Govt agencies making housing crisis worse

This is why we have a housing crisis :

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has come out against a proposed residential and business development near Cromwell.

The government agency said, in a plan change submission, it opposed the Parkburn proposal because of climate change concerns and the relatively isolated location of the development.

Fulton Hogan runs a large quarry in the area — about 10km west of Cromwell — but it is nearing the end of its life.

The company had applied to the Central Otago District Council for a plan change to develop a residential/business centre where the quarry now sits. The planned site is beside Pisa Moorings. . . 

Early plans had shown more than 500 residential sections would be in the development and there would be space for shops and a restaurant/bar.

Waka Kotahi said in its submission it considered the proposed location of the site was quite remote from the existing main urban environments within the Central Otago district.

The Waka Kotahi submission said the subdivision would be about 10km from Cromwell, 40km from Alexandra and 45km from Wānaka and, since there was no public transport, heavy reliance on the use of private vehicles was expected. . . 

It also highlighted further consideration had to be made for carbon emissions and potential climate change effects for the future development.

It said the development of the site was unlikely to result in a significant uptake of active transport modes such as walking and cycling nor a reduction in a reliance on private vehicle trips. There was no provisions made for public transport. . . 

Waka Kotahi doesn’t appear to understand that anyone using petrol or diesel-fuelled vehicles would be paying for their emissions because they are fully covered by the ETS..

And it’s not the only government agency wanting to stop more houses being built:

In its submission, the Ministry of Education said the proposal would place pressure on schools in Cromwell with an influx of people coming into the region.

“The boost in dwellings constitute a sudden large addition to the number of total dwellings and total rating units, at a scale and pace that is larger than projected numbers. This growth is at a faster rate than that anticipated by the Ministry of Education,” it said. . . 

Are the Ministry’s projected numbers set in concrete?

When did its role become the arbiter of where residential development and population growth take place?

How can we believe the government is serious about addressing the housing crisis when its agencies put up road blocks to development?

This is typical of a public service, and government, that wield the power that puts road blocks in the way of progress instead of removing them.

Not only are they part of the problem, they get in the way of people with solutions and that’s one of the reasons we have a housing crisis.

Vote them out #6

Google translates Waka Kotahi as single vehicle.

We could be forgiven for thinking the aim of the government’s roading policy is to reduce car numbers that far.

Far too much effort, and money, has been spent on attempts to get people out of cars and far too little on making the roads better and safer.

Far too much has been spent on consultants and communications and far too little on roading improvements:

What Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has spent on consultants in the last four years could have paid for four bridges across the Ashburton River.

For its proposed second urban bridge, the Ashburton District Council has had to produce a business case to see if the project is worth the estimated $40 million investment, so to hear the figures around the agencies spending was not impressive reading for mayor Neil Brown.

Since 2019, Waka Kotahi has spent $145m on consultants, covering things like the environment and planning, and spent only $200m on actual construction. . . 

Since 2017, Waka Kotahi has also more than doubled its communications team from 32 staff to 88 – 65 of whom earn $100,000 or more.

That’s over $650,000 on public relations that could be better spent on actual infrastructure, Brown said, as without justification it was a ludicrous figure of communications staff. . . 

Then there is the Road to Zero campaign, which has almost $200m of spending earmarked to get New Zealand to try and achieve zero road deaths or serious injuries by 2030. About $85m of that has been allocated to advertising activities alone.

“We want to get the road toll down but improvements to roading is money better spent to get the intersections safer, the highways safer than on an [advertising] campaign.” . .

That expensive campaign includes the advertisement which shows a driver swerving to avoid a possum.

The whole advertisement is nothing more than an exercise in bureaucratic back-patting and it could be taken to promote dangerous driving.

When confronted with a small animal it’s safer to carry on than to try to avoid it.

But what more can you expect from an agency that thinks spending $30,000 on five large zeros is a good idea?

Good roads are safer roads and making roads better ought to be the government’s focus.

That it has wasted so much money on other priorities including anti-car ones is another reason to vote it out.

 

Good bad & ugly

A crisis brings out the best in some people.

Among the examples are the work of the emergency services, people helping others in big ways and small and the three men who saved dozens of people.

A crisis also brings out the worst.

Police are seeing an increase in family harm incidents in areas affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Generators are being stolen – some from cell phone towers which compromise communication.

There’s also been looting of homes and businesses, intimidation from gang members and abuse of roadworkers.

Yesterday there were multiple incidents of abuse towards roadworkers across regions impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle. This is unacceptable. The impacts we’ve seen in the past few weeks are devastating and distressing—we're in this together, and we have to look after each other.

— Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (@WakaKotahi_news) February 17, 2023

 

It is probable that not all incidents are being reported because there are still lots of areas without access to phones and internet.

Anger is a normal reaction to fear and grief but that doesn’t excuse intimidation, threats, violence or other despicable or illegal behaviour.

The good, bad and ugly are evident during a crisis, just like they are in ordinary times but a crisis requires an extraordinary response to the bad and ugly.

That means something more than talking from the Police Minister:

. . . Grilled by Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB this morning, Nash was asked whether he thought the gangs would actually “pull their heads in” after the minister had made the plea to do so. “My plea … no, not my plea … my request is pull your bloody head in, get your animals off the streets and out of their cars. They have whanau and family affected as well. Get out and start helping them,” Nash told Hosking.

Referencing Nash’s comment about it not being the right time to commit crime, Hosking asked the minister when was the right time.

“There is no right time,” Nash responded.

Nash said that the criminal behaviour by gangs in Hawkes Bay was totally unacceptable.

”Police are onto this and, as a community, we won’t stand for such behaviour by gangs.”

Nash said gangs had a very strict hierarchy, with leaders and then men who go out on the streets.

”I ask them to take control of these men because their families are also impacted.”

Nash said it was not the right time especially when the city was in distress and people had no communication.

”We don’t want gangs. I called gang leaders and told them to get this under control, they call themselves community leaders so this is the time to show that leadership.”

He didn’t say what the response was to his plea and request but gang members who show no respect for the law are unlikely to respect the minister.

The region had got 120 additional frontline police staff in the wake of the cyclone and an extra 25 were coming on top of 770 already there, Nash said.

”Eagle helicopter has also come down from Auckland.”

Gang response units were also on the way and army personnel were also in the region, he said. . . 

Those sound like big numbers but is it enough for the large areas and small, isolated communities and households who have fear of being victims of crime added to the devastation Cyclone Gabrielle has caused?

Can the police do it by themselves or do they need the help of the army?

That is covered by legislation which enables the army to to provide assistance to the civil power in time of emergency.

When locals are manning road blocks to keep looters out it sounds like there are not enough police and that they, and the people and property at risk, need the help of the defence force.

Another tragic tally

A tragic tally:

As 2022 came to a close, the Ministry of Transport’s road toll count reached a provisional figure of 378 people killed on New Zealand roads during the year.

The 2021 and 2020 final road tolls both reached 318 road fatalities in each year – meaning this year’s toll surged 60 people higher.

That increase in deaths is equivalent to about two classrooms full of people more who were killed on our roads in the last twelve months, compared to the previous years. . . 

Waka Kotahi has spent a lot on bureacratic back-patting propaganda while the state of the roads has deteriorated.

But comparing last year with the two before doesn’t tell the full story when Auckland was fully locked down for months and the rest of the country was restricted for shorter periods in 2020 and 2021.

Bryan Sherritt, the director of Road to Zero, the ambitious Ministry of Transport project to reduce road deaths told RNZ in July that New Zealand’s road toll figures were “diabolical” and “still unacceptably high”.

However comparing annual tolls year-on year was not particularly helpful, because of “natural variation year-on-year”, Sherritt said: “What you should be comparing is more around like a five-year average, how we’re tracking against that … a longer term approach.”

The final road toll five years ago (2018) was finalised at 378 deaths in that year, meaning at this point the 2022 provisional tally eerily mirrored the same figure.

Sherritt said the speed and geographic spread with which the country improves roading infrastructure and enforcement and policing of road rules were key to reducing the number of people killed on the roads in the future. As is improving the policies surrounding roads. . . .

The focus should be on potholes not propaganda.

More needs to be spent on improving the roads, including more multi-lane stretches and median barriers; and more focus on deterring drunk and drugged drivers and those who travel well in excess of speed limits.

But there’s another tragic tally that rarely makes the headlines – the toll ovarian cancer takes.

It’s the deadliest of the five gynaecological cancers.

It kills more women in New Zealand than die on the roads and most years little or nothing is spent by the government on raising awareness of the symptoms, improving access to diagnosis, and research to improve treatments and outcomes.

Signs and symptoms include:

• Bloating
• Eating less and feeling fuller
• Abdominal/pelvic/back pain
• Needing to pee more or urgently
• Changes in bowel habits
• Indigestion
• Abnormal vaginal bleeding* or discharge
• Pain during intercourse
• Fatigue
• Unexplained weight change

So how do you know if it’s something you need to pay attention to?

We call it the TWO WEEK RULE. If it hasn’t gone away for good after two weeks – you should tell a doctor. Even one symptom is enough to mention. Especially if it’s a new change, or unusual for you, or getting worse.

Most of the time, it won’t be ovarian cancer but it’s really important to get checked, because the quicker ovarian cancer is found, the easier it is to treat.

*Abnormal bleeding should always be checked regardless of duration.

You can learn more here.

Speed doesn’t necessarily kill

National has launched a petition to stop widespread speed reductions :

National is calling on the Labour Government to scrap its proposed blanket speed limit reductions on State Highways, which would slow drivers down without actually improving road safety, National’s Transport spokesperson Simeon Brown says.

“This week, NZTA released its Interim State Highway Speed Management Plan which proposes to reduce speed limits on State Highways across New Zealand, with some highways having their speed limit slashed from 100km/h to 60km/h. 

“This is a short-sighted, quick-fix attempt to address the problem of road safety that doesn’t deal with underlying issues like poor road maintenance and the proper enforcement of road rules.

“While National supports variable speed limits outside schools during pick-up and drop-off times, this proposal is the first step towards reducing the speed limits on all State Highways across the country to a maximum of 80km/h.

“Blanket speed limit reductions will increase travel times for Kiwis, increase the costs of moving freight, and frustrate motorists trying to move around the country.

“Instead of investing in our roads to make sure they’re fit for purpose and safe to drive on, Labour is taking the easy way out once more, with a simplistic solution that won’t make a meaningful difference.

“Kiwis need both safe and efficient transport routes, especially for our rural communities and the freight companies that help move our goods around New Zealand.

“National opposes blanket speed limit reductions and we are encouraging New Zealanders to speak up against this radical proposal, and sign our petition urging the Government to dump it.”

You can sign the petition here.

The government, and Waka Kotahi, are trying to convince us that speed limits need to be reduced because speed kills but that isn’t always the case:

The police and government are pushing discredited road safety strategies, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, says:

“For years we’ve been told that lowering speeds and a heavy enforcement of speed limits would lower the annual road toll. This has proved to be untrue.”

Matthew-Wilson gave the example of Saturday’s tragic head-in collision that killed three members of the same family.

“The simple fact is: if there had been a median barrier on that stretch of road, this accident could not have occurred. As I’ve been saying for years, New Zealand’s roads are like a staircase without a handrail: you make a mistake, you’re probably going to get hurt.”

Matthew-Wilson adds that the police anti-speed messaging is consistently based on doubtful science.

“If the police ‘speed kills’ theory were true, then one of the fastest legal roads in the country: the Waikato Expressway (110km/h), would also be the most dangerous. In fact, the opposite is true: the Waikato Expressway is one of the safest roads in the country.”

Road safety science tells us two things: safe roads protect people from their own mistakes, and that speed, by itself, is not the problem.”

“As a matter of scientific fact, few ordinary motorists cause speed-related fatalities. Almost all speed-related fatalities are caused by a small group of yobbos and reckless motorcyclists, and they’re often blotto when they crash. Yobbos and blotto drivers don’t read speed signs, rarely think of consequences and are effectively immune to road safety messages.”

“The government has repeatedly promised to fix our Third World roads but has failed miserably. Now the government is attempting to lower the road toll by lowering speed limits yet again, despite the fact that the widespread lowering of speed limits has not reduced the annual road toll.”

Further lowering will increase driver frustration and add time and expense to journeys but it won’t by itself lower the road toll.

“The overall road toll is actually not as bad as people think. The road toll last year was close to a third of the annual road toll in 1973.”

“While any road deaths are a tragedy, the overall road toll has been trending downwards since the 1980s. In 1973 the New Zealand population was around three million, but the road toll was 843. In 2021, the population was round five million but the road toll was 319.”

“Drivers have not improved. The big improvements have been in the cars, roads and the medical system.”

“I’d like to say enforcement has also improved, but the police simply aren’t doing their job in many cases. In country areas, drinking and driving are often normal, and the locals generally get away with it. The police have also failed to effectively enforce seatbelt laws or laws against the use of cellphones while driving. However, the police are very good at issuing millions of speeding tickets, even though 85% of the road toll occurs below the speed limit.”

“Despite the overall downward trend, the annual highs and lows of the road toll tend to follow the economy. Right now, there’s a lot of building going on. That means lots of builder’s labourers with money to spend on booze, drugs and fast cars. It means lots of trucks carrying heavy freight down highways. The housing boom has also paid for middle-aged men to buy large motorbikes. This group are killing themselves at a typical rate of about one a week. “

“As the economy dips into recession, the annual road toll will almost certain dip with it. In the meantime, we have national roading system that belongs in the Third World. We also have a trail of broken promises from the government, and a trail of disproved theories from the police.”

“Let’s be clear, one a tiny group of motorists causing most road speed-related deaths, and this tiny group tends to drive at insane speeds. But this tiny group is not the average driver. Ticketing a family for going 3km/h over the speed limit does nothing to lower road toll, but it alienates ordinary motorists.”

Alienating motorists reduces the social licence needed to keep people obeying limits.

“I appreciate that the police are totally sincere in wanting to save lives. However, they need to accept that the current police and government strategies are clearly not working. It’s time for both the police and government to take a deep breath and change the direction of our national road safety strategy.”

Matthew-Wilson is also frustrated that both the police and the government ignore simple, affordable and effective ways of substantially reducing the road toll.

“Cars with Daytime Running Lights on are up to 25% less likely to end up in fatal daytime collisions, yet this simple lifesaving technology isn’t even on the government’s agenda. What’s gone wrong with our government?” 

Lots has gone wrong with the government, including a focus on the wrong things and a failure to base policies on facts, data and science.

That, and an apparent dislike of cars, will do nothing to lower the road toll.

 

How slow will we go?

How slow does the government want us to go?

Confirmation that the Government is planning to slash speed limits across state highways in New Zealand is typical Labour, National’s Transport spokesperson Simeon Brown says.

“This Government simply cannot deliver. Labour’s plan is to slow New Zealanders down, rather than invest in our roads to make sure they’re safe to drive on.

“Today’s announcement is just the first step. Labour won’t stop until they have slashed the speed limits on almost every state highway in the country to a maximum of 80km/h.

“This is a short-sighted, quick-fix attempt to address the problem of road safety. It is overly simplistic and doesn’t deal with the underlying issues.

“Kiwis need both safe and efficient transport routes, especially for the freight companies and rural communities that help move our goods around New Zealand and get them to market.

“Reducing speed limits across the board is not the answer. This will simply increase travel times and make our rural communities more isolated.

It will also add costs to all businesses with a travel component, including freight and that will in turn feed inflation.

Slower speeds will also mean that commercial drivers will run out of hours sooner.

“Some state highways are going from 100 km/h to 60 km/h.

“It’s not good enough for the Government to reduce speed limits rather than getting the basics right by addressing the appalling condition of our state highways which have become peppered with potholes.

“National opposes blanket speed limit reductions. The Government’s priority should be to maintain our highways to a safe standard and to ensure that the road rules are being appropriately enforced.”

The consultation document is here.

It includes the suggestion of more speed cameras which have a lot more to do with revenue gathering than road safety.

The planned slow-downs aren’t as bad – yet – as the blanket nation-wide reductions rumoured to be proposed a couple of weeks ago, but there’s no guarantee that once they’ve slowed us down in some places they won’t extend the speed restrictions until the fastest permitted on all but motorways is 80 kph.

These maps show all the State Highways across NZ that Labour wants to reduce to 80kmph

Instead of focussing on improving the quality of our roads, Labour simply wants to just slow kiwis down on our roads.

National opposes blanket speed limit reductions. pic.twitter.com/FuXMxgqGNP

— Simeon Brown (@SimeonBrownMP) October 30, 2022

What the consultation document proposes will be confusing for motorists with multiple changes in speed limits over relatively short distances.

Reducing the road toll is a worthy aim but there are better ways to do it.

For example in Spain, main roads which aren’t motorways have rumble strips a few metres before an intersection when a minor road joins a major one. This warns drivers on both roads to take extra care without imposing blanket speed restrictions.

Waka Kotahi could also stop wasting money on advertisements that are nothing more than bureaucratic back-patting and spend more on improving roads.

More median barriers, more passing lanes and fewer pot holes would make roads safer without the need for permanent speed restrictions.

More policing that targets drunk and/or drugged drivers and others most likely to cause, or be involved in, accidents would also help.

Slower isn’t necessarily safer if it means drivers focus on speed limit signs which distract them or get bored or complacent while travelling more slowly.

That’s if most drivers do slow down and there’s no guarantee of that.

How slow will people go it they don’t understand, and agree with restrictions? There’s a very real risk that the social licence that keeps people obeying limits will be sabotaged, leading people to ignore not just the new requirements to drive more slowly but ignoring existing limits too. That will then make roads more dangerous.

Refreshing approach to roading

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown wants a new approach from Auckland Transport:

I have been elected as Mayor with a mandate for change. It will not surprise you that in over 300 campaign events, by far the most consistent and strongest message I heard from the people of Auckland was the need to lead a change in approach at AT and fix our transport network. I promised to do so. I have heard the same messages from members of the new Governing Body and the Independent Māori Statutory Board.

Much work lies ahead for the council family to gain the trust and confidence of Aucklanders when it comes to transport policy and services, and the management of upgrades and major projects. . . 

I seek a complete change in approach at AT. You appear to have been focussed on changing how Aucklanders live, using transport policy and services as a tool.  Instead, AT must seek to deeply understand how Aucklanders actually live now, how they want to live in the future, and deliver transport services that support those aspirations.

AT needs to exercise better judgement, as well as listen to and follow the wishes of local communities. That includes understanding that AT’s decisions impact the lives of people every day.  AT must understand the families who are struggling to move around the region: pick-up their children, do the groceries, get home safely after-dark, and juggle other commitments. You must understand the local businesses who rely on transport connections and their needs now and in the future. And you must recognise that the transport network materially impacts Aucklanders’ safety – especially at night, for women, for young people, the elderly and for shift workers. 

Aucklanders do not always have the choice of using an e-bike, a bus or even a train but rely on the roading and carparking networks to make their life functional.

By focussing on truly understanding how all Aucklanders want to live and the transport services they want to support those aspirations – not just those who participate in formal consultation processes – and then exercising good judgment, AT can make Aucklanders’ lives better and easier. Through decisions that do not reflect the wishes of local communities, you have been making them worse. . . 

Auckland is not the only place this needs to happen.

Dunedin’s last mayor and too many of his councillors, also showed a complete lack of understanding of the purpose of roads and need for parking.

He wanted to change the one-way system, which allows residents and through traffic to get through the city efficiently, to two-way streets.

Work is already under way pedestrianising George street with no understanding of how that with the loss of parks will negatively impact shops.

The new council won’t be able to undo what’s already been done but I hope it will see sense on retaining the one-way system.

Just as in Auckland the green cart has been put in front of the practical horses inconveniencing people and threatening businesses.

In the immediate term, I request that the Council and AT work together on the following priorities: 

a) Demonstrate to me, the new Governing Body, the Independent Māori Statutory Board and the public that AT accepts the need to far more deeply understand how Aucklanders live now and how they want to live in the future, and that your role is to deliver transport services today and in the future to support those aspirations.

b) Clean up Auckland’s roads, by getting rid of unnecessary road cones and lane closures. I expect AT to take full account of the social and economic disruption of its traffic management approach, which should be risk-based and proportionate. . . 

There is a plague of road cones and speed restrictions throughout the country, so many in places where there is no apparent need for them that it is encouraging drivers to ignore them with the consequent danger of them not slowing down when for safety’s sake they need to.

Traffic management requirements for road works used to be in a notebook that fitted in a top pocket. Now there’s a couple of manuals and people employed specially to sort and supervise them.

Everything that makes getting around adds time and costs and  increase frustration.

It’s based on anti-car ideology and is often impractical.

How refreshing to have a mayor who understands that.

No social licence for slow speeds

A large pothole on a main road has damaged tyres on multiple vehicles:

New Zealand’s bad road conditions have struck again after a massive pothole in the Bay of Plenty caused carnage for drivers.

The pothole has taken out several tyres on State Highway 29 over the Kaimai Range.

Social media users issued a warning to other drivers, posting a video showing over a dozen vehicles pulled over with possible wrecked tyres.

Another person said over 30 cars hit the pothole and were piled up on the side of the road. . . 

Are there no orange cones to spare for this pothole? If so is it because scores of them are  lining roads where there is no sign of damage or work being done?

It comes after what has been dubbed a ‘pothole crisis’ with drivers, road safety campaigners and AA calling for the roads to be fixed.

AA road safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen told Newshub an analysis from 2020 estimated the Government needed to spend $900 million more over the next three years to catch up on the work needed. 

“Our roads are in the worst condition that many people have ever seen.“

Instead of fixing the roads, Waka Kotahi is wasting millions of dollars on propaganda advertising that is no more than bureaucratic back-patting in an attempt to convince us of their wonderfulness and that their aim to get to a zero road toll is a good idea.

One of their strategies is to lower speed limits which is unlikely to reduce serious accidents:

A proposal to dramatically lower the speed limit on most of the nation’s highways is unlikely to significantly lower the road toll, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner. says:

“Few drivers have a problem with a lower speed limit in high risk areas. But this proposal is aimed at lowering the speed limit from 100kp/h to 80kp/h, even on long, straight, relatively safe highways. This is madness and is likely to produce a major backlash from all sectors of society.”

Matthew-Wilson adds that the police consistently use doubtful science to justify impractical speed enforcement.

“Despite what the police claim, speed is the primary cause of just 15% of fatal crashes, according to Ministry of Transport research.”

“Another inconvenient truth is that the police are targeting the wrong drivers. As a matter of scientific fact, few ordinary motorists cause speed-related fatalities. Instead, almost all speed-related fatalities are caused by a small group of yobbos and reckless motorcyclists, and they’re often blotto when they crash. Yobbos and blotto drivers don’t read speed signs, rarely think of consequences and are effectively immune to road safety messages.”

Matthew-Wilson’s claims are supported by a 2009 AA summary of 300 fatal accidents, which concluded:

“. . . government advertising suggests you should be grateful to receive a speeding ticket because it will save your life. In fact, exceeding speed limits isn’t a major issue…[Nor is it] true that middle-New Zealand drivers creeping a few kilometres over the limit on long, empty [roads were a major factor in] the road toll…”

The AA report confirmed that a high percentage of speed-related fatalities were:

“caused by people who don’t care about any kind of rules. These are men who speed, drink, don’t wear safety belts, have no valid license or WoF – who are basically renegades. They usually end up wrapped around a tree, but they can also overtake across a yellow line and take out other motorists as well.”

Matthew-Wilson gave the example of Jeremy Thompson, 28, who caused a head-on crash near Waverly that killed seven people in 2018. Thompson had been smoking synthetic cannabis and was driving erratically before the crash.

“Perhaps the police could explain how lowering the speed limit would have prevented this crash?”

“The cops also tell us we need to reduce average speeds. But the average speed isn’t the speed that the average driver travels at; the average speed rises and falls with the number of crazy drivers travelling at crazy speeds. Clearly, the police should be targeting the crazy drivers, not the families driving home from holiday.”

“The police say that 90% of the country’s roads are unsafe. Unsafe compared to what? That’s a convenient made-up figure designed to hide that reality that a decade of heavy speed enforcement has utterly failed to significantly reduce speed-related road deaths.”

The condition of far too many roads is sub-standard as the drivers whose tyres were damaged can attest.

But the solution to that isn’t blanket speed reductions, it’s fixing pot holes and doing other work to improve the roads.

“ I’m a big fan of fixing unsafe roads, but the fact that the government has been incredibly slack about sorting out our roading system isn’t an excuse to lower the speed limit. It’s a wakeup call for the government to stop mucking about and instead sort out the safety of our roads. Done properly, we can quickly make our old highways safe for a fraction of the cost of building new highways ”

Matthew-Wilson adds that this proposal to lower the speed limit originally came from the Greens and is primarily intended to make life more difficult for car owners.

Yet another stupid Green policy based on ideology rather than data.

“The Greens approached me to support this strategy. I have been a lifetime supporter of green causes, but I said no. It’s hypercritical to make life more difficult for people who genuinely need vehicles, unless the government first provides these drivers with realistic alternatives to driving

Matthew-Wilson is also frustrated that both the police and the government ignore simple, affordable and effective ways of substantially reducing the road toll.

“Cars with Daytime Running Lights on are up to 25% less likely to end up in fatal daytime collisions, yet this simple lifesaving technology isn’t even on the government’s agenda. What’s gone wrong with our government?”

There’s plenty wrong with our government, including the wasting money on advertising and attempts to slow traffic instead of improving roads.

The Taxpayers’ Union reckons that speed limits would have to be reduced to 10 kph to achieve zero road deaths.

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is urging the Government to divert all of the marketing and communications budget for its Road To Zero campaign to projects that make New Zealand’s roads physically more safe. The campaign is costing $197 million including $85 million on advertising.

“The Government’s Road To Zero campaign is sadly an expensive exercise in wishful thinking which ultimately sets itself up for failure,” Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says.

“Now that fancy TV ads and Michael-Wood-sized red zeroes haven’t reduced the road toll, the Government is looking to reduce maximum speed limits all over the country to 80km/h. It seems the Government is willing to do practically anything except fix the actual roads.”

“With this current approach, the Government will need to reduce the maximum speed limit to about 10km/h in order to get the road toll down to zero. Although increased road rage could hamper that.”

It wouldn’t just be road rage that would sabotage zero road toll efforts.

Inattention through boredom would also be a problem.

Besides driving slowly can kill people too as driveway deaths show.

“In an ideal world there would be no road deaths and we should be mitigating risks where possible. However, our taxes should be spent strategically in ways that make a material difference, like fixing dangerous roads, not on big budget campaigns promoting unattainable goals.”

The government has overlooked a critical component in its campaign to reduce speed limits – social licence.

There is none for slower speeds.

Last year the speed limit in most of Wanaka was reduced to 40 kph.

If the Queenstown Lakes District Council, which imposed the 10 kph reduction, had data to back up its decision to do this, it hasn’t been widely publicised and from my experience it hasn’t had a marked impact on the speed people drive.

It will have increased fines for speeding but it hasn’t noticeably reduced speeds.

When I drive at the regulated 40 kph, cars following me catch up and the distance between me and those in front increases which shows I’m the only one obeying the limit.

Several stretches in the Lewis Pass and the entire road between Nelson and Blenheim have 80 kph limits.

I drove those last year with a passenger who is prone to car sickness which gave me an incentive to travel at less than 100 kph.

There were places where that would be sensible even without worrying about potential nausea, but there were others where it wasn’t necessary and the vehicles that passed me obviously knew that.

There is no social licence for slower speeds on most roads. All it will achieve is disgruntled drivers, more congestion and longer travelling times which will add costs to businesses and that will add fuel to inflation.

It will also divert police from more important work, including targeting the really dangerous drivers driving dangerously.

Less for more

Getting less while spending more money is a disturbing feature of the government and its agencies:

There’s the eye-watering $1.9 billion for mental health:

National’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Spokesperson Matt Doocey has written to the Auditor-General to request an investigation into why the $1.9 billion the Government allocated to mental health has not resulted in any material improvements in mental health outcomes.

“The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s damning report released last month found that improvements in mental health have not materialised under Labour despite the $1.9 billion of extra funding, with little change in access and wait times for mental health and addiction services. . . 

Then there’s Waka Kotahi:

The Government has been on a spin doctor hiring spree, with the number of communications staff at NZTA more than doubling in four years, National’s Transport spokesperson Simeon Brown says.

“Labour is all spin and no delivery. They can’t get things done so they rely on spin doctors to try to cover up their failures in transport, wasting taxpayer money on doubling NZTA’s comms team rather than upgrading roads.

“The number of comms staff at NZTA has ballooned to the equivalent of 88 full-time staff in 2020/21, up from just over 32 full-time staff in 2016/17.

“The amount of money being spent on these spin doctors is eye-watering. Comms staff earning over $100,000 a year has increased almost 10-fold under Labour, from the equivalent of 6.6 full-time staff to almost 65.

“It doesn’t end there. Despite more than doubling the number of full-time comms staff, the Government is billing taxpayers over $75 million a year for consultants. That’s up from $31 million in 2016/17.

“In fact, NZTA spent almost as much on consultants as on construction for the NZ Upgrade Programme between 2019 and March 2022. During that time, $145 million was spent on consultants compared to $202 million on construction.  

“Labour has created a culture that is tolerant of wasteful spending. This is taxpayer money that would be better spent on building better roads and upgrading our transport infrastructure. . . 

All those consultants and extra staff and all the extra money they cost, yet the agency still produces an advertisement that shows a driver swerving to avoid a possum, contrary to the safety advice that drivers shouldn’t try to avoid a small animal.

All those consultants and extra staff and all extra the money they cost and the agency is substituting lower speed limits instead of the work needed to make roads safer.

All those consultants and extra staff, costing more and delivering less.

Immigration NZ is also guilty of  doing less with more money:

The Government has hired over 500 more staff at Immigration New Zealand since 2017 yet visa processing times have exploded, National’s Immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford says.

“Labour has been on a bureaucrat hiring spree since they came into Government, but still can’t deliver better outcomes for New Zealand.

“The number of office staff at Immigration New Zealand has gone from 1357 in 2017 to 1879 in March 2022 and the Minister has increased spending by $150 million.

“Yet there were 100 fewer staffers employed to process visa applications in that time, and the processing time for a visitor visa application has blown out from 21 days in 2017 to five months in 2022.

“So the Government has delivered more bureaucrats to Immigration New Zealand and wasted more taxpayer money, for worse outcomes.

“Labour simply cannot get things done. It’s not enough to just make the announcement, spray the cash, hire more public servants and walk away.

“With the border set to reopen in just over eight weeks, more visa applications will come flooding in to add to the major backlog we already have.

“They’ve made their big announcement about opening the border, but exactly how they’re going to process visas and get people into the country, which we desperately need, remains to be seen.” 

This waste would be bad at the best of times, it’s even worse when inflation is raging.

A good government would be aiming to get more for less, instead ours is accomplishing less and spending more.

Slower speeds, more traffic, more accidents

Garrick Tremain points out the major flaw in the government’s plan to reduce speed limits:

. . .  Also frequently aired is a puerile presentation aimed at convincing us that a reduction in speed on our roads will increase our safety.

Our road toll statistics are about as bad, and sometimes worse, than they have ever been – this despite constant bleating to take care, drive to the conditions, etc, etc…

But:

As bad as they may be our roads have never been better.

*Vehicles have never been safer to travel in.

*Driver education, though far from ideal, is better than ever before.

*Traffic policing has never been stricter.

*Penalties for misdemeanours have never been higher.

*There have never, in my lifetime, been fewer intoxicated drivers on our roads.

Despite all these improvements the traffic accident rate does not decrease.

If those factors have improved, what’s got worse?

Just one thing … the number of vehicles on our roads at any given time.

It would seem therefore, that only a fool, would advocate for increasing traffic density and numbers.

There are two ways to increase the number of vehicles on our roads at any one time… extend the length of the journey by 1) adding distance or 2) adding time.

By reducing speed (as proposed) by 20% (eg. from 100kmh to 80 kmh) we increase traffic volume by 25%  – eg. from 500 vehicles to 625 vehicles.

It is simplest of simple mathematics, yet it has not been mentioned by, or probably even occurred to, the whiz kids in the PM’s think tank or the floors of juveniles employed at Waka Kotahi. . . 

The government has a plan to get the road toll to zero.

Waka Kotahi’s strategy is extensive, and expensive advertising, that amounts to no more than bureaucratic back-patting, pushing the politicians’ propaganda in a misguided attempt to convince us it will make roads safer; and reducing speed limits which will make driving more dangerous.

Slower speeds results in more vehicles on the road and higher traffic density will increase the risk of accidents.

Reducing speed limits might work as a revenue-gathering exercise as frustrated drivers go faster than they ought, but it will also increase traffic volume and that will inevitably lead to more accidents not fewer.

The aim ought to be reducing traffic density and that requires improvements to roads, including more passing lanes, and more motorways that will allow traffic to travel faster. Instead they’re slowing traffic thereby increasing traffic density and that will sabotage their plan to reduce the road toll.

Wasting $s on bureaucratic back patting

Does this government and its agencies hold the record for the most money wasted on propaganda?

If you want to go down a rabbit hole of grift, browse the portfolio of @clemengerBBDO, the creative agency responsible for this ad. https://t.co/jzJn3G1uMZ https://t.co/CMsukLkoFN

— New Zealand Taxpayers' Union (@TaxpayersUnion) March 17, 2022

The worst of it is that the Govt has budgeted a total of $197 *million* for its Road to Zero "education campaign" through to 2024.

This money could have been spent on median barriers, but the Govt has decided it would rather spend the money annoying you with dumb ads.

— New Zealand Taxpayers' Union (@TaxpayersUnion) March 17, 2022

The government and Waka Kotahi are wasting money on advertising what amounts to an admission of failure.

They’re failing to make roads safer and so in an effort to reduce the road toll they’re resorting to reducing speed limits and trying to convince us that’s good.

The advertisement isn’t the only money being wasted on transport mistakes.

The Auckland tram might cost $29.2 billion.

That is $15,000 for every household in New Zealand. So every family in Gore and Hastings and Levin will be paying $15,000 more tax so Auckland gets some trams to the airport!

If it costs $29.2 billion, then that is a cost of:

• $1.22 billion per km
• $1.22 million per metre
• $12,167 per cm
• $1,217 per mm

Think of the opportunity cost. A new four lane motorway costs around $50 million per km. For what the Government may spend on trams in Auckland you could construct a 630 km long four lane motorway. That is approximately the distance from Auckland to Wellington. . . 

Back to annoying advertisements, Waka Kotahi has another that starts by showing a driver swerving to avoid a possum.

It is, as Camryn Brown writes,  a case study in obliviousness :

. . . Consider the TV ad for the new “Road to Zero” campaign. What does that ad want you to do? A typical road safety ad wants you to slow down, be sober, or wear a seatbelt. This ad has nothing for a road user to act on, it simply promotes the idea of an all-of-system approach to road safety. It tells you that road safety depends on coordinated work across enforcement, road design, regulation, and so on.

It shares this big idea that has excited the bureaucrats so you may see how clever they are and so that you may appreciate them more.

That’s what the ad wants you to do – it wants you to know what the bureaucracy is doing to do and it wants you to think better of them for it. The beneficiary of the ad is the public service, not the public. . .

Compounding the waste of money is the stupidity of showing a driver swerving to avoid a possum, which is dangerous.

If the advertisement pointed out that drivers should never swerve to avoid a small animal and that running over a possum would be doing a service to conservation because they’re pests which carry TB and prey on native fauna and flora it might be acceptable.

But it doesn’t to that and it’s not acceptable use of scarce money that would be far better spent on making roads safer.

Instead, they’re wasting millions on an expensive exercise in bureaucratic back patting.

It does nothing to encourage safer driving and it reinforces the growing chasm between the government, its agencies and the public who finance their wasteful spending.

Govt needs better customer service

How frustrating is this?

A group of New Zealand-trained nurses – some working with Covid-19 patients – are considering leaving the country because they can’t get a visa to live here.

That’s despite a nursing shortage so big it’s at crisis levels.

The government offered one-off residency visas to registered nurses from overseas but migrant nurses who were newly-trained in the New Zealand system did not qualify.

One nurse, who sometimes cared for Covid-19 patients, said it was frustrating.

“We are critical health workers – we are dealing with Covid patients every day,” she said.

She finished her Bachelor of Nursing last year and was seeing the nursing shortages first hand in her work.

“Last night was full crazy … running over my own feet. Every day we are very short of nurses. They do need nurses everywhere,” she said.

She was granted a three-year working visa, which meant she had no certainty about her future here, could not buy a home and did not have full access to state health care.

Tauranga nurse Parminder was in the same boat

She was orginally from India had worked in aged care in New Zealand for nine years, finishing her studies last year to become a fully registered nurse.

She loved working with elderly patients who had become like family – and she wanted to stay.

But it was difficult without certainty, she said. . . 

These are two of many critical workers in areas short of staff who can’t get residency.

A private business facing this problem would do everything in its power to retain its workers. Why isn’t the government?

If they were overseas these nurses could apply for residency. It is only bureaucratic and political intransigence and ignorance that is preventing a minor change in policy to allow qualified, experienced and much-needed workers doing essential work to apply when they’re already here.

Waka Kotahi is another government agency that needs to think like a private business:

Northland has become New Zealand’s first region-wide location for potentially cutting highway speed limits to 80km/h because of its roading management challenges.

That is according to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency Road to Zero portfolio manager Tara MacMillan. . . 

She said the rural nature of its state highways, long skinny shape and needing to address a number of pending issues contributed to the decision to make it New Zealand’s first region-wide approach to reducing speed limits to 80km/h.

The outcome of this regional approach would potentially inform using the same option in other parts of the country, MacMillan said. . . 

This has already happened on parts of the Lewis Pass, the whole stretch of the road from Nelson to south of Blenheim and is planned for the Napier-Taupo road.

A private business that needed to address pending issues would address those issues, it wouldn’t institute major policy changes that would frustrate users of its products or services.

Nor would it even think about doing something that would add time and costs to the people it’s supposed to be serving.

Blanket 80kp/h limits will make travel slower and almost certainly increase the number of people getting ticketed for speeding. They could also add to the number of trucks on the roads because deliveries will be slower.

They won’t necessarily make the roads safer if, as is inevitable, it increases driver frustration which in turn leads to more risky driving.

The price of fuel is going up, increasing the amount of tax the government gets from that.

If the government directed more of that tax to improving roads instead of wasting it on boondoggles like the bike bridge to nowhere, travel would be safer without the need for the blanket imposition of lower speed limits.

The government and its agencies need to take lessons in customer service from businesses that understand, and care about, their customers.

Rural round-up

How morale among our food producers is flagging in the face of Covid fatigue and Ardern’s regulatory agenda – Point of ORder:

KPMG’s global head of agribusiness, Ian Proudfoot​,  reports morale in  NZ’s farming  industries has slumped over the past year, with industry leaders struggling under the pressure.

“We could sense anger during our conversations, particularly in relation to the labour shortages the sector faces”.

Proudfoot is the  author of  the  KPMG “Agribusiness Agenda” , delivered at a   breakfast session at the opening  day  of  the  Fieldays,   billed  as the  largest agricultural event  in  the  southern  hemisphere.

He  believes  NZ’s role in a global “food renaissance” could be hampered by Covid-19 fatigue and sweeping regulatory changes. . . 

Farmer who’s experienced his own struggles urges others to ‘get talking’ about mental health -:

A farmer of 28 years is encouraging others to talk about their mental health after experiencing his own struggles. 

Marc Gascoigne told Breakfast he had struggled with depression and anxiety on and off for 22 years.

However, he did not seek help until he had a “massive panic attack” six years ago, which he described as a breaking point.

Although he received support through Farmstrong, he did not speak up publicly about his struggles until his nephew, who was also a farmer, took his own life. . .

Auckland cycle bridge at cost of regional roads:

The Government is forging ahead with an ideological vanity project, in the form of a cycle bridge over Waitematā harbour, at the expense of the day-to-day maintenance of local roads and state highways across the country, National’s Transport spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says.

New Zealand’s councils are $420 million short of the funding they expected to get from NZTA to maintain roads in our towns and cities around the country. Meanwhile NZTA itself is short $340 million it needs to maintain state highways.

“All up, the Government has short-changed the country $760 million worth of funding that should have gone towards maintaining our roads.

“This isn’t about building new roads, this is just making sure we can drive safely on the ones we’ve got. . . . 

Southland kale trial harvest starting. A few potentially new lines to look at in here, but more importantly local data for Southland. pic.twitter.com/OPaaOeZEOb

— Blair Cotching (@BCBarenbrugNZ) June 16, 2021

Wanaka A&P Show contributes almost $28.6 million to local economy :

The 2021 Wanaka A&P Show brought $28.6 million worth of direct economic benefits to the area, an independent study has found.

The report, prepared by Research First, looked at the total expenditure by visitors, trade exhibitors, volunteers, spectators and competitors over the two-day event in March.

The amount of total direct spending is up $17.7 million on the previous independent economic impact report, undertaken in 2015 (which found that the Show contributed $10.9m worth of direct economic benefits). No economic multipliers have been applied. . . 

On-farm ‘Intelligent Eye’ provides farmers with real-time health of dairy herd:

A pilot of a new automated on-farm monitoring system designed to provide farmers with an “intelligent eye” over the health of their herd, allowing for early detection of conditions such as lameness, will be launched today at Fieldays 2021.

Created by the makers of the world’s first sheep facial recognition system, Dunedin-based Iris Data Science, the technology is currently being piloted on five dairy farms in the lower South Island with success – and the company hopes to extend this to around 50 farms.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is contributing $40,000 to the project through its Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) fund.

“Our pilot farms are already seeing promising results, with farmers saying they are receiving valuable, accurate, and consistent information on the condition of their herds,” says Iris Data Science’s co-founder and managing director Greg Peyroux. . . 

🤔 pic.twitter.com/v6rqlmYFIu

— NZ National Party (@NZNationalParty) June 14, 2021

ASB commits $100 Million in low-cost green loans to help farmers tackle environmental impact:

Kiwi farmers wanting to boost their climate resilience and make a positive difference to the environment are set to benefit from ASB’s new Rural Sustainability Loan, which offers a market-leading 2.25% p.a. variable rate for sustainable farming improvements.

ASB rural customers can now tap into discounted lending to take their farm sustainability to the next level, with funding available for conservation and biodiversity restoration, and projects to drive the switch to renewable energy, prevent pollution and waste, cut emissions, and promote healthy soil, ecosystems, waterways and animal welfare.

The new offering follows ASB’s recently announced Back My Build loan, which encourages Kiwis to boost housing supply with a market-leading rate for new builds. Both initiatives make use of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Funding for Lending scheme, as ASB honours its commitment to use the low-cost funds for productive lending to benefit all Kiwis. . . 

Rural round-up

Rural roads may suffer as transport funding hole opens – Chloe Ranford:

Councils are scrambling to deal with holes in their roading budgets, which they fear could lead to deteriorating roads, particularly in rural areas.

Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency has told councils not to expect as much road funding as they had sought, although most would still receive more than they had in the last funding round.

The news from the government’s transport agency has left Marlborough District Council “scrambling” to deal with a $10 million hole in its road funding, which could cause “failures across the network”.

The lower funding indication came as the council was hearing feedback on its long-term plan, used to benchmark what the council would do and spend in the coming decade, including $53.6m on its roads. . . 

SNAs – the green movement that cuts farmers deep:

Katie Milne looks over eight hectares of precious native forest from her lounge room on the West Coast dairy farm she runs with her husband Ian Whitmore.

Just metres from her doorstep are kahikatea, mountain cedar and manuka and species of drachafilums which are normally only found higher up.

When it was designated a Significant Natural Area 20 years ago it was contentious but the debate is even more controversial now.

Today The Detail visits Milne at her farm and finds out why West Coast landowners are so angry at latest moves to identify and protect SNAs. . . 

Safety profile – the job’s always going to be there, getting home safely is the main thing :

This profile is part of a seven-part series from WorkSafe New Zealand sharing the health and safety approaches taken by the grand finalists of the 2021 FMG Young Farmer of the Year competition. For the next seven weeks, we will be sharing a profile and short video about each of the finalists and how they incorporate health and safety into their work, from a dairy farm manager to an agribusiness banker.

Working with ANZ’s rural lending team, Taranaki/Manawatu 2021 Young Farmer of the Year Jake Jarman sees real value in good health and safety practices.

“In my experience, a farm that makes health and safety a priority is a productive and profitable farm,” he says.

Jake’s own health and safety focus began with a solid grounding on his family’s dairy farm and continued through his studies at Lincoln and Massey universities and practical farm placements. . . 

NZ on track for predator-free targets – Ben Leonard:

A new report is giving hope to conservationists hoping to stem New Zealand’s biodiversity crisis

It’s been five years since the Government launched its ambitious goal of ridding the country of rats, possums, and mustelids by 2050. 

The programme aimed to move from piecemeal local projects to a strategic nationwide approach for eradicating the three worst offenders to our biodiversity.

Five years on, the programme is taking stock and reflecting in its first progress report, released at a summit in Wellington last week. . . 

Avocado industry smashes records with 40% sales value rise – Maja Burry:

The season just ended was a record breaker for the avocado industry, with the value of sales lifting more than percent 40 on the year prior.

New figures from New Zealand Avocado show the industry’s revenue from the 2020-21 season totalled $227 million compared to $155 million the season prior.

Overseas markets accounted for $167 million dollars worth of sales, with export volumes up 10 percent.

Industry group chief executive Jen Scoular said the result had been achieved against the odds, with Covid-19 lockdowns and significant freight disruption presenting major hurdles. . . 

Pups go to sheep for the first time.
Let the fun begin. pic.twitter.com/vt5EqYIS1a

— shepherd jo (@shepherd__jo) June 12, 2021

Buyers aim high as treetop walkway business goes up for sale:

A leading adventure tourism business which operates a world-class treetop walk has been put up for sale.

Located just south of Hokitika, West Coast Treetop Walk & Café is one of the West Coast’s top visitor attractions.

It attracted more than 45,000 visitors last year with the chance to roam its 450-metre aerial walkway and 45-metre-high viewing tower overlooking stunning native rainforest, or to enjoy a unique food-and-beverage experience in a wild setting.

The business also has approval to install New Zealand’s longest and highest rainforest canopy zipline at the site, which is forecast to boost annual visitor numbers by a further 5,000 to 10,000. . .