hours last Saturday afternoon navigating Auckland’s Southern Motorway in the worst traffic jam I have ever encountered.
I needed to get to Hamilton, which is not something you will hear often from me, but I was forced to abandon my mission. The traffic was at a (dead) standstill stretching 10km, and I was sitting in the middle of it.
Congestion is stealing our way of life (and, last week, almost my will to live). As I drove – or tried to – I looked at the roadworks on the motorway where there seemed to be an army of traffic trucks, cones, flashing lights and signs.
I wondered, “what’s led to us being suffocated with rules and laws, red tape and regulations? How many of these are genuinely needed? Are they actually getting in the way of genuine progress”?
Cones just millimetres apart cause visual pollution and, at times, cause more confusion than they solve about where to drive. The southern motorway, around Takanini and now south to Drury, has been a dog’s breakfast for years. One project ends and another begins so it’s not until 2027 that the next phase is meant to finish (they’re doing Drury at present). It started in 2021 so folks who commute in or out of Auckland along that stretch of southern motorway have spent months of their lives stuck in traffic. Talk about slowing us down.
Utter chaos awaits
But we have to remember that this is Auckland and when things go bad – it’s raining, a prang – it doesn’t take much for traffic to go from flowing normally to utter chaos. Given that, you’d think there’d be even more incentive to speed things up.
Anyway, I eventually made it to Hamilton. Then, of course, I had to come back… I really don’t want to come across as a professional whinger, but everyone has their limits and mine were well and truly reached. The traffic trucks “out-coned” themselves and created gridlock for probably 50km. According to the Automobile Association, when motorists see a cone, they reduce their speeds by 30%.
I was barely out of Hamilton, motoring up the well-constructed Waikato Expressway when the cones brought all momentum to a halt. The result: Four hours to get home when it should have taken less than two.
To use a transport metaphor, New Zealand is at the crossroads right now. Our standard of living should be rising but if anything, our lives in cities like Auckland are getting worse and less enjoyable. Why? I reckon it’s because we’ve convinced ourselves that we can no longer do anything at scale without a raft of regulations and if we try, then the government tells us there is no money.
Unlock the funds
So, show me the money! Ditch the short-term thinking and the sideshows and get some skilled thinkers who can unlock the funds that are out there so we can get moving. Prioritise the top 10 projects and ask Kiwis to invest in them.
Float Kiwibank (I’d buy into that). Fast-track toll roads and use some of the money we have in deposits to follow the example of the rest of the world and invest in our own infrastructure projects and growth.
That money should be working for us not others - but I bet the politicians couldn’t name our top six KiwiSaver providers and how much they have ready to invest. It’s time they became familiar with the KiwiSaver big players who have the money to invest.
Simplicity’s Sam Stubbs told me, via my Duncan Garner Editor in Chief podcast, that he has billions ready to throw at these problems, starting with a highway direct from Auckland to Whangārei. He’s building houses for long-term renters and rent to own. He’s doing what governments did in 1935 and 1950, making it easier and cheaper to own and rent long term. Why have the two main parties left such a void in this area? We need more of that from people like Sam – and for our government to get moving so we can, too.
It’s time to turn ‘no’ into ‘yes’. With Winston Peters back in Government - a past expert in no meaning yes - at least we can draw on his experience, right?
