Simeon Brown’s $32.9b road policy isn’t a sensible infrastructure policy – it’s a sexual fantasy

Simeon's mouth says 'roads', all I hear is 'ratfucking for the Trucking Industry'.

By
Martyn Bradbury
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32
680

Transport Minister Simeon Brown unveils $32.9b National Land Transport Programme

    • A $32.9 billion National Land Transport Plan for 2024-2027 has been announced.
    • Transport Minister Simeon Brown says priorities include safety, value for money, economic growth, and productivity.
    • The plan includes $5.5 billion for pothole prevention and $7 billion for state highway improvements.

Simeon Brown announced a $32.9b road policy which has immediately run into criticism for slashing public transport, slashing cycle ways, slashing walking paths while blowing billions on roads that empower the trucking industry, who just happen to be best mates with, you guessed it, the National Party.

Simeon’s mouth says ‘roads’, all I hear is ‘ratfucking for the Trucking Industry’.

The report shows a massive looming funding gap of around $6b a year for transport, with barely half the government’s project wishlist being affordable requiring PPPs to fill the gap.

Public Private Partnerships will lock in decades of future transport budgets to repay them, the joke is that many won’t happen because it’s too costly with not enough sector capacity!

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It’s time for us to bring back the Ministry of Works and build it ourselves!

Minister Brown says, “Kiwis rejected Labour’s phantom projects, slower speed limits, and infestation of speed bumps” to justify this infrastructure spend – but weaponising our impatience by lifting speeds everywhere will only lead to vastly more deaths!

Our subsidisation of public transport was supposed to be an emission reducing tactic as well, so by cutting public transport, cycle ways and walk ways it will produce more emissions that are feeding the climate change extremes we are watching burn our country!!!

The best part about this report is points 48, 49 and 50 where they argue that emissions don’t need to be considered for giant state highways because spending money on them doesn’t necessarily mean they will get built!!!

Is this level of sophistry the sort of trickery we should celebrate in social policy?

68% of road deaths are on rural roads
77% of roads go through rural areas
In Northland, 3 out of 4 road deaths were in rural areas
And road crashes cost $9.7billion in 2021 (4% of total GDP)

Roads require well engineered safety measures and must be used to reduce emissions and be utilised for public transport, instead we get a Minister who weaponises our impatience to lift speeds that will benefit Trucking Interests while causing more death, more pollution and privatises the roads!

This isn’t social policy, it’s malice!

Helen Clark has accused Simeon Brown of stoking culture wars over transport policy…

…what matters most to the Right?

Actually building infrastructure that is climate change adaptable or owning the libs for shits and giggles?

The Right are incapable of implementing an idea if it isn’t first offending the Left.

This isn’t an infrastructure platform, it’s a sexual road fetish and Simeon is humping the curb!

We deserve so much better from our Government, this fuckwittery is beneath us.

 

 

32 COMMENTS

  1. “This isn’t an infrastructure platform, it’s a sexual road fetish and Simeon is humping the curb!”

    To be fair to Simeon, it’s the closest he’ll ever get, I mean just look at him.

  3. We need to have a infrastructure plan for the next 30 years so that companies can plan to engage and train a work force to meet the country’s needs
    . In the past the MOW was good at this role but I cannot see it working now .A good reading network is essential in this day and age where speed of delivery is important .Rail cannot be economically used to service our small towns .

    • Simeon’s mouth says ‘roads’, all I hear is ‘ratfucking for the Trucking Industry’.
      That, is exactly what it is. And it all started with a hand job forty years ago then many railway lines were pulled up and are now pathetic cycle trails to nowhere.
      Ban lobbying and mandate voting and see where that leads I say.

    • @ trev. ” Rail cannot be economically used to service our small towns . ” Well, not now they can’t because neo-liberal labour then the greedy idiot Natzo brigade pulled up rail access to most of those small towns. If the rail lines were still there, however, it’s either just plain stupid to suggest rail carrying freight is less economically viable than one huge truck carrying fuck all while destroying our roads.
      For someone who thinks they know everything, when will you start using a spell and grammar checker?

      • Yes killer I note the resident TDB idiot Bob the first no where to be seen on Trevor’s appalling grammar. Must be the trolls day off the benefit.

    • sounds suspiciously like socialist planning trev….for shame for shame
      though at last realising strate interventrion can be good ask those pesky euro-commies

    • I agree Trev. I don’t know why others are picking on you. A good reading network is essential and many will have to catch up on reading after News Trash for over 20 or more years. I suggest they come here as you and I do, and learn and discuss and help to build some framework for Kiwiland that will go for 10 years or so. Let’s think, who knows where we will need roads in 20 years. Now and practical and helping ordinary Kiwis. How best to do this Trevor?

  4. Let’s not do anything about rail and spend millions upon millions fixing pot holes caused by f’ing trucks. Let’s not prioritise a bus lane on the north western motorway which would benefit thousands of people. Let’s introduce congestion charges but not offer alternatives in public transport. What a complete idiot Brown is.

  5. Funny, National made an election pledge to build more and better roads, and reduce the emphasis on cycle ways, and they’re following through.

    You may not like it, but NZers obviously do because this is what they voted for. And let’s face if they promised the entire $32 billion on cycling, the Greens will still grizzle.

    I also say this as a person who cycles up to 150 kms a week.

    • Whilst I agree to some of what you say, we didn’t vote for them to wreck our roads previously and given Nationals record for ignoring referendum on asset sales, that would return billions and billions to our economy then I’d suggest your distaste for the Greens is just that.

  6. Apply a Keynesian perspective and National are being big state spenders to drive the economy through infrastructure investment. It’s not ideal but it’ll work plus we get better roads to travel on at a higher speed. What’s not to like about that?

  7. He’s pretty bright alright.
    Besides transport he has energy to look after. He plans to import LNG from Australia. I have just read on Google news that Australia is building a $1b terminal to import gas through as they are running out.
    This fucking idiot is beyond belief. Obviously doesn’t do homework or is one of those blokes who thinks with his dick.
    How much does he think we will have to pay for something from Australia when they have a shortage. If you think the price of cheese is bad wait until you go fill up the gas bottle.

    • Maybe the fucken egg could jump on their soar generation in Queens land which they are looking at exporting to Singapore .Instead of building a gas terminal to import from Russia as Aus is running out he could invest in an undersea cable .Then again he could put solar and battery at every house in the country.But that would take too much thinking in the thirty seconds required to see it would work .The boy is a fucken idiot .

    • Australia has plenty of LNG – in West Australia and Queensland. They export heaps of it.
      NSW is going to build the LNG terminal because it and Victoria turned their backs on exploration a few decades ago, and NSW is now running out.

      Sound familiar?

      • So why are they building a import terminal in Western Australia.
        It is being built by a company currently selling gas and they are running out.
        Ada I suggest you start getting your facts from other than NZ Herald, The NZ Institute and the National Party Tic Tock sites.
        Expand your horizons, you may find it quite cathartic.

  8. Most of the so called new money is another lie and fuck all will be spent .A few jobs are already being done and we funded by the last government .The last lot got a whole 27k 4 lane road planned and started and well on the way to being finished on time and budget to replace the link from Manawatu to Hawksbay .None of the jobs on this nobs list will be even planed before the next election

  9. Wee Simeon is obsessed with the fact that lifting the speed limit on certain roads will get us to the next traffic jam on average 57 seconds quicker. Guess thats the result of promoting a bank clerk to a position above their level of competence.

  10. Let’s remember it was the Nats who increased the max allowable weight of trucks…..On roads not designed for those weights…..But, if anyone thought that a bunch of god-botherers (Simion and Chris) were going to give any fucks about sustainability, we get what we deserve. NZ really needs to get trucks off roads and onto rail – electric rail. That would reduce deaths and reduce maintenance costs of the roading network.

    I think that free public transport for anyone who qualifies for a Community Services card would be a great way to get some equality across the class divide with transport – anyone on any benefit, old, students, sickness, etc.

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