Simeon Brown: Transport Minister on the focus of the National Land Transport Plan

The Transport Minister's focused on getting back to the basics. 

Road maintenance and building new roads and public transport infrastructure are at the centre of a $32.9 billion National Land Transport Plan. 

There's a $5.5 billion investment for pothole prevention, and $7 billion for state highway improvements. 

Minister Simeon Brown told Mike Hosking that too much complexity has been delaying projects. 

He says standardisation and fast track consenting will ensure they're delivered on time and within budget. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So look at where a shed load of money is
heading towards and transport infrastructure. Over the next handful of years,
thirty three billion dollars is to be spent more roads
and maintenance, less on cycle ways transport mins to Simon
Brown's with us, a very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning mine.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
I think New Zealanders are sick and tired of the
amount of money going into cycle ways. Have you got
evidence of that or not.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
We campaigned on building the building and maintaining our roading
network and reducing the amount of money going into cycle ways.
People voted for that and that's what we're delivering.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
One thing to announce the dollars. Do the dollars buy
you what you need?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes? And that's a big focus. It's not just about
the money, it's about the delivery. And as we've talked
about before, that's where we've got the targets around the
road maintenance. That's why we're focused very much on getting
rid of those roadblocks, actually getting construction underway fast tracked. Consenting.
Crispenk's working on reviewing the public works sects so we
can have more get projects started more efficiently and quickly.

(00:55):
And also there's a huge amount of work going on
in MDCHAW to get back to basics around the standards
and make sure we have greater standardization of design because
we're so good as a country to design every single
bridge differently, adding cost and complexity which we don't need to.
For example, pen Link, they're building a new bridge there.
It's a bridge that's never been built in New Zealand before.
It's delayed the entire project. So getting back to basics, standardization,

(01:18):
fast tracked, consenting, all of those things are about actually
getting projects delivered on time and within budget.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Are they on board with that or do they just
say they're on board with that? Because in another hat
you've seen the pushback from councils. Are they buying into
what you want or not?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Or mdtr And we're obviously going for a process replacing board.
We've put sign bridges in, there's the chair. We've put
a bunch of engineers on the board as well. That's
all about making it very clear that this is the
government's priorities and they are to respond to it. And
at the same time we're making very clear in terms
of the focus areas that we want to be focused on.
So yes, they are responding in every single week we

(01:55):
continue to ensure they are responding.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Do you know once you put all this stuff in place,
what you will be getting efficiency wise in terms of
being for buck or we're still not there yet.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, what we know is I mean, if you look
through the National Land Transport Program outlines for thousands of
kilometers of roads that are going to be resealed and rehabilitated,
there's seven roads of national significance which identified for works
to start on in the next three years.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Well you know I know that, not the announcement. I'm
talking about actually being able to do it, do it
on time, do it efficiently, do it bang for buck.
In other words, the changes you are making, do you
know they will pay dividends?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, yes they will because ultimately this is about getting
the results the taxpayers expect and we are making sure
that there's clear reporting coming through to me as the Minister,
which I can then use to hold the management and
the board accountable for those results. And ultimately, at the
same time, the message to the construction sector is, and

(02:53):
I made this for a key when I spoke at
Building Nations last week, we need your assistance to ensure
we're not gold plating infrastructure, and you're taking a no
frills approach so that we could have affordable infrastructure here
in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Good night, I appreciate your time. Something round, Transport Minister,
another time, another place. It's worth asking, isn't it who
thought that building a bridge that no one had ever
built before was an exercise worth undertaking it? Do you
want all the bridges to look exactly the same and
be no frills? Well, given this some current saint yes
would be my answer. Lego it. For more from the
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(03:26):
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