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Vol 44, No 43
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Transport talks go to fresh footing By MARIANNE KELLY
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t’s taken five years, but Auckland Mayor Len Brown is upbeat about the chances of finding an appropriate fix for the Super City’s transport infrastructure, now that heads in central government are coming to the party. In particular he is championing “pragmatic operator”, Bill English the Finance Minister who drives the policy. “I want to acknowledge the efforts of Bill English and the Prime Minister who have got their heads around the challenge of building the infrastructure,” he says. “We have to generate services with an infrastructure spend, particularly for Auckland.”
His optimism comes on the back of the Thirty Year New Zealand Infrastructure Plan 2015 launched by Mr English last week. By 2056, he says, the demographers expect another 1.2 million people to be living in New Zealand with most of that increase expected to be north of Taupo. The $110 billion plan contains 145 initiatives designed to help the country cope with ageing infrastructure and increasing pressures from a growing population. Together with other stakeholders, he says the Government will develop national, shared data standards for roads, water and buildings. Mr Brown says this means the council and government agencies will be getting advice from the
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same data from Treasury, Auckland Transport, KiwiRail, the Ministry of Transport and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) who will be in the same room giving the same advice to the two wings of governance. “Out of that we will get a higher level of agreement about what the appropriate fix for transport is. And out of that we will get agreement about timing and funding – funding, the one thing that has been argued over for about 150 years. Now I think we have requisite agreement at the political level to get it right. “We know that rates and debt can only take us so far. So we’ve talked about proposed motorway tolls and the opportunity to find appropriate revenue streams to continue
the investment. I hope the platform that is coming together will achieve what 150 years of arguing has not. “I’m looking forward to the next step which is the signing of an Auckland Transport Accord with the Government to finally agree on our programme, timing and delivery of funding.” Aucklanders, he says, can see that investment in public transport has already worked. “It’s great to see the Half Moon ferry terminal upgrade. We’ve had a nine per cent increase in ferry passengers, 10 per cent increase in bus patronage. “There will be more talks with the Government, that’s a pre-requisite to an agreement. We must agree about the money and the projects and getting the job done.”