Displaying 1 - 24 of 104 results.

The Government will increase petrol excise duty by three cents a litre on 1 July 2013, 1 July 2014 and 1 July 2015, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

Road user charges will also be increased by an equivalent amount.

Mr Brownlee says the increases are required to deliver the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme and other roading projects to the timeline set out in the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport Funding 2012.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport

A three month extension to the final settlement date for a small group of residential red zone property owners will ease a number of pressures they are facing, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

The extension will apply to those property owners who under initial rules would have needed to settle with the Crown and vacate the red zone by 30 April 2013.

They will now be able to nominate a new settlement date up until 31 July 2013.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

New rules come into force tomorrow requiring all adventure tourism operators to strengthen how they manage drug and alcohol-related safety risks in their operations.

“I welcome these tougher rules with the knowledge that tourists and New Zealanders alike will have greater assurance about the safety of adventure activities,” says Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee.

Acting Labour Minister Chris Finlayson says the new requirements will reduce risk and also help protect New Zealand’s reputation as a tourist destination.

  • Christopher Finlayson
  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport
  • Labour

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has today opened the South Island’s first Road of National Significance, the Christchurch Southern Motorway Stage 1.

The $140 million, eight kilometre four-lane motorway and 2.5 km upgrade of Halswell Junction Road, which runs between Collins Street and Halswell Junction Road and then along Halswell Junction Road, was completed within three years – ahead of schedule and on budget.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says the Sinclair Knight Merz report “City Centre Future Access Study” released this afternoon by Auckland Mayor Len Brown is a useful addition to the debate on long term transport management in central Auckland.

“It also falls some way short of convincing the Government it should provide financial support to any fast tracking of the proposed City Rail Link (CRL),” Mr Brownlee says.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport

The Government agrees with the Productivity Commission that there are opportunities to lift the performance of the international freight system, and is taking action to make this happen, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

The Government has today released its response to the New Zealand Productivity Commission’s final report on international freight transport services.

“International trade is crucial for New Zealand’s economic success.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Today’s launch of the Economic Recovery Programme is an opportunity to reflect on how far Canterbury has come since the earthquakes, and the many reasons we have to be optimistic about the region’s future.

It’s an incredible testament to the resilience of the business community that based on recent estimates regional GDP for Canterbury has bounced back to pre-earthquake levels.

Economic activity data has shown Canterbury to be the fastest growing region in New Zealand over the past 18 months, and the rebuild proper is only just beginning.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has highlighted 20 key projects in the Economic Recovery Programme for Greater Christchurch, which was launched today.

Developed by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), the programme lays out a roadmap for economic recovery in the region.

“This has been a thoroughly collaborative process between CERA and MBIE in partnership with local government and the business sector,” Mr Brownlee says.

  • Steven Joyce
  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Economic Development
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the first commercial property purchases for Christchurch’s CBD Blueprint Plan represent an important milestone in the city’s recovery.

“I’m pleased with progress made by the Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU) in negotiating with landowners to create a willing-buyer willing-seller scenario,” Mr Brownlee says.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says Cabinet has approved an application from the NZ Transport Agency to pursue a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to finance and build the Transmission Gully highway, part of the Wellington Northern Corridor Road of National Significance.

“A Board of Inquiry appointed by the Minister for the Environment approved the resource consents and notices required for this project in June, and in August I requested the NZTA to assess the suitability of using a PPP procurement model to design and build the highway,” Mr Brownlee says.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport

Traffic will be slowed and pedestrians given greater priority in the new central Christchurch under a draft transport plan the public is now invited to have their say on.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has today released the Accessible City draft Transport Plan and is inviting the wider community to make their comments and contributions.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Land Information New Zealand is to lead a programme of work to accelerate recovery and rebuild efforts in Canterbury, the Government announced today.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the programme will address barriers to data sharing, provides solutions to harnessing web technology and facilitates 3D visualisation.

  • Maurice Williamson
  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Land Information
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced a new training and employment programme to attract workers into trade industries needed for the horizontal rebuild of greater Christchurch.

The programme is part of the Government’s wider infrastructure programme, which is set out in the Building Infrastructure progress report released today.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

The Government wants to further test the viability of a ferry terminal at Clifford Bay in Marlborough, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced.

"Cabinet believes the business case we've been presented is strong enough to justify further testing the viability of this major change to New Zealand's transport infrastructure," Mr Brownlee says.

"I have asked the Ministry of Transport, along with the Treasury and the NZ Transport Agency to assemble a specialist project team to undertake this work.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says today’s green zoning of the final eight residential properties in the Port Hills marks the end of an unprecedented programme of Government assistance in natural disaster recovery.

"All 190,000 residential properties in greater Christchurch now have a zoning which gives their owners the ability to move on with their lives," Mr Brownlee says.

"When we started this process we knew it would not be easy and we knew the end results would not please everyone.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Construction of the National War Memorial Park in Buckle Street was declared underway, following a sod-turning ceremony and blessing of the site on Buckle Street in Wellington, by Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee and Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Christopher Finlayson.

The park is the Government’s key project to acknowledge the Centenary of the First World War, and is intended to be completed in time for the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing on Anzac day 2015.

  • Christopher Finlayson
  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport
  • Arts, Culture and Heritage

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has welcomed today's publication of the final report from the cross-sector Road Maintenance Task Force.

"We established the task force in July last year to drive value for money and seek opportunities to reduce costs for roading authorities around the country in the road maintenance, operations and renewals area," Mr Brownlee says.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport

Labour leader David Shearer’s decision to give a speech on employment and training in Canterbury today, a region with massive jobs growth, is the latest in a string of hapless own goals, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

“In January there were 5185 people on an unemployment benefit in Christchurch – today there’s 3131,” Mr Brownlee says.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee is applauding the success of the new AMI Stadium in Christchurch, with figures following Tuesday night's All Whites versus Tahiti football match showing over 200,000 tickets have been sold since the venue's launch in March.

"For a city of some 380,000 people this is a truly heartening response, which proves the importance of delivering a multi-use facility at a time when the community is picking itself up and moving on from the earthquakes," Mr Brownlee says.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has marked a significant milestone this morning in the Government’s effort to improve Auckland’s motorway network.

The Minister gave the official signal at 10.15am to a crane operator at the Newmarket Viaduct Replacement project site to begin work removing the giant launching gantry affectionately known as ‘Big Blue’ from the construction site.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Transport

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says he is confident progress was made today to overcome and minimise barriers to rebuilding on Technical Category 3 (TC3) land in greater Christchurch.

"Today I hosted around 100 stakeholders in the rebuild, from the insurance, engineering, building, legal and real estate sectors with the goal of finding common ground to resolve issues in TC3," Mr Brownlee says.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Work on Christchurch's new Convention Centre Precinct is underway, with the Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU) and Christchurch City Council now calling for expressions of interest (EOI) from groups wishing to participate in the project.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the EOI process will enable the private sector to put forward initial proposals for the convention centre, its car parking area, connected retail and commercial operations, and a five star hotel.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced an important milestone in the Government’s residential red zone offer process, with more than 6000 of 7860 property owners having signed agreements to sell their property to the Crown.

“This is an overwhelming endorsement of the process we put in place and means 6090 households have or are making plans to move from the worst affected suburbs to a new life on safe land,” Mr Brownlee says.

  • Gerry Brownlee
  • Canterbury Earthquake Recovery