Speech: Public Transport Management

The Maori Party comes to this Bill, fuelled by our commitment towards developing options to support cheap, free regular, reliable and frequent public transport.
We are acutely aware that the transport sector is responsible for 45% of our greenhouse gas emissions. Our capacity to achieve an integrated, safe, responsive, and sustainable public transport system is thus motivated by our commitment towards the impacts of peak oil alongside our responsibility to prepare for climate change.
We are interested in any strategies to achieve vehicle fuel efficiency and reduce vehicle emissions; and public transport services are certainly a central part of that plan.
As the New Zealand Planning Committee advised us, a good public transport system is one of the many tools to support sustainability and climate change initiatives.
But our focus is also, as always, on he tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What will be the contribution that this legislation makes, towards improving the quality of life for our people.
It is more than simply adding a bandage to the perpetual problem of the urgent need to develop a high quality public transport system for Auckland.
This House has long been aware that public transport in Auckland is inadequate – there is too much duplication between bus and train services, and almost no coordination between services. Constituents in my Tamaki Makaurau offices are routinely describing public transport in our region as slow, infrequent, unreliable, expensive.
Worst of all, the people who happen to live on the outlying suburbs of Auckland – Takanini, Massey, Clendon and Ranui are often the least well provided for and yet it is these same communities where the people who need quality affordable public transport are more likely to live.
This Public Transport Bill is desperately needed, therefore, not so much because of the general lack of satisfaction with our transport options, but more because of the need to have the infrastructure in place to ensure there is public transport in place for those who need it most.
One of the interesting amendments added during the select committee stage was the importance of regional councils considering the needs of, and consulting groups that represent people who can be considered “transport disadvantaged”.
In the submissions received in the Bill we heard a range of variations on a theme about what transport disadvantaged could mean:
Age Concern, drawing on the World Health Organisation report, Global Age-friendly Cities emphasised that “accessible and affordable public transport is a key factor influencing active ageing – describing it as a lifeline from social isolation for those without access to cars.

CCS Disability Action and the Human Rights Commission described the provision of an accessible public transport system as pivotal to enabling disabled people to participate and to live full and enriched lives. They drew attention to the issues associated with social isolation and exclusion when people are unable to move freely about their communities - trapped within their own homes.

The National Council of Women told the committee that there is a lack of public transport in rural towns and regions. In fact, as a consequence of this submission, a new definition of transport disadvantaged was established to refer to those living rurally. The Council also argued that city services need to provide better for shift workers and those wanting more flexibility in peak time.

The proposed definition of “transport disadvantaged” as put forward by the Select Committee, chose to focus on people being at least able to get to basic community activities and services such as work, education, healthcare, welfare, and food shops, rather than to refer to specific interest groups or populations.
This is a very useful addition to the Bill, and we welcome the intent of the legislation in clarifying and extending the functions and powers of regional councils to regulate public transport services provided in their regions.
The Bill will enable regional councils to plan for the public transport services that they wish to have in their region – and all of that is very positive.
But we in the Maori Party wonder if the Bill goes far enough.
The undeniable fact is that world oil production is peaking now. There is an increasing rate of demand for oil, but an increasing rate of scarcity. For every new barrel of oil discovered – five or six barrels are being used.
We inevitably find ourselves in a position in which we have become almost totally oil dependent for transport – and so it is essential that we apply our most creative thinking to considering long term, feasible public transport options.
We may need to electrify more transport; to prioritise urban design around walking and biking, rather than to create more traffic jams or exacerbate the suburban trap.
It may well be high time to turn to the ingenious Cubans, who have for some time been leading the world in providing public transport on a reduced energy diet.
Cuba now moves masses of people across Havana during rush hour by a complex mass transit system which requires little additional funds or fuel.
Virtually every vehicle in existence is called on for an elaborate system of ride sharing – in which commuters ride in handmade wheelbarrows, buses, animal powered vehicles, bicycles and motorised two passenger rickshaw. Imagine the overall savings and reduced energy usage if Cabinet Ministers here could travel in pairs in a rickshaw – while Associate Ministers could be issued with a wheelbarrow each!
One of the most innovative Havana inventions is the camel – not the spitting, hump-backed version, but a large meal semi-trailer, pulled by a truck which holds up to 300 vehicles.
Now it may not sound like a going concern for Remuera or Kohimarama, but the point is, a massive attitudinal change has taken place which we could all learn something from.
In Cuba, it is nothing for government officials, to pull over and fill up their Government vehicles with people needing a ride. A donkey cart with a taxi licence nailed to the frame will be travelling Cuba’s streets, while the common truck has been converted to public transport by welding a set of steps on the back for riders to jump off and on with ease.
The Maori Party is keen to investigate all options, all strategies, to consider additional public transport options.
We believe that we need to make a long term investment in improved public transport systems to achieve greater oil independence, less smog, lower petrol bills, and to significantly reduce emissions.
There is, however, one last thing that I would like to raise about this Bill, and that is the greatly weakened consultation provisions.
The Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee has recommended that the consultation provisions of this Bill should be amended, by deleting the requirement to consult with public and Maori.

The rationale given was that such consultation was ‘too onerous’ and yet on the other hand, they were content to extend the requirement to consult with commercial operators, and to add in a two-phase consultation approach.
This new approach consults operators/councils as a first step, and then with the wider public under Local Government processes.
We in the Maori Party, however, believe that the effect of this new two phase approach actually narrows down the scope and the weight of the public voice, and significantly, the views of whanau, hapu and iwi.