2 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Putting the skids under buses
All aboard! Next stop, short-termism.
In a week which gave us some evidence that New Zealand governments can think beyond the three-year electoral cycle, thanks to the release of a draft National Infrastructure Plan, buses have managed to bring us back to earth.
The Otago Regional Council has been stuck between a rock and a hard place over lifting bus fares for passengers in Dunedin and Queenstown. Its hardest decision was whether to follow the road the government is steering regional councils down — to get rid of free bus fares for children.
In the end, the council had little choice but to go in the direction laid out by the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi. Despite opposition from some councillors, 5 to 18-year-olds will now pay $1.50 per trip while single adult fares will rise from $2 to $2.50.
Cr Michael Laws, who voted against the adoption of the council's regional public transport plan 2025-35, voiced the concerns many parents will have, that at $1.50 a trip for only one child, that extra $600 a year may be another significant burden for a struggling household.
Insisting on children becoming fare-paying customers was at odds with Associate Education Minister and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour's anti-truancy "crusade", Cr Laws said.
PHOTO: ODT FILES
It certainly is the case that the council has been railroaded into the fare hikes by the government. Their arms have been twisted by the not-so-subtle threat that to be eligible for central co-funding of public transport, they must align themselves with the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport and NZTA's fares and funding policy direction.
While the previous Labour government and the Green Party have been big supporters of public transport, and low or no fares for children, the coalition has been slowly but surely turning that approach around. We have also seen it in the loss of financial support for cycling and pedestrian initiatives, and in money being more freely available for major roading projects (not to mention higher speed limits).
What the government is actually doing is putting things in reverse when it comes to a cleaner, green future for New Zealand. The council, and others around the country, are now in a very difficult position, because if patronage falls as a consequence of these changes, then that's not an encouraging sign for the future of that service.
The cleft stick faced by the regional council is that it could have carried on without the fare increases, but that would have cost ratepayers several hundreds of thousands of dollars in higher rates bills.
Council staff told councillors ahead of the vote it was a "tricky balance" for them this time, trying to take into account elected representatives' expectations and those of the community and government. While there was "strong public support" for free children's fares, there was "strong opposition" from NZTA.
Cr Andrew Noone, the co-chairman of the public and active transport committee, made it obvious to colleagues they had little choice. It had been made "pretty clear there could well be implications to existing services" if the council didn't increase passenger revenue.
Chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson articulated her concerns about the unfairness of the position the government had put the council in.
ORC one of the best-performing authorities when it came to raising money from public transport, but that success remained unrewarded: "Instead we are penalised and threatened with removal of current services and that's simply not OK," she said.
Councillors agreed to write to Mr Seymour, Education Minister Erica Stanford and Transport Minister Chris Bishop in an attempt to explain that children's bus fares could backfire and affect attendance at school.
We are of the view that scrapping free buses for children and increasing fares for adults is the kind of step backwards which those concerned about the country's future would go to great lengths to avoid.
However, we appreciate the invidious position the regional council is in and understand why it made the decision it did.
The pressure on bus fares from the coalition would be concerning enough on its own, without the wider amplifying anti-regional council views that some, most notably thwarted Resources Minister Shane Jones, are expressing.
Little wonder the council, and its contemporaries across the nation, will be opting to take a cautious approach.
