The great policy bonfire

mickysavage
1 year ago
Categories: act, chris hipkins, climate change, Environment, labour, michael wood, national, public transport, science, transport

Chris Hipkins continues with his shock and awe campaign and has torched a number of policies that National and Act were using to foment unrest.

Among the torched policies are the following:

$1 billion in savings which will be reallocated to support New Zealanders with the cost of living
A range of transport programmes deferred so Waka Kotahi can focus on post Cyclone road recovery
Speed limit reduction programme significantly narrowed to focus on the most dangerous one per cent of state highways
Second part of alcohol reform that relates to issues such as sponsorship, advertising and pricing deferred
Not introducing legislation to lower the voting age to 16 for general elections. Instead, we will shift focus to lowering the age for voting in local body elections, which has stronger support in Parliament
Auckland transport solutions to reduce emissions and congestion will be rolled out in stages

There is lots to unpick.

Auckland’s light rail project is going to be staged rather than built as one project. They could save money by opting for a surface option rather than tunnelling and there is also the option of a route along Manukau Road. But both should be proceeded with. And with the need to urgently get people out of cars to address greenhouse gas emissions continuation of the project should not be delayed.

The limitation of speed limit reductions is clearly to take away right wing talking points. There is an environmental and also a safety aspect to the projects but the temptation for the right of making it a campaign rallying issue is now blunted. Just remember light bulbs and shower heads from 2008 to get a sense of what was possible. Totally rational and justifiable policies can get blasted in talkback radio land.

Scrapping the clean car upgrade scheme will save $568 million but will also mean that the transitioning of the vehicle fleet in a more sustainable way will be hampered. Admittedly there may be better options. For instance I have thought the Government could purchase and hand out ebikes with the funds. Money in the car upgrade scheme could afford 200,000 ebikes. This would have a significant and immediate effect on green house gas emissions.

And comments this morning on Radio New Zealand by Chris Hipkins were not helpful. He did not rule out as part of the repriortisation that the funds would not be used for purposes not related to climate change. The money is part of the Climate Emergency Response Fund that, according to Treasury, is only to be used for climate spending. The money is from revenue collected by the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Stopping the introduction of legislation designed to test support for lowering the voting age is disappointing. I believe that 16 year olds should be able to vote. They are bright enough and they have more at stake in the future than the rest of us. The right would hate it of course because having a new voting block focussed on the long term and wanting to address environmental degradation would run counter to their interests.

The changes primarily affect Michael Wood (Transport, Workplace Relations and Auckland Issues) and Kiritapu Allen (Justice and Associate Transport).

In a Blairite third way sense the changes are good politics. But at this stage of the climate crisis you have to wonder if these decisions are in our best interests.