Aucklanders should pay a levy of a few dollars a week on top of their rates to kick-start transport developments in the city, Mayor Len Brown believes.

The suggestion will come in the mayor's report to Thursday's council meeting on Auckland's draft 10-year budget, it is understood.

Feedback on the draft budget in March and April showed that around half of Aucklanders want significantly more investment in transport, and support the council's $10.3 billion accelerated transport plan.

A similar proportion of people are prepared to pay a $2 per trip motorway charge to fund it.

However tolling Auckland's motorways would require a law change by central government plus the setting up of a complex tolling system on the city's network of state highways.

Brown is believed to be in favour of collecting an interim transport levy from ratepayers until that infrastructure is put in place.

The ponytail-pulling antics of Prime Minister John Key appear to have had no immediate impact on his party or personal popularity, the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey suggests.

Half of the poll was conducted before the news broke that he had repeatedly pulled the ponytail of a waitress at a Parnell cafe despite her annoyance, and half of the poll was conducted after it.

DigiPoll general manager Nandan Modak said National dropped 0.7 percentage points in the second half of the polling and Mr Key dropped 0.8 points.

Overall National polled 51 per cent, marginally up on party support in December from 50.4.

Its support among women, 45.4 per cent, is the same as it was in December.

Mr Key's popularity as preferred Prime Minister is down marginally to 64.6 from 65 per cent in December, which was the first full poll after the September general election.

John Key’s dreams of securing a legacy in a new national flag are fast melting away.

The poll conducted by Yahoo New Zealand of 7,321 people found that opposition to a new national flag is at an all-time, record-breaking high.

Of those surveyed, 77% said they were opposed to a flag change compared to just 21% who supported the Prime Minister in his ambitions. 2% were uncommitted or unsure.

It is the unsure voters Key is trying to woo as he has admitted to numerous media companies that, as it currently stands, New Zealanders are not in favour of a flag change.

Two real life comparisons


London Eye
SkyPath’s peak patronage assessment for year 1 exceeds that of the long established London Eye. The London Eye is immediately accessible by foot, car, bus, ferry and tube, has two carparking buildings, cafes, lounges, is spectacular, World famous and supported by a tourism industry and resident population that dwarfs that of SkyPath. 

Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney Harbour Bridge - Saturday 22nd November 2014
Perfect weather, free, flat, safely separated cyclist and pedestrian pathways, easily accessible, immediately adjacent to intensively built-up areas and major tourism attractions.

54 pedestrians, 2 cyclists, 5 security personnel - between 12 noon and 1pm.

Obviously not the 9,000 - 23,000 ticket sales every Saturday, all summer - assessed and needed for SkyPath’s financial viability and Council’s corresponding underwrite, for its first 20 years.

Empty Grafton Gully cycleway

Although the clearance of pittosporum shrubs and trees up to about 3m high has raised eyebrows among some passers-by, Cycle Action Auckland's Barbara Cuthbert says that is an acceptable sacrifice and the Transport Agency has a good track record of re-vegetating motorway corridors.

"It doesn't give me a single qualm - this bridge will be such an asset to Auckland and I am sure NZTA will be happy to plant more pittosporum," she said.

She is also looking forward to the image of free-flowing cyclists whizzing over grid-locked traffic.

"That is exactly the reality of Auckland - our roads are going to become more and more congested, but more and more people are going to use cycleways." 

Although patronage has been modest so far, Mrs Cuthbert said the two cycleways would "feed each other" by creating more of a circuit through downtown Auckland for safer off-road riding.

The eco-terrorist and white poppy wearer Tavares

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, I am sure the thoughts of all Telegraph readers will be with those British and Commonwealth Service men and women who fell in the defence of our liberty.

But spare a thought, too, for the men and women of the White Poppy Appeal. And don't make it a kind thought. This wretched outfit "believes that there are better ways of solving conflicts than killing strangers". That is how they describe the sacrifice of British and Allied lives in the inescapable war against Nazi Germany and the Axis powers.

People who wear white poppies…. not only dishonour our war dead: they also assert their supposed moral superiority over the 40 million Britons who wear British Legion red poppies.

What should you do if you see a white poppy wearer today? At the very least – if I may borrow a phrase from my colleague Alan Cochrane – you should give them a cheery wave not involving the use of all your fingers.

Photo: Daily Telegraph

The judge will make a decision by Friday as to whether the applicants will be permitted to intervene. I really hope he will agree to keep the scope of the case to my wife’s plea, and leave the wider societal debate on assisted dying to be addressed by politicians, who should be the ones looking at the issue more broadly. Their silence is starting to appear cowardly. Their inaction is precisely why my wife has been forced to spend her precious remaining days pursuing this case through the courts. It’s time for politicians to do their job, so that people like Lecretia don’t have to take these sorts of actions.

To Labour leader (albeit anything but) Andrew Little for quashing Maryan Street’s excellent bill: you cowardly callous bastard.

To Prime Minister John Key for promising in the heat of the moment last year a watered down version of Street’s bill, now totally forgotten: you cowardly callous bastard.

To David Seymour, leader of New Zealand’s supposedly only classical liberal party who’s only reply to me so far is he’s a bit offended at my approach: you cowardly callous egotistical bastard. You of everyone stand for an individual’s rights, David, pull your head out of your arse and do something other than toadying up to big government and sending me newsletters.

Each of you men is happy, yes, happy, that’s the only word I can think of, to leave this crucial issue to souls with no options left, such as Lecretia,  consigning them to waste the remaining journey of their lives to pleading for a right which should be theirs – ours - of right. You rotten brutes; seriously, why are any of you even in politics if not for this?!

Photo: NZ Herald

Auckland businessman Alex Swney has admitted a new charge, taking his total amount obtained through fraud to more than $4 million.

The 57-year-old former Heart of the City boss appeared in Auckland District Court this afternoon on a new representative charge laid by the Serious Fraud Office today.

Court documents show he dishonestly used false invoices to obtain $2,527,005 from the company between February 2004 and October 2014.

The charge carries a maximum prison term of seven years.

Swney is set to be sentenced on IRD-laid charges next week and a judge previously told him jail was the inevitable outcome.

His lawyer Murray Gibson acknowledged that in court today and asked that his client be sentenced on both matters on the same date.

In January, the former mayoral candidate pleaded guilty to four representative charges covering 12 years of offending and $1,757,147 of unpaid taxes.

Heart of the City - a city-centre business association registered by Swney in 1994 - has income-tax exemption on the basis that it was created to develop or increase amenities for the Auckland public.

The SFO said Swney's actions had caused lasting problems for Heart of the City and reflected poorly on the country.

"Mr Swney dishonestly obtained funds to which he knew he was not entitled. The misappropriation of funding intended to benefit Auckland businesses increased the cost of the services provided by Heart of the City and reduced the benefits delivered by what has otherwise been a very successful venture," SFO director Julie Read said.

"Fraud of this size by employees who are entrusted with the management and expenditure of substantial sums of money is very costly for both the businesses concerned and more broadly for the community as it harms the integrity of these organisations.


Heart of the City - a city-centre business association registered by Swney in 1994 - has income-tax exemption on the basis that it was created to develop or increase amenities for the Auckland public.

But technically the defendant was a contractor of the organisation as the sole director of AGS Services Ltd and the services he provided were taxable.

The IRD charges come with a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $50,000, and almost from the outset, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said it was also investigating Swney.

A summary of facts filed by the IRD alleged Swney had issued "various fictitious invoices" to Heart of the City.

Investigators questioned several organisations - including The New Zealand Herald- over the authenticity of the invoices and determined they were created "without authorisation".

$8.5 million of ratepayers' money for Auckland business groups Auckland Council has spent $8.5 million of ratepayers money on grants to business groups since November 2010 - and that doesn't include the $20 million given to the failed Heart of the City group.

Business groups should be funded by business with an idea to keep the Council on its toes. Instead the Super City has turned them into Council cheerleaders thanks to this generous slush fund. We uncovered that a grant was even made for augmented reality wayfinding technology - whatever that is!

Ratepayers deserve answers from the Council as to why this is the best use of $8.5 million, rather than frontline services and core infrastructure. It's little wonder that rates have increased when the Council takes over a function that has always been the role of the local Chamber of Commerce.

We're concerned that once ratepayers' money has left the Council, there is very little accountability for how it is spent as the Heart of the City debacle shows. These business groups receive ratepayers' money, but are still immune from oversight through official information laws.

Business groups once played an opposition role to the excess of local government. With the Council handing out ratepayers’ money to nearly fifty business groups, it’s easy to see how once strong voices of opposition have been placated.

Climate alarmists claim incessantly that all bad weather is caused by man’s use of hydro-carbon fuels – oil, gas and coal.

They insist that man-made carbon dioxide is the trump card in the climate game. Their computerised models of doom assume ever-rising levels of carbon dioxide which will trump all natural climate controllers.

Unfortunately for their credibility, since at least the year 2000 global temperatures have trended level despite significant increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.
The sun is the primary source of almost all of Earth’s heat. It is becoming increasingly clear that this gigantic heat generator, with its varying cycles and emissions, is an Ace in the climate game.

Then there are the massive oceans, whose vast heat capacity and ever-changing currents and oscillations also regularly trump the steady but tiny influence from man’s industry.

In order to explain the failure of their carbon-centric forecasts, the alarmists have thrown several other wild cards into the climate game. These include heat losses into the deep oceans and unexpected variations in earth’s cover of ice, snow, soot, particulates and volcanic dust.

Finally, they have created their own friendly climate Joker – data manipulation. They deal this card from the bottom of the pack onto the climate table to create artificial warming trends and heat wave “records” on demand. 

Obviously there are too many Jokers and Wild Cards in the climate game for one simple carbon-centric theory to win a forecasting game, except by cheating or chance.

This is why warmists have not won a “Forecast-the-Warming” game for at least 15 years.

Photo: NZ Herald

Private and public projects on Auckland's drawing board have cracked the $10 billion mark. Auckland Council's City Centre Integration team has just released a map showing the huge public and private investment planned for the next decade.

But Auckland councillor Cameron Brewer said the CBD obsession was to the detriment of Auckland's 100 villages and town centres, now falling into disrepair.

Only about 12 per cent of Aucklanders worked in the CBD yet the small area was where most of the money was being sunk, particularly with the $2.5 billion City Rail Link.

"Instead of cutting funding to community projects, town centres, library hours and parks maintenance, I'd rather see the knife wielded at the CCOs and the CBD, that's where there's still plenty of fat to be found," he said.

"The public were promised that any money raised by an interim transport targeted rate, tolling or a fuel tax would be going towards providing essential intergenerational infrastructure projects that would help drive Auckland's economic growth.

"Now we learn that tolls will fund things like beautifying and pedestrianising Quay St and even the Quay St seawall upgrade. That will not impress Auckland drivers when the mayor has promised that extra and alternative revenue raised will go towards more roads and better public transport," Brewer said.

CCOs or COCOs?

CCO is an acronym for Council Controlled Organisation, a new feature of the ‘super’ Auckland Council. We think that some of them could best be described as Council Out-of-Control Organisations, or COCOs for short.

For example, Auckland Transport (AT) employed 998 people in 2012. Two years later, the head count had ballooned to 1,265 – an increase of 28%. The number of employees earning more than $100,000 went from 221 to 325, an increase of 47.1% and the number of those earning more than $200,000 increased by 68.8%. The overall expenditure on salaries and wages went up by 29.7%, in those two years.

Another possible marker of profligacy is the increase in AT’s fleet of brand new, late model white SUVs, which appears to be growing along with the head count. Auckland is beginning to look a bit like Mogadishu or Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of a disaster, where the NGO-owned white SUVs are ubiquitous. These are simple markers of possible corporate excess that a competent professional company director could not fail to notice.

The theory of budget maximisation is well understood in the field of public policy. Powerful agencies aim to maximise their budgets through bargaining with weak, poorly informed governments. Over time, some checks and balances are developed. In central government, the plum jobs at the apex of the public service are the subject of fierce competition by well qualified aspirants. The State Services Commission in Wellington keeps that gateway. Embedded activists are not allowed in, just because they buy a new Armani suit. There is a degree of political oversight by professional politicians. These checks and balances appear to be absent from the burgeoning bureaucratic empires being created in Auckland.

It is well and truly party time in the head offices and boardrooms of some of the COCOs and other Auckland Council offices.

The latest report or paper from the Taxpayers’ Union is on Auckland’s Taniwha Tax. And before people cry our racism, I’d remind people the first and most prominent critic of it was Shane Jones. Some key points:

The provisions may affect the value of perhaps 18,000 properties, costing them up to $4.000 each

The Archaeological Association says what Auckland Council is doing is not even necessary to protect heritage because it is already covered under specific legislation

The Auckland Council has declared 3,600 sites as being of value to Mana Whenua without even establishing whether all the sites are genuine, still exist, or are ‘of value’ to iwi.

The Mana Whenua provisions make cultural impact assessments (CIAs) compulsory for certain resource consents

Where there is doubt, the Council will rely on the Mana Whenua groups to determine whether a CIA is required. That alone creates a vested interest, with CIAs likely to create a significant income stream to iwi, who are also able to determine to what extent they are required.

The extents of the Sites and Places of Value to Mana Whenua have been defined by drawing an arbitrary 200m diameter circle around the centre point of all sites, and then requiring an additional 50m buffer around those circles, with which the rules are applies (i.e. a diameter of 300m, affecting an area of 7ha)

The number of mana whenua sites of value could grow from 3,600 to 183,000

A Cultural Assessment Impact report for a submarine cable in Waitemata Harbour took over four months and delayed the cable project significantly

Sir Bob Jones has written of a building owner that had to consult 13 different Iwi to get permission to put a shop window in his building

The provisions should be scrapped.  There are existing laws to protect sites of heritage, without this regime.

The problem is two fold.

Len Brown is holding back monies in the Long Term Plan to build the rail tunnel up Albert Street. Never mind that it is benefiting very few people who use it (less than 30,000 per annum).

But the bigger problem is that Auckland is already over spending and is hard up against it’s debt ceiling.

With liquid assets of $6 billion (it doesn’t have assets of $40b – you can’t sell parks and roads) and debt that exceeds that, the Auckland Council is maxed out on its overdraft.   

But remarkably it is also growing its head count at a phenomenal rate.Combined – debt and wages – use up almost all of the rates income. It is only through dividends and other income that Council has any money to spend on capital items- like libraries and pools.

Auckland’s infrastructure is rooted. 

Personally I’d suggest it needs to sort that out as first priority – particularly if it wants to have a compact city.

But these Local Board’s need to pull their heads in and realise why the Council has a lack of funds.

In understanding that the smart Local Board peeps could be pushing for staff and debt reduction to free up capital for libraries and community services.

It’s no wonder our city is going broke.

Excessive spending by all, with a lack of basic financial understanding is the root of the problem.

If Local Board’s don’t get that – they are as dumb as a bag of hammers.

Clearly Local Board’s are populated by people who think money arrives at the end of a rate-payer rainbow, delivered by unicorns from a magical never ending money tree located in the far off nirvana that is Utopia.

Red dots represent affected properties

Auckland’s so-called “taniwha tax’ is the topic of a discussion forum being held in Auckland this Wednesday.

It is being held by the Auckland Property Investors’ Association, Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance, Democracy Action and New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

It features a briefing paper about Auckland Council’s new Mana Whenua rules – requiring anyone seeking resource or building consents to seek reports from iwi about what Auckland Council staff call “metaphysical” heritage.

“The report will reveal to the public what some of New Zealand’s best known corporations have been saying behind closed doors, and what their PR departments may not want you to know,” is the teaser for the forum.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Murray Jordan says the problem is not about consultation but about the assessments that may be required. He says they cost householders about $4000 each and more for corporations.

“Auckland Council says few are being required. The trouble is, they tell applicants they must go and ask iwi if they are required.

“They not only cost money but can also take weeks and months for the reports to be completed.

“We’ve gone through many of the submissions to the council’s long-term plan which highlight the issues.

“Even the Archaeological Association says they are not necessary to protect heritage.

“It’s all based around make-believe. You could substitute the word taniwha with Easter bunny.”

The forum will be held on level 9 of the Crombie Lockwood tower at 191 Queen St at 10.30am tomorrow (Wednesday).

Brash warns National could face provincial revolt over water

Former National Party leader Don Brash says the party could hand NZ First a powerful election campaign if it gives Maori preferential access in fresh-water reform.

New details of the Crown's negotiations with the Iwi Leaders Group over fresh-water reform, emerged on Sunday, with signs the Government is moving towards  "catchment by catchment" negotiated at a regional -government level, that could grant iwi preferential access.

Brash said the Crown appeared to be trying to stop the issue becoming a national one by passing responsibility to regional government, but he believed there was growing anger among the public at preferential deals for Maori.....

See full article HERE

Iwi leaders’ water claim “nothing but corporate greed” says Ngapuhi academic David Rankin

As iwi leaders from around the country meet to discuss claiming commercial rights to all the country’s lakes, rivers, reservoirs, dams and any other fresh water, Ngapuhi academic David Rankin has questioned their motives.

Mr Rankin, who is currently undertaking a PhD on traditional property rights, points out that prior to the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand, Maori never owned water. And even after Europeans arrived, Maori never owned water. He says that there is no cultural basis or historical precedent for the claim. Neither is water Treaty right according to him “Water is not mentioned in the Treaty once. ‘Taonga’ are mentioned, but these are not property rights. A ‘taonga’ traditionally was something that could be acquired at the point of a spear. Try doing that with water”, he says.

Mr Rankin believes that the attempts by iwi leaders to grab hold of water rights is just a case of opportunism. He sees a pattern emerging where if Maori leaders thump their fists long enough about a resource, they will acquire it. He points to the foreshore and seabed, Auckland’s mountains, some national parks, mining rights, forestry rights, and radio frequencies as examples.

“Tribal trusts boards are not about Maori, they use the iwi names as a front for their commercial ventures. The average Maori receives as much benefit from them as the average European: none,” says Mr Rankin. “As proof of this, even though iwi now measure their wealth in the billions of dollars, Maori are poorer now than at any other time in living memory”.

“Our work is to shine some democratic light onto what has happened. Most of the organisations quoted or supporting this report, would agree Auckland iwi have a special place in the region’s planning process, but are concerned the Auckland Council has imposed an uncertain and clumsy regime. The organisations have all expressed concerns that the Council has failed to include elementary safeguards to protect owners, the integrity of the planning process, or the public interest in secular equality before the law.”

Cameron Slater socks it to Auckland Council

Some of you might have seen the recent opinion piece in the NBR by Jordan Williams from the Taxpayers Union. Williams spells out the shambles that is Auckland Council and drops a few hints.

Broken promises, eye watering rate hikes, 8500 staff, 130 spin doctors, diplomats in London, $200,000 penis art, $100,000 silk curtains, fashion consultants for finance staff, cut library hours and no berm mowing. Is this is SuperCity we hoped for?

What went wrong with Rodney Hide’s creature of efficient governance and local democracy? Auckland Council is case in point supporting the economic literature that suggests that local government suffers from diseconomies of scale once a council gets larger than around 250,000 residents. It is little wonder that Auckland Council is greater than the sum of its former parts.

In 2013, David Farrar and I established the Taxpayers’ Union to fight against government waste and argue for lower taxes. We could not have envisioned how much time and effort Auckland Council would consume.

Well even I didn’t expect Len Brown to build personal bathrooms and gyms.

Our staff and volunteers battle with the council’s corporatised spin machine every day. Its 130 communications staff habitually ignore information requests, leak requested material to handpicked media (in order to control a story) and bend over backward to protect the Mayor and his deputy.

Combine that with a weak Ombudsman to oversee the applicable freedom of information laws, it is little wonder that so many Aucklanders become frustrated trying to hold the council to account.

It’s a well-known fact that Auckland Council is a den of incompetent ratbags and troughers wasting our money.

But then the op-ed gets interesting…

Auckland needs a dedicated group to hold the council’s feet to the fire. That role should rest with the business groups but the council has captured the EMA, Property Council and even the troubled Heart of the City. All three rely on substantial ratepayer or CCO (council-controlled organisation) funding.

While the leaders of the various groups do their best, anyone with experience in a peak body knows that there’s a limit to how much you can bite the hand that feeds your organisation.

So who is left? Affordable Auckland is well meaning but lacks the broad support to push into the mainstream. Cr Cameron Brewer could have done it but has apparently chosen a return to the private sector over a tilt at the Mayoralty. In any case, a politician can only go so far without having an organisation to help take on the vested interests.

In November, Mike Hosking asked in a New Zealand Herald column: “Am I the only one who thinks things around Auckland Council are getting hopelessly out of control?”

No you’re not Mike but Auckland needs a political group to coordinate opposition, lay out an alternative and set the wheels in motion for a departure from the status quo come the 2016 elections.

The time has come for an Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance. All it will need is your support.

Several sources have confirmed that moves are underway to create a Taxpayer Union like organisation just to hold Auckland Council to account.

Brown will be crapping his dacks and will probably be after even more spin doctors to save his skin.

Watch this space.

This particular highlight from Auckland Council's Design Champion is at 23 mins....
"I’ve been given the mandate to get on and do it so I just do it and the Mayor protects me I’m very lucky and I pray for the day he continues but we changed the city and we don’t always follow what the public always want or the retailers want because actually they don’t know what they’re talking about in some cases it’s quite complex this whole process it’s about balancing the professionalism and the public involvement because the two have to come together but at some point you have to make a decision make a plan and say “thank you for the consultation we’ve heard you but we’re going to do this and stick to it”"

The message Auckland Council is effectively giving members of its Ethnic Advisory Panel is "Shut up until you're told to speak."

The Council appears to be in damage control after a member of the panel joined the Chairman and resigned labeling the Panel 'tokenism' and a 'waste of money'.

These advisory panels are supposed to be about communities having their say, but now the Council is trying to gag them from speaking to the media. It seems as though Len Brown and Auckland Council want the pretense of inclusiveness, but officials are telling panel members to zip-it when they don’t sing to the right tune.

It is becoming clear to us that the only person wanting this expensive tokenism is Len Brown.

Currently the Council has advisory panels for Youth, Ethnic Affairs, Pacific, Senior, Disability and Rural interests.

We have called on the Council to abolish the expensive advisory panels, with the exception of the disability panel, which provides important advice on the plight of assess-impaired members of Auckland’s community.

There are currently plans to introduce a ‘Rainbow Panel’ of GLBTI representatives.

Rather than ramming identity politics down ratepayers’ throats, Auckland Council should focus on keeping costs down. This expensive faux-democracy via expensive token ‘representatives’ delivers next to no value for money to ratepayers.

It’s time for these panels to go.

Listen, this is what I have to say on women’s issues in the United States. We are so blessed as women to live in the United States. The best place to be a woman in the world is in the U.S. The best place to be black in the world is in the U.S. Is it perfect? No. Are we confronted with threats? Yes. But it’s the perfect place to fight [them] off. Because in the U.S., we have—besides the law—the majority of the population who accept that we, as women, have absolutely equal rights to men. The best place to be black in the world is here. I cannot imagine what it is like to be a black man living in Saudi Arabia, in Iran—even where the majority of people are black, like Africa. I cannot imagine a better place to be gay than in the U.S. I know that all European countries have accepted gay marriage and here in the U.S. we’re still struggling to accept that. On the other hand, when the jihadists in Europe attack gays in the streets, the governments don’t protect them. The best place to be Jewish in the world, besides the state of Israel, is in the U.S. The best place to be Christian is in the U.S. I don’t know anything else to say in the U.S. I know we’re in an election cycle and I’m supposed to take sides, but I’m not going to.

What seemed to be a small controversy in a place called Brandeis, a Jewish university—it has these enormous geopolitical consequences. And this is a message to the people, the faculty and the students of Brandeis, but also to the other liberals who think that the best way to protect Muslims is to protect them from critical thinking. The answer is: No, actually, the best way to protect Muslims is to give them room to think critically about Islam, to reform it. 

I just want to remind the free world that there was a time when they were not free—Europeans and Americans were not free. There was a time when Christian theology and Jewish theology was used to commit atrocious acts. Remember the witch hunts, remember the Protestants. I think Americans associate religion with something positive. In Europe, Protestants were killing other Protestants, Catholics were killing Protestants, Protestants were killing Catholics, just as the Sunni and the Shia are doing now. That is now in the history books. I look forward to a time when atrocities committed in the name of Islam will be in history books and museums and movies, but not happening to real people in real time.

Slowing the city down

So Auckland is more congested?

I think that would already feel most obvious to commuters in Auckland but the question is why? And is this survey to be followed by the usual calls for public transport?

I have friends who have commented in the last few months that their work commutes have suddenly changed in terms of trip time.

Last year they were taking around 25-30 minutes on average but this year are finding that those trip movements have jumped significantly to 45 minutes and upto an hour for a cross town trip from East Auckland towards the airport.

What caught my attention is that they followed their observations with a cynical comment that their increased trip times have coincided with Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan survey on transport.    

And that is an interesting observation. Why such a dramatic change in trip time in such a relatively short period of time?

Quite apart from the fact that fuel prices are a lot lower these days than they were two years ago which makes driving your own car more affordable it seems that the traffic issues are not all equal. The motorway still flows at about the same trip times as it did a few years ago.

So that’s off motorway times that are affected. Weird isn’t it? The motorway should be equally as affected. And it is not. But then Council doesn’t control how those roads work because it’s NZTA’s jurisdiction.

Whilst a conspiracy at this time what their observations do is raise is a question of whether Auckland Transport – under instruction from its pay master – has been fiddling with the traffic signals across the city to make traffic worse at the most opportune time…. when Council is conducting a survey on transport for future expenditure reasons.

Is such an idea far fetched? Not really.

A few years ago Auckland Council ran about trumpeting growth figures for rail patronage. “Look” they said “rail use is increasing massively – we can start work on the CRL”. But it hadn’t increased much at all. What AT had done was redirected bus routes so that they terminated at rail stations forcing a two stage trip – transferring passengers to trains. The boost was engineered. The actual growth rates when bus redirections were removed – was virtually nil.

Auckland Council wants rail to succeed. It has a legacy of sneaky furtive and underhanded tactics. Aucklanders certainly don’t trust them.

So are my friend is right in posing that the increase in traffic congestion might be the result of meddling by Auckland Transport? Who knows. But it’s possible.