Is hiking speed limits really going to bolster productivity?
38 sections of state highway up and down the country are about to have their speed limits increased.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Thursday, January 30.
In today’s edition: Letter reveals Crown observer critical of Wellington Council, ministers not backing down over ‘racist’ comments, and the date of the next government budget has been revealed. But first, why Labour says National could be responsible for more deaths on our roads.
Speed limits going back up
On Tuesday morning, prime minister Christopher Luxon joined Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking for his first weekly interview of 2025. It was a rather combative exchange, somewhat unusual given the cosy rapport the pair seem to have. “You’re too much yak* and not enough do,” Hosking said to Luxon. Later: “My frustration with you is that I think you’re well-intentioned, but you’re running out of time.” And then: “You’re going to run out of runtime if you don’t start kicking some arse and getting this country moving.” Hosking took issue with a number of areas he perceived the government as being sluggish, but he saved his final blow for something close to his heart: speed limit changes. Luxon said he’d “get onto it”, and just shy of 24 hours later, an outcome (though not exactly the one Hosking had been asking for). As we touched on yesterday, the government has confirmed it will reverse speed limit reductions implemented by the former government across 38 sections of state highway up and down the country in a bid to bolster productivity. A further 49 sections of state highway will be put out for public consultation.
*Not the animal.
‘Triumph for common sense’ or a ‘political decision’?
In announcing the decision, newly-minted transport minister Chris Bishop said the government wanted to make it easier for people to get from A to B “which will help drive economic growth and improved productivity." Act’s leader David Seymour said it was a “triumph for common sense” (the pledge to increase speed limits was included in the National-Act coalition agreement). In Wairarapa, where the announcement was made, the changes could amount to about three minutes of travel time saved. However on shorter stretches of road, calculated Stuff’s Karanama Ruru, it could be as little as 15 seconds. Bishop argued it was worth it. “While these changes may appear small in some cases, collectively when you add up the volume of traffic across all these corridors every day, it makes a big difference,” he said.
The opposition has claimed that it’s a purely political decision and one that will cost lives. As reported by ThreeNews last night, the announcement was made on the corner of a road where someone had previously lost their life. Labour’s Chris Hipkins, speaking to reporters, went so far as to suggest National would be responsible for any increase in road deaths. “If more people die on those roads because of the political decision to increase the speed limits then that’s going to be on National,” he said. The transport minister said drunk and drug drivers were the major cause of road deaths and the government has committed to tackling this problem, as we looked at for The Bulletin last year.
‘Higher speeds often result in increased costs’
The government’s position is that by allowing people to get where they need to be faster – albeit only slightly – it will mean they can achieve more. The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire looked at the debate, and the strong opposition to the government’s moves, in an explainer published last August. Though campaigned on well before Christopher Luxon started talking about economic growth in practically every sentence, the pledge has been rolled out as part of the government’s plan to reinvigorate the economy. In a piece for The Conversation last year, urban planning expert Timothy Welch argued that thinking was flawed. “Higher speeds often result in increased costs rather than improved efficiency,” he wrote. That can be caused by “disproportionate increases in fuel consumption”, but also the heavy financial burden from increased road accidents, explained Welch.
Canterbury university’s Simon Kingham, a former chief science advisor at the Ministry of Transport, made similar arguments in a piece for Newsroom, noting that the government was only pitting time savings against accidents and “ignoring pollution emissions… ignoring mode shift which is a really big one because if you make a speed limit slower, you encourage walking and cycling”.
As RNZ reported, the government will face a legal challenge from a safety advocacy group over its decision.
Local decision making ‘undermined’
Meanwhile, it’s been claimed the government’s decision to take a blanket approach to speed limit adjustments overrides the views of local communities. The Spinoff’s Joel MacManus made a similar point in a piece for The Spinoff last year, arguing that while some local councils had been responsible for reducing speed limits in their towns, the government – that has advocated for local solutions to local issues – had decided to take a wholesale approach. Tina Law, reporting for The Press, said that the Christchurch City Council had been working to reduce speed limits outside schools to 30km/h at all times of the day, but the government will require this only to be in force during pick up and drop off times. Harrison McEvoy from the group Greater Ōtautahi said this ignored community preference and undermined local decision making.
Have thoughts? Join the conversation in the comments.
Letter reveals Crown observer critical of Wellington Council
The Crown observer appointed to oversee Wellington City Council has called the u-turn on asset sales that disrupted the passing of the long-term plan unnecessary, reported Andrea Vance for The Post. In a letter to councillors sent before Christmas and obtained by media outlets including The Post, Lindsay McKenzie said decisions on the sale of the city’s airport shares should have been made at a scheduled meeting in December, rather than in October. “Any sale of the airport shares could have turned on the planned December decision point ...There are a number of legitimate reasons why a decision not to sell could have been taken at that time.”
More reading:
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Ministers not backing down over ‘racist’ comments
New Zealand First ministers, including the deputy prime minister, are refusing to apologise for comments they made towards immigrant MPs in the house this week dubbed “outwardly racist and xenophobic”. RNZ’s Anneke Smith reported that Shane Jones yelled “send the Mexicans home” during a debate on Tuesday, while Winston Peters said Green MPs Lawrence Xu-Nan and Francisco Hernandez should "show some gratitude" for being in New Zealand. The Green Party has called on the prime minister to condemn the comments, though Christopher Luxon has so far not commented. Jones, in a text to RNZ, called the Greens “flakes”.
More reading:
Echo Chamber: Strap in for the first question time of 2025 (The Spinoff)
Parliament erupts as MPs clash over race and immigration (ThreeNews)
Minister of trade Todd McClay apologises to Ricardo Menéndez March after Mexico remark (RNZ)
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Auckland at Q Theatre: Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club Party, February 13 and Gone by Lunchtime Live, April 9.
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How a failure of the imagination opens the door to privatisation
When public services are failing, it’s easy to look to privatisation. But that doesn’t mean we should, argues Max Rashbrooke in an opinion piece for The Spinoff this morning.
Rampant conflicts of interest, asset-stripping, disastrous outcomes, profits flowing offshore to wealthy interests rather than ordinary New Zealanders: this might be why, as David Seymour observed last week, New Zealanders are “squeamish” about privatisation. Not that the soon-to-be deputy PM has learned anything from those debacles: indeed he thinks we should plunge ourselves right back into them.
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Click and Collect
Pharmac refusing to release culture review, boss understood to be on extended leave.
Dargaville Hospital had overnight doctor only five out of 55 nights.
New Zealand apologises for failing to consult Pacific countries on RSE worker changes.
We have a date: The government’s “growth budget” will be unveiled on May 22.
The Spinoff Review of Books considers the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards' 2025 long list. Toby Manhire has some ideas to help New Zealand win the “growthy-yessy” arms race. Alex Casey attends the 90s Mania concert featuring Vengaboys in Christchurch's Town Hall. Author Tania Roxborogh reveals what plot change she would make to the final Hunger Games novel for The Spinoff Books Confessional. Gabi Lardies introduces prospective digital nomads to the best and worst places to work remotely in New Zealand. Rowan Simpson welcomes the “necessary reset” following the scrapping of Callaghan Innovation, but wonders what comes next.
That’s it for this morning, thanks for reading. Catch you back here tomorrow.
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This is a deeply shallow policy
Ideology over evidence - it's the playbook of this government. What I thought was funny was the actual detail of the changes. The headline would have you imagine a whole bunch of roads would just be reverting to 100km/h but only two of the 38 in the list were changing from 80 to 100. Most were outskirt of towns tweaks from 50 to 60 or 70. Some were only a few hundred metres long. What time saving would those make - a few seconds? Productivity improvement my arse, pure politicking! The more interesting will be the list of 49 released today that will be consulted on.