Subscribe to RSSBill English: $7 Billion On Building State Highways
Finance minister Bill English , in a speech in Auckland this afternoon, confirmed that the government will spend $7 billion on improving State Highways in the coming five years.
And he warned that the public sector needs to lift its game. He suggested public-private partnerships, or PPPs is one way.
Bill English told a combined Massey University and Auckland Chamber of Commerce lunch, that next month, he will release the first National Infrastructure Plan.
“It’s a snapshot of existing projects, planned investment and the Government’s priorities.” But the Government wants to learn from the private sector.
“In particular, we need to improve management and decision-making for the $110 billion of infrastructure assets the Government holds. This is a huge investment.
“But asset management disciplines within Government are weak. Even a 1 per cent efficiency improvement would be worth over a billion dollars. “We believe the public sector can lift its game is through greater exposure to private sector techniques, including better risk assessment, tighter fiscal discipline, as well as a strong focus on better design and service. Public-private partnerships, or PPPs, are one option for doing this. I hesitate to use the term PPP, because in it covers a wide range of approaches.
” The Government is considering the merits of two such partnerships – one for the construction of schools and the other for the construction and management of a new prison.”
The finance minister said that the money on infrastructure projects, such as new motorway, wais supporting thousands of jobs across New Zealand – quite apart from the wider benefits to the economy.
Rail got one brief mention at the end.
“This year, construction will begin on the Te Rapa Bypass in Waikato, the Christchurch Western Corridor and the Te Atatu-Lincoln section of Auckland’s Western Ring Route. We will continue work on the Christchurch Southern Motorway, the Victoria Park Tunnel, the Kopu Bridge, the Hawkes Bay Expressway extension, along with others. And this year we will complete the Manukau Extension and the Manukau Harbour Crossing in Mangare and progress electrification of the Auckland commuter rail network.”
The detail as he listed on the roading projects:
Construction work has begun on all five of the major roading projects including:
- Earth works on the Rimutaka Hill Corner (Muldoon’s) easing. Original finish date: October 2014. New finish date: June, 2012.
- Earth works on the Kopu Bridge replacement in the Coromandel, with piling work set to commence shortly. Original finish date: September, 2013. New finish date: June 2012.
- Earth works on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway southern extension. Original finish date: October 2011. New finish date: June, 2011.
- Earth works on the Matahoura Gorge realignment. Original finish date: April 2012. New finish date: March 2011.
- Site works have begun on the Christchurch Southern Motorway extension. New finish date: May, 2013.
The cost of accelerating these five projects is $42.5 million.
In addition, about $63 million of the $100 million set aside for accelerating State Highway renewals has already been spent.
In full swing these projects will collectively support about 600 jobs.
29 Comments
that should includes 4-laning Evans Street in Timaru and a expressway from Rolleston to Christchurch.
If anyone out there still believes there is a snowball’s chance in hell of this government putting one more cent into rail after electrification then they are kidding themselves. Post 2013 it will be at least a decade before anymore money get’s spent on rail. The CBD loop will not be built under this government you can bank on that.
Well said Cambennett.
Clearly the whole peak oil thing was a myth and there is absolutely no need for alternatives.
“And he warned that the public sector needs to lift its game. He suggested public-private partnerships, or PPPs is one way.”
Why is Steven Joyce then refusing to support (or even meet) GetAcross after they suggested a PPP scheme to fund the Auckland Harbour Bridge walk- and cycleway?
“Post 2013 it will be at least a decade before anymore money get’s spent on rail”
Post 2011 or post 2014, it will be at least a decade before National is allowed back at the levers of government.
(I might be deluding myself, but no more so than they are in thinking this is the right direction for our country)
What I am really saying though is that a) governments can change and b) governments can change their minds (though that sometimes seems even harder). Don’t forget that after electrification and integrated ticketing, we are almost guaranteed to see massive PT patronage boosts. Success breeds its own success. Rail is not dead.
“Success breeds its own success. Rail is not dead.”
I think you are right and the thing to wait for is the CBD tunnel study to be finished. If the BCR for that comes out above 1 (Puhoi to Wellsford was 0.8) and the government don’t fund the tunnel then it is a good indication that we won’t see any more improvements for a long time.
If however they do fund it then of course that changes everything and Auckland should get on with getting BCR’s done for other lines (Airport, Shore, Howick/Botany etc)
@ingolfson, I do hope you are right. That is a good point that patronage should take a leap after those two things which should see extra pressure come on. I don’t think rail is dead, but i do think it will be a long time before any money is put into it.
Oh, to be serious, I do not see National fronting up for the tunnel anytime withing the next 5 years. But they will not stop the muttering and Auckland pushing for it either. So by the time they either change their mind, or are back out of government, we can build it, secure in just having double or tripled our rail patronage even without it.
Best thing I have read all day.
Just what this country needs- great for growing the economy, giving lower-skilled people jobs and enabling freight and businesses to move.
How appropriate this figure comes out while the dreadful sight of Helen Clark pops up today at parliament to remind us how the liberal arty professors wasted millions on politically correct feel-good touchy feely projects that helped put us even further behind Australia.
Good on you Bill. It’s going to take time but you are literally on the right road.
The Vic park project is of special interest. It affects me every day in my work. edit, many times a day. I can’t wait for this to be developed. Until then, I have to work longer hours and face frustration in the hot car. You ppl seem to moan a lot about train delays and signal failures but think of us motorists sometime in the baking sun sitting in our cars held up by Auckland’s traffic jams.
The govt doing all this is awesome. Im glad too theyre fixing up the trains. Hope better public transport takes more cars off the road which will help me too.
I found your site after looking at stuff on the race to the CBD the other day. Very interesting blog mate. Like it.
Cambennett, I think after the motorway development then they will be looking at Public transport but by then it will be too late, unfortunately I cant vote for anybody else as the only thing about the current government I don’t agree with is it’s transport priorities, everything else is good.
Kurt, I don’t think the government believe that, and frankly neither do I, their will always be alternatives, electric cars are progressing well, where profits are to be made technology will develop, I personally support the train network for other reasons, such as it’s the most effective way of moving/shifting people and goods.
I do understand that the main mode of moving people around is the private passenger car. I do hope this move little by little to public transport, rail, bus & ferry as this would benefit the country. I would still like to see the option of taking public or private transport. Options are good. But the public transport system needs to have further planned investment as well.
“Best thing I have read all day.
Just what this country needs- great for growing the economy, giving lower-skilled people jobs and enabling freight and businesses to move.
How appropriate this figure comes out while the dreadful sight of Helen Clark pops up today at parliament to remind us how the liberal arty professors wasted millions on politically correct feel-good touchy feely projects that helped put us even further behind Australia.
Good on you Bill. It’s going to take time but you are literally on the right road.”
Yawn, come back when the 80s are over in your mind. What a load of ideological drivel.
“Cambennett, I think after the motorway development then they will be looking at Public transport but by then it will be too late”
Has Steven Joyce done or said anything to suggest this is the case or are you just hoping this because you like them? Personally looking at everything this government is doing they are mediocre at best. The only area they are making great strides is in state highway building. (I’m not against investment in state highways i’m in favour of balance)
@Cam: forgive ACT supporter for not remembering to sandwich their comment in between sarcasm tags
Cam - I guess you could say i’m just hoping as I don’t have anything to suggest the contray, however if you look at the governments decisions, they have all been logical progression, and the next logical progression from road building is rail development. However this is only a calculated guess at best.
Cam - Also you must note other developments in education, economic deveopment, tax reform and tourism development to note their other great strides. And should I note crime. They have done more development in one year than our last government was able to do in nine, so if this government is mediocre our last one was appaling.
Both are mediocre when it come to trasport, but at least this government is going forward with something, and actually getting something done. I just wish as you have mentioned it was a more balanced approach to transport.
Look i think their “acheivments” on the other things are up for debate, it depends on your point of view really. I don’t agree with they have managed to do more in one year than the previous govt at all. But we can agree to disagree on that we are here to discuss transport . I hope you are right about PT, i just can’t see it.
@Cambennett Feel free to widen the debate. How the government is doing and what its priorities are, are all relevant in the big picture!
“Also you must note other developments in education, economic deveopment, tax reform and tourism development to note their other great strides. And should I note crime.”
Actually, quite a few people (me included) might say they are moving our country down the wrong path in those areas as well - but that’s neither here nor there, because this is a TRANSPORT blog.
“however if you look at the governments decisions, they have all been logical progression”
Sorry, it is only a logical progression in the sense that “car dependency” leads directly to “calls for more roads”. This government has no vision save continuing on the same old track, despite the well-known dangers of putting even MORE of one’s eggs in one basket.
@ingolfson This is a blog about issues that affect and interest us. If people want to widen this discussion to how they think the Key government is doing generally, it’s fine by me. It is relevant to transport because if people think the spending allocation is out of whack to other priorities, it’s worth discussing.
Ok if you really want to know what i think i’ll let you know. This government is a triumph for spin over substance, they seem to lack any sort of overall longterm plan for the nation and most of what they have proposed seems to be little more than window dressing or feathering the nests of vested interests. Key is a lightweight stuffed shirt, who seems more interested in being perceived as mr popular than the long term health of the country. He comes across as a snake oil salesman with no substance when asked a question he often struggles to give an honest answer for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTzfTq88XYc. Their policy is poorly thought out vague and rushed, they have ministers like Tolley and Bennett who don’t even seem to understand the policy they are pushing through http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2010/02/18/campbell-mallard%e2%80%99s-big-day-and-low-budget-films/.
They have abolished things like fuel efficiency standards which could save the country millions and help the environment, they have put through an ETS which has the average taxpayer subsidising the polluters, Got rid of tax credits for R &D and they are rushing through almost sinister legislation for the super city so that the likes of Stephen Joyce can impose an outdated baby boomer fantasy of how the city should look.
They have chickened out of addressing one of the major issues facing this country the lack of investment in the productive sector and the over investment in property. They have paid lip service to PT in Auckland and ploughed just about all of the available funds over the next decade into roading despite the fact that the cost of oil continues to steadily rise and we are facing decade of deficeits caused in a large part by the amount of oil we have to import. They are imposing national standards whithout trialing them despite the fact that the UK is now looking at ditching them because they have failed to acheive the stated purpose. They have 7,3% unemployment or 160,000 people unemployed because of the recession and they don’t seem to have a clue how to attack that problem. They announced their “stimulus” had provided 2000 jobs and yet they had laid of about the same amount from the public service. They also appear to be pulling a shifty on ACC so private insurance companies can get a bigger peice of the action. They have increased the minimum wage by an amount that barely keeps up with infaltion while increasing ACC levies, GST and petrol tax.
The one thing they actually seem to lack is “logical progression” Ok that’s my rant.
“Key is a lightweight stuffed shirt, who seems more interested in being perceived as mr popular than the long term health of the country.” - Hard to see as I never hear from himself or party that he donates all his earnings from parliament to charity, but that he does. The only thing he get out of being PM of NZ is the fact he knows he’s helping the country as he also had more power in his other positions before politics.
“Their policy is poorly thought out vague and rushed, they have ministers like Tolley and Bennett who don’t even seem to understand the policy they are pushing through” - Agreed some of the policies have been rushed, however at least they are getting through, Labour never rushed policies, in fact they never put in any major policies unless pressure came from the other parties.
“They have abolished things like fuel efficiency standards which could save the country millions and help the environment, they have put through an ETS which has the average taxpayer subsidising the polluters, Got rid of tax credits for R &D and …” - Check your comment on tax, gst and minimum wage, you can’t have everything! These were dropped because of the pressure it will create on the people by the increased taxes and the sort.
“They have chickened out of addressing one of the major issues facing this country the lack of investment in the productive sector and the over investment in property.” - Agreed, the unions have been the biggest and most productive sectors bringing down a once lucrative market, they’ve botched manufacturing, the government should look at discouraging this for growth reasons, disagreed on property, one of the biggest problems facing us going forward is the underinvestment and councils deterring house building as now we are going to end up with a shortage of housing.
“They have paid lip service to PT in Auckland and ploughed just about all of the available funds over the next decade into roading despite…” - Agreed as with most people on this blog believe there should be more balance and there is a huge underinvestment in PT. However at least they are saving jobs, and I can assure you they are saving more than just 2000 - this is the direct number employed on these projects, it doesn’t include subbies, suppliers, local community companies etc. The project I am involved with as estimated the people involved has spent over $700,000 in the local community. Although as I say some of this investment should be with Public transport not just roading, a balance is needed.
“They are imposing national standards whithout trialing them despite the fact that the UK is now looking at ditching them because they have failed to acheive the stated purpose.” - The worst thing in education that has hit NZ is NCEA, the quality of education has taken a huge plunge and needs to be rectified, but chaging the standard again is not fair for people going though high school for yet another change, so I like the governments initiative here.
“They have 7,3% unemployment or 160,000 people unemployed because of the recession and they don’t seem to have a clue how to attack that problem. They announced their “stimulus” had provided 2000 jobs and yet they had laid of about the same amount from the public service.” - Addressed before, the fact they laid off that amount from the public service is to keep taxes down, to stop wasted money and give it to people who are willing to work for it, so we can create productive jobs. As said before way more jobs have been created/saved due to government initiatives.
“They also appear to be pulling a shifty on ACC so private insurance companies can get a bigger peice of the action. They have increased the minimum wage by an amount that barely keeps up with infaltion while increasing ACC levies, GST and petrol tax.” Again money! ACC is running a huge deflect and costing us the taxpayer money, our ACC levies are not covering it, GST and Petrol tax, GST has rising to allow for lower personal tax, when people have that extra money it encourages more spending, which encourages more growth. Petrol Tax has gone up, but should go up more, I’m guessing that is what you mean by that, as to encourage more PT use, however I’m not sure we can do that until we invest more in PT so it can handle it.
So I think I’ve covered everything, as I’ve said before the only thing is the balance in Roading and Rail/PT.
Yeah Joshua you have covered everything - “The worst thing in education that has hit NZ is NCEA, the quality of education has taken a huge plunge and needs to be rectified, but chaging the standard again is not fair for people going though high school for yet another change, so I like the governments initiative here” - If NCEA is the problem here then address. Why have national standards failed so miserably in the UK? Why does Anne Tolley not even seem to understand how they will work?
“Check your comment on tax, gst and minimum wage, you can’t have everything! These were dropped because of the pressure it will create on the people by the increased taxes and the sort.” - You mean unlike dropping the top income tax rate by 5% and possibly cutting the top corporate rate to under 30% as proposed by Bill English. These things will create a similar sort of pressure. It’s about priorities.
“Agreed, the unions have been the biggest and most productive sectors bringing down a once lucrative market, they’ve botched manufacturing, the government should look at discouraging this for growth reasons, disagreed on property, one of the biggest problems facing us going forward is the underinvestment and councils deterring house building as now we are going to end up with a shortage of housing” - What utter rubbish, we have shortage of housing to buy and shortage of investment in business because of two reason poor regulation of our capital markets means many smaller investers have been burned and because there is not tax on capital gains investment in property is hugley attractive. One trust i read about had 1200 houses on it’s own do you not see how that effects supply and demand and therefore price? Don’t belive me about this? As experts like Garath Morgan, Brian Gaynor and Bernard Hickey. Sounds like you are in favour of getting rid of the MULs? Also if unions are to blame then why in Australia where unions are far stronger do they have a far greater rate of investment in productive business.
“Again money! ACC is running a huge deflect and costing us the taxpayer money, our ACC levies are not covering it, GST and Petrol tax, GST has rising to allow for lower personal tax, when people have that extra money it encourages more spending, which encourages more growth. Petrol Tax has gone up, but should go up more, I’m guessing that is what you mean by that, as to encourage more PT use, however I’m not sure we can do that until we invest more in PT so it can handle it” - Actually know that’s wron ACC actaully had a large surplus last year it’s taking in more money that it’s paying out. the issue the point at which it becomes fully funded, it does not look like it will make that date because of losses on assets due to the recession so rather than putting that date back they are trying to claim it’s losing money - see here http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10604155&pnum=0
“Petrol Tax has gone up, but should go up more, I’m guessing that is what you mean by that, as to encourage more PT use, however I’m not sure we can do that until we invest more in PT so it can handle it”
They have increased purely to increase the amount of funding for state highways. How does that encourage people to use PT?
“Hard to see as I never hear from himself or party that he donates all his earnings from parliament to charity, but that he does. The only thing he get out of being PM of NZ is the fact he knows he’s helping the country as he also had more power in his other positions before politics.” - Yeah George W Bush did that. However i think you might the reason you never hear about it is dosn’t happen he said before the 2008 that he would donate a “good part” of his salary. So why do you think he donates all his salary to charity? Where did you get that? Nobody knows if this actually happend or how much read here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/573560
Good on him is he does donate to charity, i do to dosn’t mean i would be a great prime minister does it?
“However at least they are saving jobs, and I can assure you they are saving more than just 2000 – this is the direct number employed on these projects, it doesn’t include subbies, suppliers, local community companies etc. The project I am involved with as estimated the people involved has spent over $700,000 in the local community. Although as I say some of this investment should be with Public transport not just roading, a balance is needed:”
If they are saving more than 2000 then why would they play it down? If it provided that many job either directly or through contracters they would claim it. Why wouldn’t they? I’m guessing you are going to say modesty because they are just so decent? The number they have claimed themselves is 2000 the number they have laid off from the public service is around 1800 from memory. So they have in reality created about 200 maybe, Air NZ announced the loss of 100 the other day.
Joshua I’ve personally told you many, many times the many, many reasons why electric cars are not coming along to save us…
I’ve heard through reliable sources he has donated his whole salary, do you do that? I know I don’t so have great respect for the man on that point.
They only claim direct job as they are the one’s easily recorded, if they were to go through and count all the job created they would have to spend hundreds of taxpayers dollars on a report (now that would be a good idea when we are all trying to save money wouldn’t it). Not to mention they cant claim jobs they have saved, now that would be a more interesting total.
It will make PT more affordable over car travel, Through my cost analysis it cost me much less to drive to and from work than to Bus, unfortunately it is that way for many, making Car travel less affordable will make PT more usable.
Unions are stronger in Australia because they more logical, they understand the investment needed to earn the money and they understand the ability for a company to go F*** you i’m moving the job overseas, so they don’t demand as much because their members will no longer be. NZ union’s in the manufacturing business don’t seem to understand so must be controlled.
I don’t want to go into Union Debate’s so will leave it with two brief examples of many, Bloodstone’s and Fisher & Pikel, two companies forced to consider employing overseas because they couldn’t deal with the Unions.
Oh yea and on TAX, if you don’t want the countries businesses to grow you are right, however I think we need our economy to grow before we can get to Australian status.
On property, do you watch the news? Can’t remember how far back but there was a comment on how we need to rapidly increase housing development to keep up with demand and population growth, nearly every so called expert had agreed.
Jeremy Harris - Yes and as I always reply, where there is profit, there is technological development. Who knows it could become electromagnetic technology powering personal vehicles in the future?
“I’ve heard through reliable sources he has donated his whole salary, do you do that? I know I don’t so have great respect for the man on that point”
Could you tell us which sources these are after all if you’ve stated it it’s not a secret and no i don’t donate my whole salary to charity because i would starve to death pretty dumb question to ask, i’m not worth 50 million.
“They only claim direct job as they are the one’s easily recorded, if they were to go through and count all the job created they would have to spend hundreds of taxpayers dollars on a report (now that would be a good idea when we are all trying to save money wouldn’t it). Not to mention they cant claim jobs they have saved, now that would be a more interesting total” -
Polititians of any party will claim whatever they can no matter how tenuous i don’t beleive they would not include the amount of sub contractors that would work on a large infrastructure project. As for how many jobs they have saved directly i just told you they have laid off about 1800 civil servants, so how have they saved jobs i think last count about three companies had signed up to the 4 day week thing from the job summit (correct me if i’m wrong)
“I don’t want to go into Union Debate’s so will leave it with two brief examples of many, Bloodstone’s and Fisher & Pikel, two companies forced to consider employing overseas because they couldn’t deal with the Unions”
This is the way of the world corporates in first world countries move their manufacturing to third world countries. The labour costs are so much less, that’s why Nike makes sneakers in Indonesia, Fisher and Pykel moved manufacturing to Thailand, and GM moved factories to mexico. Are you saying you want NZ to be more like Mexico of Indonesia?
“Unions are stronger in Australia because they more logical, they understand the investment needed to earn the money and they understand the ability for a company”
Could you provide some specific examples of Australian Unions being more logical to show what you mean?Unions have been stronger in Australia because they didn’t have the employment contracts act like we did in the 90s (which incedentally marked the point when wages in NZ went down significantly). It was not until John Howard introduced work choices in 2005 that their collective bargining ability began to be weakened and there was a move towards individual agreements between employers. However Kevin Rudd has since begun to change a lot of this the work choices was said by many to be a contributing factor to Howard’s defeat in 2007. As far as NZ manufacturing goes, we will always struggle in this sector for years the manufacturing sector was government subsidised however when protections came off we were not competitive in this sector we could not compete with labour costs in places like aisa. Nor would we want to, unless you want sweat shops with little health and saftey regulations and appalling low wages. We should stick to what we do best, the law of comparative advantage says you export what you are best at (in our case primary produce) and import what you others are good at (products like electronics)where we can grow is by moving into variations on what we produce well, the NZ wine industry is an example of this. That’s why R & D is so important, as well is getting more of the products we already export into more markets in greater amounts we need to expand the number of products are exporting.
Of there will be niche areas of manufacturing in which kiwi companies can excel depending on what the product is but on a large scale we wont be very competitive in this area because of those reasons. The problem is that it’s hard for these companies to grow and develop in NZ because many people shy away from investing in business because many have been burned (1987 stockmarket crash, the recent debacles with NZ finance companies) and because there is untaxed profit to be made in property. This is another advantage Austrlia have over us, they have compulsory superannuation so there is a huge pool of money over there flowing through their capital markets. As has been stated time and again by many obsevers including the three i mentioned above, we are never going to get richer just selling houses to each other and mortaging oursleves the hilt to really grow the economy we need to grow and encourage new business. Key has shied away from addressing this he is too scared of the baby boomer voting block because so many of them have money tied up in property. As for tax cuts for that’s fine for attracting so overseas investment and i don’t mind that at all however it need to be balannced out.
“It will make PT more affordable over car travel, Through my cost analysis it cost me much less to drive to and from work than to Bus, unfortunately it is that way for many, making Car travel less affordable will make PT more usable”
But if PT is underinvested in and services are poor, and let’s be honest by world standards they are, PT will still be less attractive to many than driving. There is no money for PT over the next decade the government is putting so much money in to state highways they have even had to slash the amount they are putting into local roads.
“Oh yea and on TAX, if you don’t want the countries businesses to grow you are right, however I think we need our economy to grow before we can get to Australian status” Simply cutting taxes will not make the economy grow, that’s a simplistic neo lib approach. Lowering business tax is fine for attracting a bit of overseas investment which is good but i’d be very cautious about making that the main thrust of the economic strategy just look at the mess Ireland is in now that all the financial companies who set up shop there attracted by low corporate tax (which wsa subsidised in part by EU infrastructure subsides a luxery we don’t have) have withdrawn, their unemployent % is double digits and many people think it will take them years and years to recover. Have a read of this
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0219/Ireland-s-rural-wasteland-a-legacy-of-deep-recession
I know Jon C has said it’s okay to discuss this, but this is turning into the same thing as on the CBT forum. Threads full of people “discussing” taxes and stuff unrelated to transport, while convincing nobody of their views other than their own camps.
@Max yes it’s starting to sound like parliamentary debate, which always does my head in. Time to call it a day on this thread I think. Thanks for all the debate though.