Ward Mike: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Ward Mike: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:617;Page:13271] 
MIKE WARD (Green) 
: 
 The vision that drives New Zealand’s transport future is admirable. I rise to examine the preparedness of Transit and Transfund to realise that vision. I want to examine the issue by referring to a real transport issue from my own community. Several weeks back the Environment Court handed down a decision that confirmed an earlier decision made by Nelson Council - appointed commissioners not to approve a third highway the Southern Link into Nelson City. It was a decision the Greens endorsed and the kind of decision we would expect to see more of in future under the Land Transport Management Act. However having said that we have considerable sympathy for local authorities confronted by transport issues where all the advice and the vast bulk of the funding have been devoted to roads. 
 While roading decisions have been arrived at with the help of all the expertise Transit has at its disposal and are likely to be substantially if not totally funded by Transfund there appears to be no equivalent authority to advise on public transport initiatives and their implementation on some of the more innovative and exciting cycling and pedestrian possibilities or on planning mechanisms and land-use tools that might put at the community’s disposal a range of transport options or might persuade individuals and families to live closer to the places they live work shop or go to school and thus avoid the necessity of spending vast amounts of time getting to places they should have lived much closer to in the first place. 
The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee noted that the ministry had adopted a sustainable transport vision focusing on economic social and environmental sustainability in line with the new Act. The committee was interested in how the ministry intended to achieve greater environmental sustainability and encourage people to move towards sustainable modes of transport. For instance the report noted that approximately 30 percent of journeys were 2 kilometres or less. The committee noted that a key component of implementing change involved changing cultural attitudes. The report supported measures taken by the ministry to encourage people to move away from car travel towards alternative modes such as walking cycling and the use of public transport. The culture will not change by itself. It requires commitment. 
The Southern Link was more than an idea. It was a fully developed if flawed concept. Millions of dollars had gone into its planning and millions more into pursuing it. Half a million dollars had been spent on air quality plans so that the catchment through which the road was to run could accommodate the pollution generated by 30000 cars a day. The road and the air quality plan demonstrated commitment. The Nelson City Council had budgeted $15000 for a carpool hotline. Another $15000 has been committed to extending the bus service. Millions of dollars in pursuing a road and half a million dollars for a clean air plan spells commitment but $15000 for a hotline or a bus service equates to lip service. 
Traffic demand management will certainly be much less expensive and I suspect more successful than building roads but traffic management is not free. Just as roads need planning and expertise so do measures to persuade people out of their motorcars—at least for some of their journeys. Traffic demand management will certainly be much less expensive and more successful than building roads as I say but traffic management is not free. Local authorities feel aggrieved when central government imposes its decisions on them without providing the wherewithal to carry them out. In that way the Land Transport Management Act and the new land transport strategy as admirable as they certainly are must come with the necessary levels of expertise and funding that will enable councils to develop sustainable transport measures to meet New Zealand’s transport needs without the downsides of congestion and pollution and the costs to health and quality of life that the roading approach has imposed on all New Zealanders for much too long. 
We are concerned in the Green Party to ensure that councils are equipped to carry out the culture shift that the committee endorses in its report. Unless Transit New Zealand is matched by an equivalent authority to provide the expertise for non-roading transport initiatives or is provided with a mandate and the personnel to help councils develop more imaginative transport solutions then Transit itself may have outlived its usefulness. 
The Greens have been pleased to work with the Government to provide leadership on transport issues. Transport and how we provide for it has implications for health safety air quality and our exercise habits. It has implications for the economy. Auckland’s wish list has grown from $5 billion a year when we started the hearing into the Land Transport Management Act last year to $8 billion at the end of last year and to $10 billion at the beginning of this year. It is almost certainly a quality-of-life issue.