ACT Councillors Will Oppose Local Government Climate Activism
ACT Local candidates, once elected, will oppose attempts to manage emissions at the local government level, ACT Local Government spokesperson Cameron Luxton has announced.
'ACT believes the proper role of a council is to deliver core services and resilient infrastructure – not to try to change the weather,' says Mr Luxton, who is at Fieldays today.
'Councils should focus on what they can control, not sign symbolic declarations, publish costly 'climate strategies', or employ teams of climate advisors at ratepayer expense.
In practice, ACT Local's policy would mean:
No local emissions reduction plans
No 'climate emergency' declarations
No ratepayer-funded climate junkets
No emissions reduction slush funds
Emissions disregarded in all consenting and land use decisions
Spending based on value for money, not carbon
Continued improvement of infrastructure like stormwater and stopbanks
'Emissions reduction is properly handled – and indeed, already is handled – at the central government level, such as through the Emissions Trading Scheme.
'Through the ETS, all New Zealanders, including council decision-makers, are already incentivised to reduce emissions in whatever way is most cost-effective for their circumstances. If a council wants to save on its energy costs by switching to LED street lights or electric buses, go for it. But additional grandstanding over climate action is just an expensive virtue signal.
'In Parliament, ACT is addressing local climate activism with Mark Cameron's member's bill to stop councils from considering emissions in their land use plans. ACT councillors would take this a step further, working to secure majorities around the council to take climate ideology out of councils entirely.
'Ratepayers expect potholes to be fixed, not platitudes about planetary salvation. ACT councillors will focus on delivering the basics well, with less waste and lower rates.'
ACT has now completed candidate selection and in the coming days will begin to announce its candidates in territories across New Zealand.
Examples:
ACT spokespeople are available to offer commentary on any local council's climate plans. Cameron Luxton is at Fieldays, and ACT Climate Change spokesperson Simon Court will be in Auckland.
Local climate plans typically have flow-on effects for consenting decisions, staffing, procurement policies, and council assets like vehicle fleets.
Councils representing three-quarters of New Zealand's population have declared climate emergencies.
Whangarei District Council has declared a climate emergency, with an Emission Reduction Plan which replicated national targets to produce net zero emissions by 2050.
Auckland Council has a Climate Plan introduced in 2020 to halve emissions for the region by 2030 reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Tauranga City Council has committed to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Hamilton City Council has an ' Our Climate Future ' strategy with goal to reduce the city's emissions by 82% by 2050, and a commitment to 'consider climate change in all we do'.
Horowhenua District Council has a Climate Action Plan to 'limit future impacts of climate change by reducing future emissions'.
Councils in Wellington, Wairarapa, and Horowhenua have signed up to a joint Regional Emissions Reduction Plan to 'help drive the system change that creates the environment for behaviour change'.
Hutt City Council has set a goal of reducing emissions to net zero by no later than 2050.
Wellington City Council has a ' First to Zero ' plan to become a net zero emission city by 2050, and has declared a State of Climate and Ecological Emergency.
Christchurch City Council has a plan to half emissions by 2030, compared with 2016/2017.
Dunedin City Council has a Zero Carbon Plan to become a carbon neutral city by 2030.
All of these plans are redundant because emissions targets are set nationally by central government, and behaviour change is advanced via the Emissions Trading Scheme.
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Photo / Mark Story One example: At Hatfields Beach, on the Hibiscus Coast Highway north of Ōrewa, motorists can now drive at 70km through the area populated by beachgoers and other pedestrians but must then shift down to 60km through open farmland before being allowed to speed up to 80km. Auckland Transport chair Richard Leggat wrote to the Minister of Transport, Chris Bishop, seeking clarification, but an OIA request I made on the correspondence shows the response he received was not heartening. Bishop has confirmed that whatever the anomalies and oddities, the higher speed limits mandated by the new rule will be in place by July 1. Most are already in place. When AT met with the council in early June, speed limits were on the agenda. So was temporary traffic management, better known as the curse of the road cones. Councillor Julie Fairey asked AT's chief executive Dean Kimpton about the relationship between the two. Julie Fairey. Photo / Supplied Everyone wants fewer cones, she pointed out, but once all the higher speed limits are in, won't that mean any new temporary traffic management on those roads will have to be more intense, because the risks are greater? 'Will higher speeds mean more road cones?' she asked. 'It could do,' replied Kimpton, 'it could do.' Unintended consequences, eh. Kimpton also said that now lower speed limits had been removed as a tool to improve road safety, 'we're looking at a system-wide approach'. This led to a peculiar observation. 'One outcome could be that we put in more safety infrastructure,' he said, 'and that makes the roads safer.' He kept a straight face while he said it. In reality, the 'safety infrastructure' he's talking about is more pedestrian crossings and raised crossings on urban roads, more median barriers and wide shoulders on rural roads, and more expensive intersection redesigns. All of which will cost a lot more and not be popular with the drivers the higher speed limits are designed to appease. Unintended consequences, again? It would be if it happened. But it won't, because there's no budget to replace cheap and effective lower speed zones with expensive road redesigns. Auckland Transport's chief executive, Dean Kimpton. Photo / Jason Oxenham In the same meeting, councillor Richard Hills had a question for the AT executives. 'We know raising speeds will increase deaths and serious injuries. It's not a guesstimate, it's data. So who is responsible under the Health and Safety Act for those extra deaths and injuries? Is it just the minister? Is it you? Is it us?' AT's general counsel Gavin Scott replied, 'We're comfortable that we have fulfilled our duties in regard to safety.' Really? AT is designated under statute as the road-controlling authority (RCA) for non-highway roads in Auckland. Precisely because road use is inherently dangerous, RCAs are legally responsible to maintain roads, and the rules for their use, to a standard the public can rely on with a reasonable expectation of safety. But Scott then said, 'People in the public realm are beyond our obligations.' What? To sign up to Simon Wilson's weekly newsletter click here, select Love this City and save your preferences. For a step-by-step guide, click here.
