Source: Radio New Zealand
AFP
Infrastructure New Zealand is calling for more investment in Auckland’s transport woes, warning congestion and delays threaten the country’s productivity.
The lobby group joined with thinktank Committee for Auckland to hold a summit of leaders from across business, infrastructure, and government to find ways through the city’s transport challenges.
Chief executive Nick Leggett said Auckland accounted for nearly 40 percent of the country’s GDP, and the city’s success mattered to New Zealanders regardless of where they live.
“This is about Auckland and the wider New Zealand Inc – Auckland is too big to fail and it’s too big to fail if you live in Christchurch or Wellington or Whangārei or Invercargill – it’s the lifeblood of our economy, so we’ve all got an interest in how successful Auckland is.”
He said it was not a matter of either/or, as the regions also needed investment.
“But it is the country’s largest economy, and if supply chains don’t move effectively through Auckland, it has a national impact.”
A report from the summit – Transporting Auckland Forward: A Call to Action – called for short, medium and long-term actions, a reassessment of centralised strategies and funding that saw Wellington controlling direction and the purse, and a public discussion about funding methods.
Summit participants agreed the issues were well known, and the repeated lack of progress highlighted gaps in leadership and a failure to follow through, Leggett said.
“New Zealand is very good at admiring its problems, irrespective of where in the country or what the challenge is, but what we’ve got to do is change our behaviour so we move quicker and are more effective in addressing them.”
There was a propensity to fall into a “study loop” where projects were “revisited, often redesigned and delayed rather than actually delivered”.
Leggett said that could erode confidence and push up costs over time, citing the second Auckland Harbour crossing and light rail.
“Those have come around again, but it does cost money and it costs time and people go ‘well this is just never going to happen’ and we can’t afford that as a nation.
“Being small means we should be faster and better at this but often I think there’s a bit of a cultural problem where we think we’ve got to talk about things again and again, and getting started is often our biggest hurdle.”
Funding approaches including congestion charging, tolling, local funding such as rates and development contribution, and “asset recycling” all needed to be considered, and implemented, sometimes in combination, he said.
Asset recycling was more than rebranded privatisation in that proceeds were earmarked and reinvested immediately into other public assets and infrastructure, Leggett said.
Getting Auckland right could result in a model for the whole country, and getting transport right was a key part of that.
“The bottom line is we can’t build our way out of this.”
Whatever funding solutions were used, revenue taken had to be reinvested in solutions, he said.
“That could mean transport, intensification – which has been a serious topic in Auckland of late – but it is vital to have people living closer to where they work, which builds vibrancy and intensity.
“It’s about decongesting roads so freight can move and getting people onto the modes of transport that best suit them in their daily lives.
“Transport is the key here, so people can move around where they live and work and where they have fun,” Leggett said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
