Road cone hotline: Less than 10% of sites visited by authorities have too many road cones

New data shows 7.5% of sites visited by road controlling authorities have been deemed to have "excessive use of road cones". Photo / Jason Oxenham

Only 7.5% of sites visited by road controlling authorities as a result of the Government’s road cone hotline have been deemed to be using too many of the objects.

Written Parliamentary Questions answered by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden also show 2.5% of sites visited by authorities were under-compliant and needed more road cones.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB about the figures, Labour’s transport spokesman Tangi Utikere called the programme a “farce”.

Utikere said it meant “for the overwhelming majority of sites there are no issues. This is an absolute farce from the Government, a complete waste of money, and waste of resource, pumping people and money into trying to sort out an issue that clearly does not exist”.

In response to concerns from the opposition, van Velden told Newstalk ZB the hotline had been a “really useful exercise”.

“At nearly every roadshow that I did on health and safety reform, excessive use of road cones came up as a real bugbear.”

Van Velden said early indications from WorkSafe showed contractors are not putting out too many cones, above and beyond what they had been requested to.

She said the data showed the issue had been picked up in some cases and contractors are “following the rules in front of them”.

The digital hotline sends reports to road controlling authorities (RCAs), which investigate the sites.

The New Zealand Transport Agency is the RCA when it comes to state highways and local councils fulfil the role for public roads in their constituency.

“I think that also shows that what people are perceiving as too many cones is actually the issue of the RCAs and the councils,” van Velden said.

When asked if he had sympathy for the argument there was overcompliance with road cone usage in some places, Utikere said: “There will be the odd road cone, from time to time, where perhaps it’s in the wrong place, but that does not justify the expense”.

WorkSafe’s website shows the cost of the hotline is funded through the agency’s existing baseline.

Van Velden said: “I think it’s really clear that no matter where you go around the country, people get frustrated with road cones. The main message I would have is we do need to respect the people who are putting out the road cones and road workers doing their jobs.

“The useful bit of information that I think we’ve found here is that if people are perceiving too many road cones, it’s not because the people on the road putting them out are putting out too many – they are following the rules that are set in front of them.”

The Government launched a pilot 12-month road cone hotline in June for members of the public to report “overzealous” use of road cones in traffic management.

At the time of van Velden’s announcement, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon noted many people were “irritated” by road cones across the country.

“We’ve got excessive traffic management costs associated with construction projects. That adds to [the] huge cost of getting roads built and repaired,” Luxon said. “We’ve got to get control of it.”

Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament’s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.