Transportation is one of the most important enablers of modern life. Today we are able to go farther, faster, and with more choice and flexibility in where we go than at any other time in history. Mobility means opportunity because it expands the range of places people can be and activities they can be doing at any given time. It drives economic growth. ACT is committed to mobility.
Modern mobility, in turn, depends on technology. Today’s mobility is at the end of a long line of technological developments from shoes and saddles through to cars and planes. Transport policy should be aware of this fact and continue to adopt the best technology. It should avoid locking into large and inflexible transport investments such as trains.
ACT believes that resource consents should not constrain infrastructure development as much as it has in recent years. We believe that people taking trips, whether they be in cars, on buses, on trains, or planes get the benefits of those trips and should pay the cost rather than having government build the infrastructure it thinks people want. Government should be mindful of the role that technology plays in increasing mobility, and move towards smarter road pricing (congestion pricing) as technology permits.
In the last parliamentary term, with ACT’s pressure and support, the government:
• Reformed the RMA in order that transport infrastructure projects can be improved;
• Built more roads where they met cost benefit analysis;
• Began a dialogue about moving towards more road pricing;
• Reformed Auckland Governance (the Super City) so that transport in the region works in a more efficient and integrated fashion.
ACT will keep working for greater mobility. A Party Vote for ACT is a vote to:
• Push the next government to continue investing in transport infrastructure, where it can be shown that the benefits to people will exceed the cost of the project ;
• Push the next government to embrace proper pricing of transport, so that the users of transport pay the costs of their use rather than non-users paying the cost;
• Push the next government to further streamline the Resource Management Act so that transport infrastructure can be built for less cost with less delay;
• Push the next government to invest in transport infrastructure that people want to use, regardless of whether it is rail, road, or air, regardless of ideological fads.