National has released another gusher of policy ideas, spanning infrastructure, transport and even road safety. More discussion documents, which will be sharpened up into policy blueprints next year. There’s a lot to like, while some proposals need a lot more work. Here’s a few impressions.
Drug driving roadside testing. Bring it on. The party is pledging to make it a priority. Although they dragged the chain on this when last in government. It is so overdue. You may recall when Stuart Nash was in opposition, he hounded National about this. Although, now he’s Police Minister, the issue has been parked up the go-slow lane. Nash is in no rush.
Axing fuel taxes, in favour of expanding road user charges. This is particularly bold thinking. Just imagine if that sixty six cents of fuel excise per litre on 91 petrol was ditched. It’s a nasty regressive form of revenue raising that hits the poor. If you believe in user-pays as I do, you’d have to agree that cars with better fuel economy standards, hybrids and EVs are simply not paying their fair share.
If road user charges were applied to all motorists, on a per kilometre basis, it’s a far fairer playing field. The more you use the roads, the more you pay, regardless of your vehicle’s energy source.
And I note that National is toying with the idea of congestion charging. But why is their language cautious, if not a bit timid? Real-time, on-demand congestion charging on peak roads has been a roaring success, elsewhere. In tech-savvy Singapore, this charging regime has blitzed congestion by twenty per cent. They are the exemplar. I totally agree with David Seymour. Congestion charging needs to be revenue-neutral, not a lazy cash-cow.
A demand-based pricing regime fully focused on keeping the traffic flowing, not scaring people off driving entirely. Done right, deploying new technologies, congestion charging can be self-regulating pricing roads in real time. Seymour points out it would give people constant incentives to share rides or travel off-peak, alongside payment options for peak-hour travel. National should embrace it whole-heartedly and prosecute the case with greater conviction and verve.
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