Transport Minister Simeon Brown unveils $32.9b National Land Transport Programme

• A $32.9 billion National Land Transport Plan for 2024-2027 has been announced.
• Transport Minister Simeon Brown says priorities include safety, value for money, economic growth, and productivity.
• The plan includes $5.5 billion for pothole prevention and $7 billion for state highway improvements.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) has put road maintenance and building new roads and public transport infrastructure at the centre of its $32.9 billion National Land Transport Plan for 2024-2027.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown made the announcement at a press conference this afternoon. He says the Government’s transport priorities include safety, value for money, economic growth and productivity.

Pothole prevention gets $5.5b over the three years, while maintenance and operations of state highways and local roads (which are jointly funded by councils) gets $4.6b.

NZTA will spend $7b on state highway improvements – that means building new roads for the state highway network and $6.4b on building new public transport infrastructure and paying subsidies to local councils to operate the network.

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The 2024-2027 National Land Transport Programme sets out how NZTA will spend its funding to improve or maintain the country’s transport network.

The programme reflects the Government’s land transport policy statement, released earlier this year.

Money for these investments comes from the National Land Transport Fund – a pool of transport funding drawn mainly from fuel taxes and Road User Charges (RUCs).

The Government’s policy statement, released in June, includes the Government’s priorities for investment, including a pledge to crackdown on drunk and drugged drivers with a target to perform 3.3 million roadside alcohol tests, and 50,000 roadside drug tests, per year.

Legislation to enable roadside drug testing is currently before a Parliamentary select committee.

The Government has also reintroduced the Roads of National Significance programme, which was started under the previous National Government in 2009.

A Roads of Regional Significance programme was also released earlier this year. Similar to Roads of National Significance, this scheme focuses on roads important to the regions.

The Government’s draft policy statement confirmed 17 roads of national significance, and 11 of regional significance were on the slate.

Brown has also implied fuel taxes could be gone sooner than we think. The Herald reported last week the 75 cents in tax per litre of fuel could end “as soon as” 2027 for all light vehicles.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown unveils $32.9b National Land Transport Programme. Photo / Mark Mitchell

However drivers should not expect a tax cut, as fuel taxes are set to be replaced with RUCs, meaning most drivers would still be paying tax at near the same rate – which is currently expected to increase 12c a litre in 2027.

Speed limits have also been a focus of the coalition Government. Reversing the previous Labour Government’s speed limit reductions were part of National’s coalition agreement with Act and part of the Government’s 100-day plan.

National accused Labour of ignoring the economic impacts of lowering speeds, saying its approach to speed limit reductions did not make sense.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Brown announced a proposal to raise the speed limit along a 25km stretch of highway between Ōrewa and Warkworth to 110km/h.

Brown told a press conference in Warkworth the increased limit would help “unlock economic growth and productivity by moving people and freight quickly and safely between regions”.