Source: Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand
Road freight association Transporting New Zealand says additional transport and infrastructure spending announced in today’s Budget will support economic growth and jobs at a time of significant economic uncertainty.
Transporting New Zealand Chief Executive Dom Kalasih said investments in the Cambridge to Piarere Expressway, state highway resilience, additional strategic fuel reserves, and contingency funding for fuel price support demonstrated the Government was maintaining focus on long-term infrastructure and supply chain resilience.
“The Government has shown a continued commitment to addressing New Zealand’s infrastructure deficit and delivering fit-for-purpose transport infrastructure despite tight fiscal conditions. That’s good news for productivity, safety, and keeping New Zealanders in employment.”
The Budget includes $150 million for additional strategic fuel reserves to strengthen New Zealand’s fuel resilience, along with a $450 million contingency reserve for temporary targeted support if international fuel market conditions worsen.
Kalasih said the Government was sensible to avoid making inflexible commitments on future fuel excise duty and road user charge increases given current global volatility and ongoing cost pressures.
“Given the current levels of international uncertainty, and transport cost pressures on New Zealanders, it makes sense for the Government to keep their options open on when to increase fuel excise and road user charges.”
“There is serious pressure on land transport revenue, and pausing next year’s fuel tax and road user charge increases would delay essential road maintenance and improvements.”
Kalasih was more cautious about increased rail funding, saying previous rail freight investments had delivered mixed results.
“Rail plays an important supplementary role in New Zealand’s freight system, and targeted investments can deliver good outcomes in the right corridors.”
“However, despite substantial investment over recent years, rail freight volumes and market share have been trending downwards. The Government will need to ensure future investment is carefully targeted to areas such as the Golden Triangle, where rail freight demonstrates the strongest commercial and operational performance.”
Kalasih said Transporting New Zealand was continuing to review the Budget in detail and looked forward to sharing further insights with members.