Petty politics aggravates roading woes

By JOHN KEY*

The Christmas holidays are over, so for most of us it's back to work for another year. There is, alas, one memory of the holidays that won't fade. Auckland's roading crisis needs solving - and quickly.

We need to get our commercial capital firing on all cylinders again, and sorting out the roading gridlock is essential.

I suspect many Aucklanders share my view that to remain a first-world city, competing head-on with Sydney, Singapore and Boston, our city must be future-proofed.

Yes, we need to boost our public transport, but the first requirement is to ensure we have a viable infrastructure of modern motorways to see us through the next 100 years.

In the present overly sensitive, politically correct climate, is it possible to fix our roading problem, or are traffic jams a fixed point of Auckland life?

Is it that the bureaucrats charged with completing this task do not understand the scale of the issue, or is something bigger preventing them?

Certainly, we used to build roads successfully, but that was before the Resource Management Act hijacked the process or before taniwha were held in such high regard.

The problem has long since ceased being an inconvenience.

It is now widely recognised to cost Auckland more than $1 billion a year in economic activity. But alarm bells really ring when we consider how much worse the problem will become once the full impact of future immigration (external and internal) kicks in.

There are solutions, but there is no sign of them in the Government's plan - the Land Transport Management Bill introduced by Transport Minister Paul Swain to Parliament before Christmas.

The bill allows the private sector to invest capital in public projects called public-private partnerships (PPPs). This is a new approach for this country but PPPs have a long (and generally successful) history abroad, including Australia where more than a dozen motorways have been funded by private capital.

Sadly for us, PPPs, as they are proposed in the bill, won't work here because of politics, not pursestrings.

There will be significant interest by private financiers (providing domestic and international capital) once the go-ahead is given. But the problem lies in the proposed legislation - in particular, the way the Greens hijacked the drafting of the operating terms for such arrangements.

In New Zealand, the private sector will not be allowed to share any risk with the public sector.

This means no road can be built unless its projected toll income guarantees its self-sufficiency. That's a direct contrast to similar schemes in Australia, England and much of Europe, where governments can, and often do, underwrite a minimum level of revenue or provide yearly operating subsidies until the toll income is sufficient.

This flexibility allows roads to be built for present and future demand (for example, anticipated housing construction) and provides the ability to set tolls at less than economic rates, so motorists are actively encouraged, not discouraged, to use the new road.

Most consumers will be happy to pay a modest toll for the sake of speed and convenience, but few would pay tolls of $8 to $10 to travel 5km to work.

The tragedy of the Greens' rigid stance is that by requiring instant self-sufficiency for every toll-road, we will only compound our previously ad hoc approach to roading construction.

This legislation should be the catalyst for introducing flexibility and freedom into our road-building, so that the haphazard patterns of the past can be eliminated and we can finally leverage our motorways by joining them all together.

Why have the Greens put such a headlock on the Government? They believe the private sector is not trustworthy, that it will abuse any joint Government relationship by exploiting the taxpayer - all in the name of corporate greed and profit.

Like any major contract, PPPs need to be well drafted and carefully monitored but we can learn from the experiences overseas.

Instead of viewing the private sector as a dragon to be fought, then slain, we should see it as a turbo-charging mechanism to help to solve Auckland's roading crisis.

Sadly, funding inflexibility is not the only problem facing the Land Transport Management Bill. It also makes no attempt to improve and streamline the approval process.

Most of us know a few horror stories about resource management debacles - whether it's building a new garage, an extension to the house or a major four-lane highway - where gaining approval can be a lengthy and expensive process.

In road-building, the approvals process accounts for about 40 per cent of the entire construction time (even for the least controversial projects), so it is hardly surprising that more contentious plans can take years and sometimes, like the Orewa-to-Puhoi extension, the process can threaten the entire project.

This bureaucratic burden could be lifted. The bill could establish a fixed timetable for submissions to be received, reviewed, appeals lodged and environment rulings delivered.

This approach would not harm the rights of genuine parties with a vested interest in the outcome; but in one stroke of the legislative pen, all the uncertainty and avoidable time wasting tactics could be removed.

This would be good news for us all - motorists, residents, business owners, commuters. Fortunately, it's not too late to take action.

The bill has now been sent to a select committee, where public submissions will be heard.

It is important to find a workable solution to the severe social and economic problems posed by chronic roading congestion in our major economic centre.

This is not the time to placate the extreme and unrealistic views of a political group who are more comfortable on a skateboard than travelling in a Subaru.

I hope, for the sake of New Zealand's future, that Mr Swain will look beyond petty party politics.

It is a time for leadership, not procrastination. Auckland needs a solution, not endless consultation and talk.

With a dollop of common sense and Kiwi ingenuity, we can do it.

* John Key is the National MP for Helensville.

Herald feature: Getting Auckland moving