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Incoming Transport Minister Michael Wood will have a lot to think about when he is sworn in on Friday at Government House in Wellington.
His swearing in will take place in close proximity to the Mount Victoria Tunnel and the Cuenca Reserve, two of the most congested and politically controversial transportation sites in the country.
They are at the center of an ideological war between Labor and National over how to fix New Zealand’s transport problems: upgrade our old road network with infrastructure we should have built a decade ago, or build public transport infrastructure to get commuters out. from cars and off roads.
In Wellington, Labor has signed up to build a second Mt. Victoria Tunnel to relieve congestion. But that would only happen towards the end of the decade after work begins on the city’s rapid transit network.
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National turned the tunnel into an electoral issue. Transportation spokesman Chris Bishop and Wellington Central MP Nicola Willis promised to begin work on the tunnel in the next legislature.
Sitting down for his first interview as Transport Minister, Wood stayed on the same page in the second tunnel as his predecessor Phil Twyford, who suggested that tunnel construction could be moved forward if that’s what the business cases for Let’s Get Wellington recommended. . Moving transport package that is currently being completed.
“I think we need to see the business case, but we also need more engagement with regional partners,” Wood said.
“I will keep an open mind until I am fully informed,” Wood said.
But like Twyford, Wood wants to see the package as a whole, diverting attention from National’s focus on the tunnel.
Abigail dougherty
Michael Wood in his electorate from Mt Roskill
“The important thing for Let’s Get Wellington Moving is not just to focus on one project. It’s about seeing this as an interconnected transportation system for the entire region that we are trying to build, ”Wood said.
Wood is a public transportation user, and says his most common form of transportation is the bus, though he has a “disgraceful suburban father who transports people for the children.”
He also believes in induced demand, the idea that building more roads doesn’t always alleviate congestion, as it often encourages people to drive more.
The other big item on Wood’s list is what to do with Auckland’s light rail system. Labor promised to have the railway line between Britomart and the airport partially built. Instead, the government has not even selected what it wants to build, much less who is going to build it.
Twyford returned the project to the Ministry of Transport earlier this year for more work, promising that the government would receive more advice after the elections.
Light rail is personal to Wood. Labor first announced its commitment to light rail during the 2016 Mt Roskill by-elections in which Wood won his seat. And, when it’s finished, you’ll walk through the center of your Mt Roskill constituency. Expectations for delivery are high. National sees Labor’s lack of compliance on the bill as a weak point for Labor.
Party leader Judith Collins even started her final day of campaigning with a stunt at Mt Roskill, where she told reporters that she was looking for signs of the new rail line.
Despite the pressure, Wood says he won’t rush to make a decision on light rail.
“Light rail is a multi-billion dollar decision. It will be a 50 to 100 year old piece of infrastructure in our largest city, so we will not rush into a decision, ”Wood said.
“I will be briefed on options and information quickly and I will consult with cabinet colleagues in the not too distant future, but I am not going to put an artificial title,” he said.
Wood will have a powerful friend when it comes to delivery: Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who will take over the infrastructure portfolio.
Robertson spent the second half of the first Labor term developing a reputation as the “Minister of Everything.” At the same time that transportation portfolio issues began to surface, Robertson was given full oversight over the government’s $ 12 billion NZ upgrade infrastructure program, making it something of a de facto Minister of Transport and Infrastructure.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was seeking “greater coordination” between transportation and infrastructure.
“That is an area where we want more coordination, so while it is under transportation we will have a coordinated infrastructure team focused on delivering some of that $ 42 billion investment,” he said.
It had been speculated that the light rail would be separated from the infrastructure and handed over to Robertson under a different delegation, but it was clear to Robertson himself that the responsibility for the light rail would lie with Wood and the Transportation portfolio.
“The Minister of Transportation is still the Minister of Transportation,” said Robertson.
Wood said he would make no changes to one of Twyford’s latest big actions as transportation minister: the Government’s Policy Statement on Land Transportation (GPS).
Chris Skelton / Stuff
Wood praised the outgoing transportation minister, Phil Twyford, for his work in planning transportation in neutral mode.
It is a document that allows the Minister to tell the New Zealand Transport Agency how they would like the transport system to be in the next 10 years. The GPS is only checked once every three years, which means Wood will have to wait until the end of this period to put his mark on the $ 48 billion of transportation spending over the next decade.
Wood doesn’t want to rock the boat.
“I went through the GPS in great detail and I think it’s a great job that integrates the progress we’ve made in transportation over the last three years,” Woods said.
Twyford, with the help of associate ministers Shane Jones and Julie Anne Genter, drastically redesigned the transportation portfolio, shifting funds to road safety and public transportation. It took a “mode neutral” approach, meaning that the transportation portfolio began to pay more attention to public transportation, rail, and even shipping rather than focusing on automobiles.
Wood is a disciple of this way of thinking and says it will be Twyford’s legacy to the transportation system.
“If you look at the fundamental direction of New Zealand’s transport policy, it’s a huge change from the Joyce years from simply investing billions of dollars from a political office in massive road projects to a mode-neutral approach, where we look at the best way to solve transportation problems ”, he said.
However, unlike Twyford, who is known and praised for his general thinking, Wood has established a reputation on select committees as a person of details. Wood does his reading; He brought constitutional thinking to a complicated meeting on the ousted Auditor General Martin Matthews and even featured high-ranking politicians and former ministers in Parliament’s Covid-19 Epidemic Response Committee earlier this year.
While the presenters to the committee wondered if the government had a strategy committed to the Covid-19 crisis, Wood drew their attention to the fact that the government’s strategy for Covid-19 was total elimination, as explicitly stated in the committee briefing documents that apparently some members had neglected to read.
But it will take more than one talent to draft and change the transportation portfolio. With nearly three years dedicated to discussing “shovel-ready” infrastructure, Wood needs to be the minister who manages to put shovels in the ground.
