NLTP speech 2007

Paul Fitzharris, Acting Chair

As Acting Chair of Land Transport NZ, I would like to welcome all of you to tonight’s launch of the National Land Transport Programme.

Minister – thank you for your address, and welcome to your second NLTP launch.

Welcome also to the Associate Minister of Transport, Judith Tizard, and to members of the Transport Select Committee and other MPs. The Minister for Transport Safety, Harry Duynhoven, regrets that he is unable to attend tonight.

The preparation of the NLTP requires help from our many partners and I would like to acknowledge those partners represented by some of you tonight.

Our principal funding partners – the TAs and Regional Councils. Welcome to those Mayors, Chairs, Councillors and officers, some of you have traveled far to be with us tonight.

To the Ministry of Transport. Welcome Alan and your team. Last year, our Chair Jan Wright, welcomed you as CE of ARTA. Congratulations on your new role.

To the Police. Welcome Superintendent Dave Cliff, our partner on road safety initiatives.

There are also many others, including:

• Members of Regional Land Transport Committees
• Representatives from the commercial, vehicle testing and passenger transport industries
• Contractors and consultants
• User representatives and other commentators from around the sector
• Government departments and agencies with whom we forging relationships, such as ACC, ONTRACK, the Ministry of Economic Development, Treasury and the Ministry for the Environment

And finally, a warm welcome to Transit – especially Chair Bryan Jackson and his Board and CE Rick van Barneveld and his team. We have always had a close relationship with Transit as our sister crown agency in the transport sector – a relationship which is going to get that much closer…

As a sign of the changes in the transport sector, Land Transport NZ has new Board members. I would like to introduce you to the members of the Board who are here tonight: Greg Presland, Janet Stephenson, Gary McIver, John Rutledge, Garry Moore and Murray King.

And, on the subject of Board members, I would like to acknowledge our previous Chair, Dr Jan Wright, who is here tonight. Jan made an invaluable contribution to Land Transport NZ, especially guiding it through its establishment phase, and to Transfund before that. Welcome Jan, and congratulations on your new role as Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

And, of course, I would like to thank Wayne and the staff of Land Transport who have picked up the mandate – as set out in the LTMA – of promoting safe and sustainable land transport and are making progress in converting those lofty ideals into tangible and practical steps.

Next year, I realise, it may be a different organisation that is launching the NLTP. However, many of the functions of our organisation will go on regardless, so I think it is fitting to comment on what Land Transport NZ is.

Land Transport NZ is a diverse organisation with many stakeholders. Many of you interact with only one facet of our organisation and are perhaps not aware of the extent of the other parts of it.

Our aim is to improve land transport to make a better New Zealand.

One of the ways we try to achieve that aim, and the reason you’re here this evening, is through allocating transport funding. And we allocate a lot of it. Almost two and a half billion dollars this year.

That’s a big figure and it places a big responsibility on us to distribute the money wisely in order to most effectively address the significant challenges facing the sector. The funding Government entrusts us with allocating will enable many transport projects and activities to come to fruition. Funding allocation is one of the important ways we can make changes in the sector to make land transport safer and more sustainable.

This chart reflects these changes. It compares the allocations in this year’s NLTP from those 6 years ago in 2001/02. The width of the columns reflects the amount of funding provided to the NLTP – there’s been more than a doubling in that time. But the main point I would stress is the distribution within the column. Rightfully, given its prominence within our transport sector, the bulk of funding goes to the roading sector. But a growing share of the funding goes to passenger transport and the other activities such as walking and cycling and community activities such as walking school buses represent the face of sustainable transport choices.

Land Transport NZ has an important role to play as the government’s principal regulator of the land transport sector. We aim to apply regulations fairly and firmly to protect people and the environment. We strive for interactions that are as hassle free for our clients as possible, while also achieving the goal of protecting the traveling public and the environment. We and our agents are responsible for:

• Administering the licensing and registration of vehicles, which includes ensuring people earn their licence by demonstrating knowledge of the road rules and the ability to drive safely

• Monitoring the safety of vehicles through entry-level certification and in-service inspections through the WOF and COF systems

• The licensing of commercial transport operators, including taxi, truck and bus companies and drivers

• Overseeing the safety of the rail system

The number of transactions are staggering. Each year Land Transport NZ and its agents process 940,000 driver licensing transactions and 7.8 million motor vehicle licensing and registration transactions. Our call centre is expecting to handle more than 1.2 million calls this year.

I could keep going with this list of what we do. Instead, I encourage you to look at the displays in this room and the videos next door as they showcase the very diverse roles and functions of Land Transport NZ.

The Board of Land Transport NZ sees its role as harnessing the strength and energy of our organisation to address the serious transport issues we all face. There is no shortage of challenges. Here is one of them.

The chart shows the steady increase in CO2 emissions from the transport sector over the past 15 years. Given that transport accounts for about 40% of this country’s CO2 emissions, it is clear that if NZ is to address the problem and meet its obligations under the Kyoto protocol, transport will have to be part of the solution.

Which in turn makes us question the cars that people are driving.

Vehicle technology is improving – cars are becoming more fuel efficient. A current model car is about 30% more fuel efficient than a 1990 one. However, as the chart shows there has been a parallel growth in vehicle-kilometres-travelled and CO2 emissions. This means that the growth in fuel efficiency has been offset by people choosing to drive larger vehicles. The gains in vehicle fuel efficiency haven’t been translated into lower emission levels.

And it’s not just the vehicles we are buying – it’s how we are using them that is determining our transport outcomes.

This chart shows the trend in how people are getting to work – as measured at the last three censuses. Unfortunately, the number and proportion traveling in single occupancy cars is increasing – whereas the proportion using PT, walking, cycling or sharing a car with another is declining. Much of our urban congestion problem is reflected in these statistics.

An area where I have mixed emotions is that of road safety.

The long term trend in road fatalities is downwards, and shows the effectiveness of targeted interventions, such as advances in vehicle technology, improvements in our roading system, better targeting of our police resources, and advertising that has encouraged attitude change. However, I note our current level of 400 fatalities per year is still too high – and exceeds the 2010 safety target of 300 per year.

But the important point for tonight is that it shows what can be done with coordinated policy and interventions across the sector. The problems reflected in those previous charts – what I would refer to as our transport sustainability problems – are capable of solution if we apply the same determination that we have applied to the safety problem.

Part of the solution for transport lies in funding.

And, as shown in the Chart, there continues to be strong growth in transport funding. In this year’s Budget, the government announced it was investigating allocating all fuel tax and RUC to the NLTP – what’s known as full hypothecation, and it is on this basis that we have forecast allocations over the coming decade. This enables the steady growth in allocations, which in turn will enable us to fund the changes needed to address the sustainability issues – such as supporting the growth in passenger transport services around the country.

But funding is only one of the ways for addressing problems. Regulation is another.

We are pleased to be working with the Ministry of Transport on the Vehicle Emissions Rule. This proposed rule, which is currently being consulted on, addresses the problems caused by our old vehicle fleet by updating the existing minimum standards for new vehicles entering New Zealand. Vehicles produced to modern standards are cleaner and as a country we need to take advantage of these improvements.

We are also making significant changes to how we work with the Commercial Road Transport sector.

As Tony Friedlander often says, everything we export and everything we use travels by truck at some time. We are working hard to ensure that through our regulatory and infrastructure roles we can assist the sector achieve the best possible productivity from their management and logistics as well as through the networks provided by Transit and others.

The coming year will be a challenging one for our organisation, as we work with Transit, the Ministry and other arms of government to implement the Next Steps recommendations. Minister, I concur with your sentiments that the expertise for improving the sector lies within our agencies and the Ministry. I assure you of my Board’s commitment to approaching this change constructively and creatively so that the result is an improved transport sector.

My remaining duty is, once again, to thank you all for attending – and to encourage you to enjoy our hospitality.

Page created: 6 July 2007