National's new roads a trade-off for safety, public transport, local roading - opposition parties

Local roads, public transport, safety, and walking and cycling are losing out at the expense of the government's big new roading projects, opposition parties say.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown on Monday announced the next three years of transport projects, a $32.9 billion spend with $23.6b coming from the National Land Transport Fund, $5.8b from councils' rates, and additional Crown investment.

The plan was developed by the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi in line with the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport finalised in June.

It put much of the funding towards the Roads of National Significance National campaigned on at the election and the Roads of Regional Significance announced in July to replace the previous government's NZ Upgrade Programme.

The sum total is a record amount for the sector - even adjusted for inflation - from a government which came to power campaigning on cost cuts.

Labour's Transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said the focus on big new roads is hypocrisy for a government that came to power promising to cut costs.

"It is hypocritical," he told RNZ.

"This is a government that has cancelled the ferries and is lumping extra costs on drivers. When we look at the increased levels of driver's licence fees that are coming in, the driver's tax that will kick in from the start of next year the planned increases to fuel excise from 2027 this is a government that is simply hypocritical and lumping additional costs onto road users."

"This is a government that is basically presiding over a stripping out of roles in the road safety area in Waka Kotahi. On the one hand, the government is saying that they're really quite concerned about road safety. On the other hand, the actions are proving something quite different."

He was unsurprised by the contents of the plan, however.

"There really are no surprises. I mean, the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport was so tightly nailed down that it's exactly what we have been expecting, and that is that the majority of the government's investments will be into roads.

He said the plan lacked ambition for the communities and cities in New Zealand, with the government putting "all its eggs in the one basket".

"Roading is absolutely important, but so are things like public transport, so is rail, so is road safety."

He acknowledged there was investment into rail but said it was about $800m lower than advertised, with Labour having put $455m in funding towards the Lower North Island Rail investment package in last year's Budget and further funding provided by local councils.

"What we've heard today from the government is a reannouncement of a reannouncement," he said.

"They're talking about the lower North Island Rail investment package ... they're saying that that's going to make a huge difference - it will. That's why Labour made the decision to invest in it last year.

"Simeon Brown is being rather cute and simply reannouncing its reannouncement yet again."

Green Party Transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter also raised concerns about funding for local roads. About $5.8b of the $32.9b in the NLTP comes from council rates, but only $1.3b was being put into local roading improvements, and a further $2.25m into operational costs.

"More people are going to have to rely on cars and trucks to get around because we don't have a pipeline of alternatives like rapid transit, inter-city passenger rail, public transport and safe walking and cycling in our communities," she said.

"Most vehicle trips in our cities are relatively short distances within the urban area and that's what's congesting our roads."

She said places like the Far North, the deep South, and East Cape were areas with high volumes of heavy vehicles moving products to market - but that wasn't where the highway investment was going.

For example, the Auckland-to-Whangārei Road of National Significance was simply not enough for Northland.

"Over the next few years you're only going to get a business case written for the next stage of a project that goes to Wellsford which Steven Joyce promised like 14 years ago. But it's the roads beyond Whangārei that Northlanders know are really dangerous and unsafe.

"It's important to improve the existing road going up to Whangārei but if we put all of our eggs into just that road there's basically no improvement to the huge number of rural highways and rural roads that are connecting people and goods all across the Far North ... we can get the same outcomes in terms of safety and efficiency if we focus on more cost-effective improvements."

Those large roads promised by National are also yet to be costed by NZTA, with the government expecting alternative revenue streams to be explored by the agency and contracts yet to be signed off.

She said the $6.4b put into public transport was well below the investment needed to sustain growth and cut emissions.

"We need to ramp up investment in public transport infrastructure in order for it to really make a difference in people's lives, especially when because of climate change we have to radically reduce our emissions.

"In transport we can only do that through a substantially increased investment in public trasnport and rail and through more active transport in our local communities. So what is proposed in this NLTP is not the increase in public transport infrastructure that is needed, sort of a baseline increase to services."

"We will unfortunately really be worse off as a result of this investment, but it may not be obvious for several years."

'What we campaigned on'

Brown told Morning Report the pipeline of major road projects was campaigned on.

Seven of the 17 Roads of National Significant had been identified as being able to start in the next three years, Brown said.

"That's the work that NZTA is working towards."

Just $460m of the $32b was set aside for cycling and walking projects. Brown said that didn't stop councils funding their own projects.

And the plan included a significant investment in public transport which would make a difference in the major cities, he said.