The Government’s draft 10-year transport plan is a “politicisation” of the National Land Transport Fund, Road Transport Forum chief executive Ken Shirley says.
Shirley says he is concerned the draft plan released on Tuesday outlines “cross-subsidisation of road user taxes to fund highly questionable rail and coastal shipping activities that make no contribution to the fund”.
It’s proposed the changes could be paid for by a new national fuel tax of between 9 and 12 cents per litre which could hit Auckland motorists on top of a regional fuel tax.
The changes will be made to the $4 billion a year national fund which is set up to be administered by an NZ Transport Agency board.
This worked “independent of politicians and pork barrel politics and for 20 years it operated relatively free of such political interference”.
“Unfortunately, the new draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) starkly illustrates that those days are well and truly over,” Shirley says.
“The GPS has a significant bearing on the administration and expenditure of the NLTF by determining the priorities for the programs and projects undertake under the fund.
“The draft document while heralding the importance of modal neutrality destroys that objective …
“The increased focus on safety is strongly supported but all evidence indicates that upgrades to the road infrastructure deliver the best safety results.
“Unfortunately, many of the upgrades in the pipeline will be cancelled or delayed by this new GPS framework which provides an 11% cut in in State Highway improvements.
“Despite our concerns with the draft GPS, RTF looks forward to engaging with the Government on it and making sure that the road users who pay into the NLTF get the best possible outcome for their money and funds are not diverted to pet political projects of dubious worth,” Shirley says.
Meanwhile, National Road Carriers Association chief executive David Aitken says those in the transport industry “may be prepared to pay an extra tax but want to see tangible freight benefits”.
“As the population grows and our big cities expand there is going to be more demand for freight to be moved and much of it can only be moved by truck. And more trucks need better, safer and less congested roads.”
“We realise more investment is needed in transport infrastructure, but it is a case of what the priorities are.”
Aitken says that whatever the Government decides to do, any increase in fuel taxes would ultimately be passed onto the end consumer, together with any increased administration costs.
“The cost of just about everything a household consumes will go up.
“Because most of it has a trucking component, the fuel tax will become a tax on freight.”
