Good morning everyone and thank you for inviting me to speak today.

I would like to acknowledge Geoff Lange, the New Zealand Automobile Association President and the Chief Executive, Brian Gibbons. I would also like to welcome Susan Pikarallidas, Secretary General of the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile, and Mike Harris, CEO of the Australian Automobile Association.

Introduction

Speaking at your National Conference is a first for me, and I come here today with a high regard for the work the Automobile Association does, and for the way it works.

This is an organisation that works constructively with the government, and I look forward to a long and strong relationship with you.

I will be talking today about both road safety and transport infrastructure.  It is my view that these are intrinsically linked - we can talk all we like about driver education and campaigns to increase awareness but if our roads are poorly engineered and designed, we don't have much chance of success.

Road safety is of course the theme of your conference. It is an issue that has a major effect right across society. The impact of a road crash goes beyond the people involved to their families, their employers, the health system and the wider community.

In recent years our road toll has been decreasing, with last year marking the lowest in 50 years.

This is encouraging but the number of serious injuries has not been reducing over the last few years, and compared to other OECD countries our performance is decidedly average.

As you know, almost all of the crashes, injuries and deaths on our roads are preventable.

Road Safety to 2020

This Road Safety to 2020 strategy will be central to meeting the challenges this fact presents.

I'm not usually a big fan of strategies, I prefer to focus on actions.  So I'm not interested in a strategy for the sake of it - I want an action plan which will achieve results.

The 2020 strategy must set out concrete actions and objectives, and a set of changes that will then be made.

But it's the development of the strategy that will determine its relevance and how successful it will be.

I don't see it as my job, as Minister of Transport, to tell your members and the hundreds-of-thousands of other road users up and down the country how to fix their road system and make it safer.

It's their roading network - they use it and they've paid for it.

So they need to play a big role in determining how we're going to run it.  They will play a key role in shaping the strategy.

We will be consulting first with key stakeholders, like the AA, and the Ministry will then be carrying out wider consultation on a draft strategy.

The AA has a wealth of knowledge and experience in road safety and I know your input and leadership will be greatly appreciated.

The current strategy has relied on education, enforcement and engineering to make progress in road safety. This approach has secured us gains but we need to do better if we are to go beyond where we are now. 

To make this next step we need to take a look at the transport system as a whole.

I want to achieve a road safety system that saves the most lives and prevents the greatest number of serious injuries for every dollar spent.   It's about maximising opportunities and targeting areas where we can make a difference.

It's about safer road use, safer vehicles and safer roads. 

A safe system recognises that despite our best efforts, road crashes will still occur. Human error is inevitable. Our aim is for a system, where, when crashes do happen, the chances of death or serious injuries are minimised.

Areas of primary focus / concern

Impaired driving - alcohol and drugs

I know that drunk driving is an important issue for the AA and indeed it should be.  Substance impaired driving is one of the single biggest contributors to road deaths in New Zealand. 

Post mortem results show that 52% of drivers killed in crashes have either alcohol or drugs in their system.

Whether its lowering the blood alcohol level, or cracking down on residual drunk drivers, there's plenty of work to be done here.

Perhaps of greater concern - because the law is less clear - is drug impaired driving, and we're progressing legislation on this quickly so that this reckless behaviour can be treated as the criminal offence it is. We hope to have this through by the end of June.

Younger drivers

Young New Zealanders make up only 16 percent of all licensed drivers, yet in 2007 they were involved in about 34 percent of all fatal crashes and 38 percent of serious injury crashes.

Our road fatality rate is 10 deaths per 100,000 population. This is for New Zealanders of all ages. The fatality rate for young drivers alone is double that, 21 deaths per 100,000 population. In 2007 the social cost of their crashes came to over one billion dollars.

There's plenty of work to be done here.

Safer Speeds

Speed affects both the likelihood and the impact of all crashes, and it is a contributing factor in 32 percent of our fatal crashes and 20 percent of serious injury crashes.

There has been progress in getting New Zealanders to stick to speed limits and drive at speeds more appropriate to conditions, but this has stalled in recent years.

There's more work to be done here.

Motorcycles

Motorcycles are over represented in crash statistics, and with registrations increasing we can expect this to get worse.

Although motorbikes only make up 3 percent of the vehicle fleet, riders make up 10 percent of road deaths and 21 percent of ACC road injury claims.

There's significant work to be done here.

 Driver distraction

Driver distraction - through cell phones and other things - is also a serious threat on our roads that needs to be addressed.

It is my hope that the development of the road safety strategy will promote public debate in these areas and many others, as we strive for a safer roading network.

However I want to stress again that the quality of our roads is one of the biggest determinate in keeping the road toll down.

From 1997 to 2006, roading improvements helped reduce road deaths by 11 percent on rural roads and 16 percent on urban roads.

We know that separating traffic with widened roads and median barriers, for example, makes a huge difference. 

In the five years prior to work being completed on Alpurt A - the Albany four lane extension - there was an average of 3 fatal and almost 7 serious crashes along that strip of road each year. 

With the four laning of the road and addition of median barriers this has reduced to less than one fatal crash and four serious injuries each year since the work was done. 

So this will be another key consideration in the development of the road safety strategy.

Infrastructure

Our work on the roading network is driven by three determinants:

• Safety, which I've already covered.


• Congestion; and


• Productivity.

Over the last 25 years a serious infrastructure deficit has arisen in this country.  We need to turn that around.  There has been some progress in recent times, especially around Auckland. But a lot more investment is needed. This isn't optional - it's vital.

Last week we announced additional spending of close to $1 billion over the next three years on our state highway network.  And it's not a one-off - it's here to stay.  This means we'll now spend about a billion dollars each year on the network.

This will provide around $10.7 billion over 10 years for investment in the state highway network, and that is a much more appropriate level given the importance of the network to New Zealanders.

In contrast, the previous government had signed off on a 9% decrease in the state highway budget over the next three years.

Our funding boost is about realigning the land transport programme to ensure it reflects the realities of how New Zealanders get around and how we transport our goods.

It's about acknowledging that around 70% of all freight in New Zealand goes by road, and about 84% of people go to work by car truck or motorbike.

We need good roads to grow and compete.

It's in recognition of the fact that while state highways represent just 11% of our roading network they cater to around 50% of the traffic.

We need to make sure they're in good shape.

Transport funding

Earlier this month the Prime Minister and I announced changes to the transport funding system which will ensure the extra funds required to address the infrastructure deficit are available.

To make this happen we are in the process of amending the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport Funding.

Our political opponents would like you to think we are slashing funding from public transport, road safety and walking and cycling so we can direct the money to state highways.

I want to assure you this is not the case.

The money is coming from three areas:

• $420m reallocation from non-state highway classes.


• $258m in new crown investment (paying for NZTA's share of Wellington Passenger rail infrastructure).


• $283m increases in FED and RUC (commencing 1 October and replacing regional fuel taxes).

Removing rail from the National Land Transport Fund will not only simplify rail funding,  but will also make sure that money paid by road users, such as fuel excise duty and road user charges, is spent on the roads.

We are replacing inefficient and expensive regional fuel taxes with small increases in excise and road user charges.

This is a much simpler system and will deliver benefits to road users across the board.

We are mindful of the need to consider the findings of the independent Road User Charges review which is due back at the end of this month and I want to assure you that those findings will be taken into consideration.

I know that this review group has made good progress, and that the submissions it received from key stakeholders like the AA was greatly appreciated.

Roads of National Significance

We've also announced the first seven Roads of National significance. 

These are routes that we've identified as requiring work, as a matter of priority, to reduce congestion, improve safety and support economic growth.

And as such we've asked the New Zealand Transport Agency to come up with plans to significantly advance all seven within the next ten years.

They are, from north to south, State Highway 1 from Puhoi to Wellsford, the completion of the Auckland Western Ring Route, Auckland's Victoria Park bottleneck, the Waikato Expressway, Tauranga's Eastern Corridor, the Wellington Northern Corridor (from Levin to Wellington) and the Christchurch motorway projects.

So these routes are focussed around our main centres of population and growth.

• Puhoi to Wellsford

The current Northern Motorway is subject to high traffic demand and experiences a number of bottlenecks, particularly around Puhoi.

Further development of this route will cater for the expected future growth and development north of Auckland and ease peak and seasonal congestion.

Focusing on the development of this route will make areas north of Auckland even more attractive for community growth, tourism and businesses looking beyond Auckland for growth opportunities.

• Auckland projects

The Auckland Western Ring Route includes state highways 16, 18 and 20 and when completed will form a 48 kilometre motorway bypassing Auckland city and linking the cities of Manukau, Auckland, Waitakere and North Shore. This will relieve congestion and provide a viable alternative to State Highway One.

The completion of the route is essential to the continued growth and economic development in the Auckland region. It will relieve congestion and improve safety on a route that is strategically important to the region's future.

The completion of this route will also contribute to better links for business and freight between key industrial hubs in the cities of Manukau, Auckland, Waitakere and North Shore.

• Waikato Expressway

Providing a continuous divided four-lane highway between Auckland and Cambridge will improve safety and reduce travel times and congestion on State Highway 1.

This section of SH1 is the main southern road access to Auckland, and links New Zealand's 'Golden Triangle' of population and economic growth - Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty.

Pre-election National committed to having the Waikato Expressway completed within ten years of National taking office.  We remain firmly committed to this in government.

• Tauranga

The Tauranga Eastern Corridor has been singled out as crucial to supporting growth in the Bay of Plenty - one of New Zealand's fastest growing regions, and providing freight access from across the region to Tauranga.

This corridor provides the only road access to Tauranga from the east (Te Puke, Whakatane, Opotiki, Gisborne) and major access from the south (Rotorua, Taupo).

• Wellington

Improved access to areas north of Wellington for commuters and freight will aid the development of New Zealand's economic growth by catering for growth in the lower North Island and improving links to other major urban centres

This route is crucial for the efficient north-south movement of freight and people - 6 to 7 million tonnes of long distance freight enters and leaves Wellington by road and rail every year, with 1-2 million tonnes crossing Cook Strait.

Its development will also put to bed the decades long debate about which route north of Wellington should be progressed.   I'm not sure what the Dominion Post will have to write about.

• Christchurch motorway projects

The Christchurch motorway projects will improve the city's southern and northern approaches, and provide a western bypass to our second biggest metropolitan area.

There is significant congestion in the northern Christchurch key corridors.  Freight transport performance is declining and public transport performance is constrained by the existing congested route.

Routes of National Significance will be a key plank of our 20 year Infrastructure Plan. 

This Plan is being developed by the new National Infrastructure Unit within the Treasury.   Its goal is to link infrastructure with targeted, coordinated investment and asset management expertise for our transport system, energy and resources, and communications technology.

As part of this plan, we have committed $8.5 billon to new capital projects. $1.45 billion of which will be going to transport infrastructure.

You can see that we have a lot to go on with.

Conclusion

In closing, I'd like to thank you again for the opportunity to speak here today. I am sure you will be hearing a lot more from me in the months and years to come.

Don't worry though, it works both ways. I am always happy to listen to the views of the AA and I look forward to our relationship continuing to grow over time.

On that note, I will repeat my encouragement that you make your views heard on our road safety priorities, and the best interventions to address them.

Thank you again and I wish you well for a successful and enjoyable conference.