Road lobby use same tactics as Big Tobacco and Kiwis fall for it

It doesn’t matter what the issue is, according to the right the solution is always, more cows, more property speculation and more roads.

The way the Right manipulate the roading debate is as corrupt as Big Tobacco…

NZ road lobby’s tobacco industry-like tactics revealed in study

New Zealand’s “road lobby” uses the same tactics as the tobacco industry to obstruct transport policies like walking and cycling, a new University of Otago study says.

The study, published in the Journal of Transport and Health, looked at submissions made to five different government consultations between 2020 and 2022 related to transport and emissions reduction.

The organisations dubbed as New Zealand’s “road lobby” are the Automobile Association, Motor Industry Association, Motor Trade Association, Transport NZ, and BusinessNZ Energy Council.

Submissions from the Bus and Coach Association and Energy Resources Aotearoa were also studied.

Lead author and Otago University PhD student in public health Dr Alice Miller said they looked at a cross-section of trade associations from the road transport sector.

“The organisations we looked at, we classed five of them as the ‘road lobby’, in that they were largely lobbying for road-based transport policy.”

Miller said they supported policies around driving, taking freight on trucks, more investment into road infrastructure and EV-charging infrastructure, and biofuels or hydrogen investment.

But policies that would improve active and public transport – and have health benefits, Miller said – were met with many reasons why they shouldn’t be implemented.

“They also were supporting individual behaviour change interventions, to try and educate people about the emissions of vehicles they were driving.”

The emphasis on individual actions and consumer choice – rather than talking about actions at a company or industry level – was an example of the way these groups worked in a similar way to industries like tobacco lobbyists, Miller said.

“One of the key findings is that we found the commercial road lobby groups were spinning and framing their arguments in similar ways as other harmful industries do when they’re trying to resist a policy that doesn’t suit their interests.”

“They deflected the responsibility for reducing emissions from the industry back onto individuals, distracting from the fact the vehicles that they’re producing are causing a lot of harm and damage.”

To back up arguments in support of more road spending, Miller said the groups often talked about improving road safety through better infrastructure.

“The way that road safety was discussed ignored other major health harms from road transport, and distracted from the key fact that everyone is safer when we invest properly in high-quality bus and train services, and in safe spaces to walk and cycle.”

Miller said these arguments often combined and became “circular” – effectively blocking policies that would shift transport away from reliance on private vehicles.

… the ease with which New Zealanders are manipulated for corporate interests that don’t have their well being at heart is one of our most remarkable cultural features as a people.

The sleepy hobbits of muddle NuZilind lose again, while corporations laugh.

Hilariously our new Transport Minister is a former Tobacco Lobbyist.

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