Chris Hipkins has appointed Michael Wood as Minister for AucklandPlay VideoROBERT KITCHIN/STUFFChris Hipkins has appointed Michael Wood as Minister for Auckland. Wood will also continue as transport minister.
Andrea Vance is a Sunday Star-Times columnist and senior Stuff writer.
OPINION: Thanks to PM Chris Hipkins’ reshuffle, transport minister Michael Wood is going places. Shame about the rest of us.
Transport in New Zealand – both public and private – is poked.
Commuter services (buses, trains and ferries) in our towns and cities are under huge strain, making life a misery for anyone trying to get to work or children to school. Or even a concert.
The road network is collapsing.
At the minor end of the scale, the country’s road surfaces are in desperate shape. No need for the Government to officially lower speed limits, the potholes are bone-shakingly effective judder bars.
More scary is that arterial routes are regularly compromised by slips and subsidence in severe weather.
Each major storm cuts off a new community, and puts motorists at risk of injury or death.
The problems don’t exist just on land. The Cook Strait ferry mayday had terrifying echoes of the Wahine disaster. As the Kaitaki drifted, powerless towards rocks in heavy swells, it underlined that the fleet is ageing and raised questions about the capability of Wellington’s tugs.
The aviation network is also under-performing. Delays, disruption and cancellations are now common place. Aviation Security is under-resourced, leading to long lines, and allowing a convicted rapist to bypass screening.
The scenes of Auckland Airport, a critical piece of national infrastructure overwhelmed with floodwater, with passengers trapped upstairs were shocking.
Likewise, the stories of passengers stranded overseas worried about no option to return for days or even weeks.
Climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated all these problems. But most predate the virus.
In part, they are due to chronic under-investment (higher taxes and road tolls are not popular policies).
But also, the way transport and its infrastructure is delivered and maintained is fragmented and dysfunctional.
Waka Kotahi, the land transport agency for which Wood is responsible, is currently one of the Government’s most problematic departments.
It is under fire because the road network is in a mess, and it can’t seem to deliver major projects on time or on budget. Even the ones it finishes have to be redone.
The agency also has a deserved reputation for being wasteful. From the $51 million squandered on the abandoned cycling and walking bridge project across Auckland’s Waitematā harbour, to the $70m-plus spent on the doomed light rail project.
Let’s Get Wellington Moving (which WK oversees with the local authorities) has spent $83 million – $47m on consultants – and delivered only a pedestrian crossing. In EIGHT YEARS. And the walkway cost an eye-watering $2.4m.
It also has one of the largest PR teams of a central government agency – at last count 88, more than three-quarters of which are earning more than $100,000. If only we paid bus drivers the same salaries as comms staff.
WK justify this by arguing it is necessary to communicate with the public – a responsibility in which they entirely failed last month by clocking off while motorways were flooding, causing widespread disruption.
Around $15m was allocated to an advertising campaign to make roads safer, but recently officials admitted their ‘zero’ target is unrealistic. It missed a target to build 100km of median barriers per year, managing just 13km last year.
Locally, things aren’t much better.
Councils with large urban centres are driving climate change policies to get people out of their cars and onto public transport.
The trouble is they are neither responsible for the network (in the hands of regional councils, other agencies and private operators), nor have successive Governments funded, nor allowed them to raise money to build, new infrastructure.
The result is resentful ratepayers whose daily grind is book-ended with frustration and stress, whether in their car or stranded at a bus stop or railway station.
Not all these problems are Wood’s fault – but they are his to solve. How then can he take on another, hefty job?
Climate change makes transport one of the most important portfolios. Resilience needs to be built into the system – and quickly – as storm events increase. Public transport is also one of the most important elements in the drive to build a net-zero emissions economy.
If the Auckland portfolio is to be anything more than symbolic (or a cynical move to soothe the city), it should command much of a minister’s attention.
The city deserves more than a part-timer, especially now.
And to get transport back on track, Wood can’t really afford to take his eyes off the road.