Auckland mayoral candidate Kerrin Leoni unveils transport policy plan
Photo:
RNZ / Jessica Hopkins
An Auckland mayoral candidate is putting her weight behind a
campaign to get train services to Kumeū-Huapai
in Auckland's North-West.
Challenger to incumbent mayor Wayne Brown Auckland Councillor Kerrin Leoni unveiled her transport policy plan at Waitematā Station on Thursday morning.
Speaking to the media, she said Wayne Brown did not have a clear vision to improve the city's public transport.
"Every morning, thousands of Aucklanders sit in traffic, wondering if anyone will ever actually fix our transport problems.
"Wayne Brown promised to fix it. Three years later, we've had endless weekend rail shutdowns, cancelled bus routes, and AT spending $147,000 on social media influencers while your train doesn't show up.
"Where's the strategy to cut journey times? Where's the connection to our growing communities? Perth built their airport rail in three years - we can't even get a plan.
"While Sydney guarantees travel times, Brown's big ideas are complaining about Wellington, counting traffic cones, and tinkering with traffic lights."
The $50 public transport fare cap, introduced by Auckland Transport in 2024, had not been properly promoted, she said.
Leoni said she might consider lowering the fare cap.
"We've had a lot of feedback from students that the $50 cap is not cheap enough. But I don't believe we would be able to achieve that right now based on our current budgets. But I'd look at that in the future.
"The real issue we have now is that whilst I've been out campaigning, no one is aware we have a $50 cap. We need to get that messaging out to Aucklanders better."
She also committed to negotiating with KiwiRail to stop rail network closures on weekends, but when probed conceded that disruption would become less frequent once the City Rail Link (CRL) had opened.
"There have been a number of shutdowns with the building of the CRL. The plans to address that are definitely there.
"But I believe it's not acceptable, the number of shutdowns we have had. Some of them have been necessary, but we need to get the message out to Aucklanders that there is a clear plan, that there will be fewer shutdowns in the future."
Kerrin Leoni with Paul Miller from the Public Transport Users Association.
Photo:
RNZ / Jessica Hopkins
Councillor Leoni was joined by Paul Miller from the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA), who stepped in to answer some media questions about Leoni's policies.
He said the PTUA had long advocated for restoring Kumeū-Huapai's passenger rail connection, and it was great to have a mayoral candidate on board.
The city's Western Line stops at Swanson, and a planned busway to ease commuter congestion is 10 years away.
Since a trial ended in 2010, only trains transporting goods used the rail line through to Huapai.
Miller said they had a private funder willing to help fund regular train services, every 20 minutes during peak hours, and every hour off-peak.
"A substantial development group that has holdings in West Auckland has said that they would commit to helping to fund a rail service to connect to the end of the existing rail line.
"There's huge community support for it. It's a one-lane road in each direction, and you can't add buses to avoid that.
"We need something in the short-term, and that's what Kerrin's policy is."
The Mayor has been approached for comment.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Spinoff
44 minutes ago
- The Spinoff
Fear and zoning at Auckland Council
It looks like we might finally be letting people build houses in Kingsland, Mt Eden and Mt Albert, and some of our councillors are absolutely ropeable. A fug of grumpiness hung heavy in the air from the first minutes of Auckland Council's planning committee meeting on Thursday. Its chair, North Shore councillor Richard Hills, was trying to kick off an introductory presentation from staff on a set of new housing rules proposed for the city, and questions from the floor were already piling up. Albany's John Watson had dug up a speech from housing minister Chris Bishop where he'd promised communities would decide on the future of their suburbs. 'What did he mean by that?' he asked, pointedly. 'We can't speak for the minister,' replied Hills. Waitematā's Mike Lee was, if anything, more disgruntled. He wore an expression similar to that of the crotchety hobbit from the first Lord of the Rings film as he listed similar concerns about consultation. 'We'll just go now to John for the presentation,' said Hills. It was just the start. Lee and his compatriots had come to the committee to kick up a fuss. The plan they were there to discuss would, at long last, allow people to build apartments and townhouses near the majority of Auckland's train stations and rapid busways. The city's current Unitary Plan allows for 900,000 houses, but enshrines 41% of the land within 5km of the city centre under special character rules which essentially forbid development. This new one would enable two million homes, including 10-storey apartments near public transit in previously off-limits 'leafy suburbs' like Mt Eden, Kingsland and Mt Albert. It's been foisted on the council by the government, which has grown frustrated with local authorities building bilge pumps, aqueducts and municipal pipe systems purely to transport the piss when it comes to housing. But some councillors weren't going to let those elaborate systems be demolished without a fight. Lee led the charge. He railed against Bishop over the changes, enigmatically arguing that extending what people can do by right on their property will destroy their property rights. 'We have a minister who talks about property rights. What he seems to be talking about is property developer rights,' he thundered. 'Not the property rights of ordinary citizens who he seems to be issuing directives to change their neighbourhoods and the value and amenity of their homes.' The criticisms kept coming. Albany councillor Wayne Walker delivered a series of speeches, which he cleverly disguised as questions to council staff. In one of them, he appeared to argue that because upzoning can increase the value of people's properties, everyday home buyers will be priced out of the market. 'It will be attractive to a developer but not to an ordinary person buying a house,' he said, while curiously omitting what developers build and who they sell it to. He got support from his Albany compatriot, with Watson noting that in his ward, developers often buy a house for $1.4 or $1.5 million, then build several houses that sell for $1.2 or $1.3 million. 'There's no effective advancement,' he said. If he was troubled by the fact affordability improved even in his example of how upzoning doesn't improve affordability, he didn't let on. At some point in all this, Houkura member Tau Henare appeared to lose the will to live. 'Should I ask my next question?' asked Walker, after one of Hills' attempts to cut him off. 'Oh, if you must,' muttered Henare under his breath. Several councillors would later inform The Spinoff the interjection was relatively tame by his standards, and others have included more swear words. Most of all, these naysayers argued about infrastructure. 'Ultimately you can't do all this upzoning without making the commitment to provide the infrastructure that will support it,' Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa ward councillor Christine Fletcher, in comments echoed by several of her anti-upzoning compatriots. Council staff seemed confused. The entire point of this plan was to make sure housing was near infrastructure. It zones for apartments right by bus stations and train stations. That's kind of the whole point. They tried saying as much, in terms as dry and bureaucratic as possible, but the message never seemed to get through. They didn't have a hope. Walker, Lee, Fletcher and Watson would all rather stick with the Unitary Plan, and no one could talk them into anything else. But when the Unitary Plan was being debated, they didn't much like that either. They don't want apartments in central areas. But when the council considers sprawl, they say no to that as well. The only viable conclusion is they want to house Auckland's expanding population in a nonmaterial shadow realm accessible only through quantum. Either that, or they just don't want more people at all. At least Mike Lee was honest about that. In his closing speech, he said the plan was all about enabling a 'so-called population of probably 7.5 million'. For him, the real solution appeared to be to simply not allow that 'population' to come here. 'One has to ask where will this population come from? Because it's not coming from natural reproduction here. So what is the big plan here and who asked permission to radically change our country so much? Who gave Mr Bishop permission to do this? Certainly not the people of Auckland, to my knowledge,' he said. Fletcher got close to the truth as well. She said allowing two million houses was simply too much, calling it a 'dead rat' the council had to swallow. But housing isn't a dead rat. It's a place people live, and we've had too little of it for too long thanks to us having the same dead-end arguments decade after decade. In his closing speech on the new plan, Waitākere councillor Shane Henderson decried 'decades of shameful planning decisions' that 'left us in a huge hole'. 'The Unitary Plan was our first step out of that hole,' he said. 'And here is another step.' Though some loudly spent the day imploring us to go back to the hole, where it's safe and dark, most of his colleagues were willing to take that step toward the light. They agreed to put the plan out for consultation with local boards and iwi, with only Watson and Lee voting against the move. But the battle is far from over. As councillors filed out, they said this was just a warm-up. The next meeting on the plan is scheduled for September 24, when council will decide whether or not to actually endorse its broad and ambitious agenda. That's when the real complaining will begin.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Attempted spying conviction for soldier who was less Bond, more bumbling
Photo: ADELE RYCROFT At first glance, it reads like a Tom Clancy spy thriller. A disloyal, far-right soldier, an undercover officer posing as a foreign agent, and the passing on of secret army information, which could put the safety and defence of the country at risk But this time, it isn't fiction. It's real life, in New Zealand. For the first time, a serving soldier has been convicted of attempted espionage , sent to a military prison, and dismissed from service for attempting to spy on the Defence Force. At his long-awaited trial, in front of a court martial at Linton Military Camp, the man - whose name is currently suppressed - pleaded guilty to three charges of attempted espionage, dishonestly accessing a computer system, and possessing an objectionable publication. Newsroom journalist Marc Daalder broke the story six years ago, and attended the court case this week, and tells The Detail , that "this isn't James Bond, it's not the Hunt for Red October either ... what we have here is maybe more like a bumbling wannabe-spy". "As the judge put it in his sentencing decision, 'How could you be so naive as to think this is the way forward, this is the right thing to do?'" Daalder says that the soldier did have ties to far-right groups and "it's a serious, serious issue, but you don't want to overstate it either". So how and why did a Kiwi kid grow up to be a would-be spy? Daalder says the soldier had a troubled childhood; he was a loner and didn't make friends easily. "Even once he joined the NZDF, he was not particularly well-liked, and that's part of what drove him, he says, to these far-right groups." Daalder says in social media posts the soldier would boast that he "joined a Nazi organisation and [he said that] it's the best thing that ever happened to me, I used to be a loser, no job, no fitness or social skills. Now I'm working a decent job, have plenty of friends and a half-decent life, all thanks to the mentoring I got from older Nazis, and I have no regrets". Before the 15 March terror attacks, the soldier founded a far-right group, 'The Dominion Movement', which meant that after the attacks he was on the radar of police and was pulled in for questioning several times. In an affidavit presented at his court-martial hearing this week, the soldier said, "The investigators were incredibly aggressive towards me, often getting in my face and shouting. To me, their approach was actually violent." The soldier said he was terrified, and felt he had to leave New Zealand and get to another country where he thought he would be safe. "He frames himself as a victim of political persecution," Daalder says. The soldier then contacted a third party, indicating that he wanted to defect. "Following the New Zealand government learning of the contact with that third party, an undercover officer, posing as an agent of the foreign country, reached out to him and asked to meet ... and the soldier was asked to provide a letter, asking what he could provide that would assist that foreign country," Daalder tells The Detail . "From there, it's a mixture of spy thriller and maybe a bumbling spy version." Among the items the soldier provided were documents, including maps and aerial photographs of various defence force bases, along with passcodes, access codes, login details to its IT system, and telephone directories. He also passed on handwritten assessments of the vulnerabilities of the Linton Military Camp, where he was stationed. The soldier was eventually arrested at the Linton Military Camp in 2019, and put under open arrest, living in defence-subsidised housing and receiving full pay. He initially faced 17 charges, including espionage. This week, he pleaded guilty to attempted espionage, accessing a computer for a dishonest purpose, and knowingly possessing an objectionable publication, and was sentenced to two years in military detention - the longest possible sentence of detention available under the law. Otago University law lecturer Sean Whittaker, who moved to New Zealand from Scotland a year ago, told The Detail he was "very surprised" by the spying conviction. "New Zealand has a reputation of being a safe place to live, to work, and not being vulnerable to such action - either by external forces or by people within the country itself. "I think that it's important to mention that the limited number of instances of espionage being detected and prosecuted is not indicative of the lack of quality of New Zealand's security intelligence services. "Ultimately, I think they are doing a good job; they have detected espionage in this particular instance, and I think that's overall because New Zealand isn't exceptionally vulnerable to espionage," he says. But does New Zealand really have anything worth spying on or information worth selling to foreign countries? "Despite New Zealand's small size, it is a decent-sized player in the international community ... we do have things that are worth [spying on], as it were, things that are valuable, both intrinsic to us and to the global system as well." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Officials warn of damage to diplomatic relations in secret climate change memo
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Officials warned the government that reneging on climate commitments could have a domino effect and give bigger countries, like China, an excuse to do less. The advice was mistakenly released under the Official Information Act by the Ministry for the Environment (MFE). MFE and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) have sought to retrospectively redact the information. The sensitive information was contained in a briefing paper released under the OIA in April. The paper warned that if the government decided not to meet New Zealand's first target under the Paris Agreement, it could impact a "delicate" hard-won global agreement and risk "undermining confidence in the solidarity of our climate effort" and harming "a number of our priority relationships". New Zealand's is a member of the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance which includes Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The advice said the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia as well as Europe would view "backing off from Paris Agreement commitments extremely negatively". The United States has since pulled out of the Paris Agreement. The memo urged ministers to show their commitment by sealing climate cooperation deals with other countries last year - before a crucial deadline to show progress under the Paris Agreement. Officials said sealing these deals to pay for emissions-cutting projects overseas - which are needed to achieve around two thirds of New Zealand's 2030 target - was a critical step for reassuring other nations this country was committed to meeting its obligations. The government did not take this step, and still has not. So far it has declined to make a decision either way, despite the urging of its own advisers. However after RNZ put questions to Climate Change Minister Simon Watts in July, officials asked RNZ to delete the material so they could replace it with a more fully redacted version. The advice also contained legally privileged material which RNZ has decided not to use. The advice also said Pacific Island countries would share similar concerns to New Zealand's larger "priority" partner countries about the implications for the durability of the Paris Agreement, "which is seen as a critical, if fragile, safeguard against an existential threat". It said a loss of confidence in New Zealand's commitment to climate action would likely diminish its influence in the region at a time of "increased strategic competition." "It is extremely likely that an individual country rejecting its commitments would be viewed through a lens of outsized impacts," it said. The warning was part of a package prepared by environment officials and MFAT in March 2024 outlining why the government should not lower its 2030 climate target - and why it should take "concrete steps" to seal international deals. Sixteen months later, the government has not reduced its target - and still says it is committed to meeting it - but it also hasn't taken the steps officials said it should take to reassure other nations that New Zealand planned to deliver. Paying money to other countries to fund decarbonisation projects (for example electrifying diesel buses or shuttering coal plants in Asia or the Pacific) was explicitly baked into New Zealand's target when it was set. Doing much of the work overseas was deemed cheaper and less disruptive than making faster, deeper cuts here, at least until the farming, electricity, manufacturing and transport sectors in New Zealand had had more time to deliver bigger emissions savings, which was expected to happen after 2030. Without overseas help, this country will fall more than a year's worth of emissions short of its promise, according to latest estimates. But since the 2023 election, ministers have repeatedly baulked at committing to paying for overseas carbon deals, saying spending billions offshore is not realistic, and that they still have time before 2030 - and even hinting that they might find 80 million tonnes of additional emissions savings here at home. Officials have repeatedly told ministers that overseas deals are the only realistic way to meet the target. Advisers have calculated that meeting the target here at home would take the equivalent of fully electrifying all road transport, eliminating all industrial energy emissions, and eliminating half of all agricultural emissions, all in the next four years. That would cause unnecessary "social and economic" pain, according to the Climate Change Commission. In the documents, officials warned that countries whose cooperation was important to New Zealand "would view backing off from Paris Agreement commitments extremely negatively - undermining confidence in the solidarity of our climate effort with theirs and triggering concerns this would 'push the domino' that gave cover to others." They told the government taking concrete action last year to close deals with other countries would "mitigate the risks" of damaging important relationships. Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore and other countries have already signed deals with the likes of Kenya, Peru, Nepal and Ghana to secure what's been called the "low hanging fruit" of climate action, including paying for energy efficiency upgrades to buildings, electric buses, ebikes and renewable energy. Paying for poorer countries to cut emissions is cheaper than it would cost to achieve the same climate benefits in a wealthier country. Some climate lobby groups say taking the cheaper route is cheating - however government advisors say it is now New Zealand's only choice, short of reneging. The sensitive advice said announcing concrete steps to buy carbon savings last year would help the New Zealand government to prove its commitment before the first deadline for all countries under the Paris Agreement to publish their Biennial Transparency Reports. The transparency reports are the Paris Agreement's main mechanism for countries to keep each other honest on their progress. "It is important that New Zealand retains a clear narrative that it will uphold its legal obligations under the Paris Agreement, including pursuing measures with the aim of achieving the NDC," the government was told. "This will provide partners more reassurance if this narrative is supported by a robust plan to optimise domestic mitigation and take concrete steps toward purchasing a steady stream of offshore emissions reductions. Early decisions to stand up purchasing arrangements will enable this progress to be demonstrated to key partners through the 2024 Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) and other channels," the advice said. "Domestic mitigation" refers to steps inside New Zealand to cut emissions and meet the country's emissions budgets, which the government does through its Emissions Reduction Plans. The Emission Reduction Plans have been set at a level that would meet around a third of the total 2030 target, with the other two thirds were expected to come from overseas, at a cost likely to end up in the low billions. As of August 2025 the government had not announced any purchases. That's despite MFE presenting Watts with six options for meeting New Zealand's commitments. The details of those options were redacted from the documents. In an interview on July 25, Watts confirmed that Cabinet had not made any decisions, either to buy help from offshore or rule it out. "Our position on offshore mitigation remains consistent with what I've said previously, which is at this point Cabinet hasn't made any decisions on entering into any arrangements, however the government has made decisions since being in office in a number of countries to put in place mechanisms to enable that to occur, if the decision is made to do that," he said. Last year the government announced memorandums of understanding with countries such as the Philippines, to "explore" potential future carbon trading under the Paris Agreement. "Our focus remains that we are focussed on domestic emissions reduction opportunities... we are still making good progress to close that gap, it is a significant challenge but we are closing that gap, as I've noted with some of the technology that's come through even in the last six months," Watts said. Asked if he accepted there was no path to closing an 80 million tonne gap by 2030 domestically, Watts said: "I'm not going to make any statements on where we are going to be five years from now, what we are focussed on is what we can do with the tools that are available. There are new tools and innovations coming on month by month that allow us to close that gap." Asked again if he was saying there was a prospect of meeting the 2030 target inside New Zealand, Watts said the government was "focussed and committed to its climate targets" and spoke about steps to meet the domestic emissions budgets. "The government remains committed to the plan we have published and our domestic budgets," he said. "I have optimism around our ability to get to those positions in the future." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
