Simeon Brown: Transport Minister on NZTA spending $800 million on traffic management and road cones over three years

The Transport Agency has spent nearly $800 million on traffic management in the past three years, according to new reports.

The Government has revealed the spend went to road cones, temporary traffic management, state highway maintenance and capital works. 

Transport Minister Simeon Brown says this is an 'exorbitant' sum and the spending needs to come down. 

"We need to see a much more efficient use of taxpayers' money when it comes to maintaining our roads and keeping road workers safe - we have to get that balance right."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now to another car related controversy, because that's not enough
road cones. The government's done some digging and it's revealed
today that MZTA has spent in just three years almost
eight hundred million dollars on road cones and temporary traffic management.
Now the guy who did the digging is the Transport Minister,
Simeon Brown. Hey, Simeon, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Heather?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Very well? Thank you, Siman. Before we get into the
road cones and stuff, did you know that you can't
park in your own driveway?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
The rule is clear that you can't block a driveway,
but ultimately, you know what I'd say to Auckland Transport
here is there needs to be some discretion. Ultimately, if
you're blocking a foot path to someone in a pram
or a wheelchair can't get past, that's one thing. But
if someone's trying to park their car to be able
to act, you know, you know, have their car parked
outside the house, it's a different thing. So their discretion

(00:47):
is up the wazoo and that's something which i'd be
encouraging them to think about.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Okay, I appreciate that, but do they actually have to
listen to you or are they just like powers into themselves.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, ultimately the imp rule which allows them to which
is clear you can't block a driveway. But the reality
here is this is about discretion. And I think for
most fear minded Aucklanders who are looking at this and saying, yes,
if the car is blocking the footpath and stopping someone
in the wheelchair getting down it, if that's a problem.

(01:17):
If it's not and it's the person where they're just
entering their property, that something completely different and the foot
path is clear. So it comes down to discretion and
the enforcement officers are able to use their discretion in
their circumstances.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Are you telling them Simi and right now as the
Transport Minister, to use their discretion and stop finding people
parking in their own driveways?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, I think my message has been consistent. I want
a common sense approach when it comes to transport issues,
and I think that's what most fear minded right want.
They want a common sense approach. I can't tell all
of them Transports, as a road controlling authority or any
other road controlling authorities what to do. They are the
road controlling authority and Auckland. Obviously there's an issue in
terms of whether or not. There needs to be more

(01:56):
democratic accountability and I'm all form of democratic accountability of
these issues, and I'm working with Wayne Brown on that.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Are you going to get will you help them to
get rid of AT?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
I'm working through the options around that. What I'm committed
to is democratic accountability of transport decisions. There's a range
of ways in which that can be implemented, but the
outcome that we've agreed and we're committed to is democratic
accountability of these decisions.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Good love it defund AT now on the road cones.
This is mind blowing this number, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh, it's significant. Ultimately, when I became the Minister of Transport,
I said to MZTA how much have you been spending
on trafford management temperatuire management? And they said, we don't
know because we don't record it, and so we required
them to record it recorded. We found that it's been
almost eight hundred million dollars in the last three years,
which is an exorbitant amount of money. Ultimately, we need

(02:48):
to see this come down. We need to see a
much more efficient use of taxpayers money when it comes
to you know, maintaining our roads and keeping roadworkers safe.
We have to get that balance right and that's all
we're working with nz T AD to deliver.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Now, am I right in thinking what we're talking about?
This nearly eight hundred million dollars yere This is just NZTA.
This doesn't include whatever the councils have also spent.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Correct, So this is only the New Zealand Transport Agency.
This doesn't include what transport or councils across the country are,
doesn't include what are authorities like what a care, doesn't
include electricity lines, companies or corus who do telecommunications. So
this is only New Zealand and ZTA. So NZTA is
rolling out a new risk based approach to traffic management

(03:32):
that that is going to take time, but we've already
started implementing that into new construction contracts and they will
be implementing that into all new maintenance contracts. We are
seeing in the first quarterly report a reduction in the
amount of money being spent on temporary traffic management down
from about I think fifteen percent of total costs for
maintenance and operations to about ten percent. So we are

(03:53):
seeing those benefits starting to flow through. But I've been
very clear we need to keep that deal because I
want to see retingle dollar being maximized so we can
get more roads built and more roads maintained, because that's
what taxpayers expect.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Brilliant stuff. So me and listen, thank you very much,
really appreciate it, Simmy and Brown Transport Minister A Auckland
Transports being told, hey, how good is that? For more
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