Swearing in of Greater Wellington Regional Council

Thank you for inviting me to join you for the swearing in of the new Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Congratulations to all the elected members here and thank you all for your commitment to working for this region.

Eight of you are demonstrating that commitment by returning for another term on the council. Thank you for your achievements so far. I am sure you will continue to work effectively alongside the five new members, who, I hope, will find their roles rewarding and challenging.

I think this quote from anthropologist Margaret Mead sums up well the important role of local government: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” That’s a hard conclusion to argue against.

Local government plays a vital role in ensuring the wellbeing of all of us. The decisions you make as councillors need to promote the social, cultural, environmental and economic well-being of the greater Wellington community.

You will have to balance varying views and available resources in making what are often tough choices.

In transport particularly, the council has achieved much in recent years --- finalising rail and trolley bus service contracts, purchasing new trains, completing the Regional Land Transport Strategy and road pricing study, and launching a sustainable travel plan programme.

Wellington also achieved total passenger transport boardings of 34.1 million in the past year, a great accomplishment.

But there are always challenges ahead. The Government recently announced its energy strategy and we will need local government co-operation to achieve our aims. In that respect, I’m pleased Greater Wellington is already committed to a major upgrade of the urban rail network, is looking at wind power to contribute to sustainable energy, and is considering a region-wide strategy for renewable energy.

In the area of climate change, central government relies on local government to help change public mindsets and to enable people to make sustainable choices. This fits well with Greater Wellington’s vision for a ‘sustainable region’.

The challenge for Wellington is clearly articulated in the Wellington Regional Strategy. That strategy is designed to ensure that the Wellington region is ‘internationally competitive’, an aim I fully support.

The strategy is an excellent document and shows a degree of cohesiveness within the region.

The strategy is also closely aligned to other regional and local strategies, and this ‘strategic alignment’ at local government and regional community level is very welcome.

The strategy also fits well with the Government’s overall goals of economic transformation and sustainability. The Government’s commitment to these objectives, and to Wellington in particular, is illustrated by our investment in transport over the past few years.

Wellington has benefited from that investment, particularly through the 2005 Joint Officials Group, or JOG process. That process involved regional and central government working together to identify transport priorities for the region.

It involved identifying funding gaps for priority projects and resulted in two packages – $225 million over ten years for public transport, roading, and travel demand management in Wellington, and a $660 million package over ten years for the Western Corridor to enable sufficient public transport and State highway improvements.

As well, $80 million was announced in Budget 2006 for investigation work on Transmission Gully, and Budget 2007 saw $600 million invested into urban rail development in Auckland and Wellington.

The Labour-led Government understands the importance of having strong transport networks in our capital city, and is committed to working closely with local government to achieve that.

To help local government better achieve its transport goals, two pieces of legislation were recently introduced to Parliament.

The Public Transport Management Bill will give regional councils throughout the country the tools to create a better public transport system. There is no “one size fits all” solution for councils. This Bill will enable councils to do what is needed, where it is needed. It will allow your council to have a greater influence over commercial bus and ferry services and ensures better integration of services and modes.

A key aim of this Government is to integrate PT networks and the Bill contains specific provisions to enable integrated services, ticketing and fares across a region. If regions choose to use these provisions, services will be scheduled to connect; all operators will accept the same tickets and travelling on public transport will become much simpler.

It is all about making services more attractive and convenient for existing and new passengers.

Quality and performance controls will help regions improve the responsiveness and sustainability of their PT system. It will help them promote environmentally-friendly, low-emission buses and ferries, as well as consistent standards of accessibility, including super-low floor buses and other measures to assist increasing mobility, and real-time information systems.

Performance controls will promote greater accountability for services running on time and to a high standard.

The other piece of legislation is the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill, incorporating recommendations from the Next Steps review of the land transport sector. Released in May, the review identified a number of issues that needed to be addressed, including:

•gaps in the interpretation of the New Zealand Transport Strategy objectives
•the roles of some government agencies being unclear, and some functions being duplicated
•inconsistent planning and funding policies that distort incentives in the sector, and
•inefficient churn in planning and limited sector collaboration that fails to align central, regional and local land transport plans.

This Bill addresses these issues and shows the government’s commitment to enhancing the framework that the Land Transport Management Act established. The Bill provides a mechanism for regions like Wellington to accelerate transport capital works through a regional fuel tax if they so wish.

I understand that discussions are already underway as to how the region may use this tax.

Congratulations again on your election. I’m sure you will work for the best interests of our region. Thank you again for asking me to join you today.