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5:57 pm, July 9th, 2026 - 21 comments
Categories: chris bishop, Economy, infrastructure, national, same old national -
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Minister of Transport Chris Bishop has now finally admitted that National’s 2023 election promises in transport were “very ambitious, ” and pushed many of them into simply future unfunded ideas, at devastating economic cost.
He has today significantly delayed many of the previously promised Roads of National Significance.
He responded that “In our defence, things have changed quite a bit in the last couple of years. One is the global economy and the NZ economy has been buffeted around … and this has materially changed the circumstances.”
“But the Government is committed to the 17 Roads of National Significance that are laid out in the Government Policy Statement.”
We can set aside for now whether these projects were a good idea in the first place. We are less than two months from the Budget 2026-27, which was the appropriate time for any government to fess up that it needed to completely shrink back its roading ambition. The only State Highway project with new funding in the 2026 budget was the Cambridge to Piarere stretch.
This decision to delay many of the other RONS has real consequences for jobs in New Zealand. Many of them had project teams with hundreds of designers and constructors ready to go.
Few would now question the direct and indirect economic impact of this government cancelling and in time downsizing and re-contracting the New Cook Strait ferries and the entire IREX system. From experience, what this decision did was reverse course for several hundred workers on both sides of Cook Strait.
This is now occurring in Mill Road in the southeast of Auckland, Hope Bypass near Nelson, Northwest Busway in west Auckland, Belfast to Pegasus Road, and Takitimu North near Tauranga.
Further massive projects that are now bereft of future funding at all include Auckland’s East-West Link, the Petone to Grenada Road, and any future stages of SH1 to Whangarei.
These decisions are collectively far larger as an impact upon New Zealand’s economy than cancelling IREX.
One may argue that this is what the market is for: major companies take these risks and governments have the right to change their minds. While this is true, of the 3,023 companies placed in to liquidation to March 2026, over 700 of them were in construction. That’s a lot of dinners on the table not happening, a lot of houses sold immediately, a lot of hope gone. Tradies will accelerate their departures to Australia, and there’s little reason to come back. Same for the great design houses: the engineer designer pool is shrinking fast, and where possible they are enabled to shift to Australia.
That is the same inside NZTA, which is now rapidly shrinking its project delivery teams since there is so little work left. The downsizing inside there is also devastating.
It is inexcusable three years into this government that the largest civil works proposals this government promised are now going to cause a further massive downsizing of a very large part of our domestic economy both public and private.
It looks like National is aiming at having the Warkworth to Te Hana PPP contracted before the election. This is a very expensive proposal which will be paid for for years. There are cheaper, safe alternatives that are the appropriate size for the vehicle traffic levels (which are roughly half the level needed to justify 4 laning).
Will Labour announce that any Warkworth to Te Hana PPP will be cancelled after the election?
Or will it just let National manipulate things so that there is a large unnecessary drain on transport funding for the next couple of decades paying the PPP rort?
Hospitals and public housing are better uses of the money that would otherwise be wasted on PPPs.
Absolutely. Both of which would utilise Engineers,Construction (incl associated Tradies),et al, for something worthwhile.
I would add Public transport (Bus, Rail etc) and the Decarbonisation (Electrify FFS) of same.Instead we have dinosaur thinkers. The following Link article is well thought out and has much more info from its many connected Links. (This first IMO says it all ! )
Also, they should know (and IMO, do indeed)…..but choose to ignore. I liken it to SEP thinking (that will be Someone Else' Problem!)
I note in this RNZ article Chris Bishflap Bishop talks of a 'Phased approach'. Huh? What is needed is a rapid phasing out of the dinosaur think that is NACT1,RONS and its associated CarGo Cult mentality intrinsic .
Not a Pipeline…..
And Nick ex?trucker lobbyist Leggett (for balance, more on him to follow)
Well…Ol' Nick. Certainly been a mover
We need a Future looking Govt….not the Dino incumbents.
His demeanour on the tv news was an intriguing mixture of sheepish & mildly amused.
So delivery is pending for just under half their scheduled projects Not easy to see how they could frame their governance as effective on that basis.
Not forgetting how blamed the previous government was (by National) for it's performance, with zero tolerance for the crises it had on its plate.
Hypocrisy in the extreme!!
If you ever needed evidence of the armchair ride this government gets from the right wing MSM, just compare the lack of outrage over this casual admission of utter failure with the persecution of Phil Twyford.
Chris Bishop on TV last night admitting to his over-ambition looked like a fourth former caught loitering outside the vape shop trying to explain his absence and his whereabouts.
Most of the boys that I dealt with in those situations went on to say that it wasn't them and then blamed someone else……. It's the hair that gives him away.
Where did you find that cartoon, DMK? So aptly on the money!
Your apt description of Bishop brought to mind that cartoon and its memorable caption from one of the Molesworth books – Whizz for Atomms (1956) – by Geoffrey Williams & Ronald Searle. Took a bit of tracking down, but worth it 🙂
https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/whizz-for-atomms-9780141932613
Oops – Geoffrey Willans.
NZ simply doesn't have the population to support 4-lane highways stretching into the distance. Much better to improve and make safer the roads we have….junctions…roundabouts….central barriers….bridges….good surfaces….signage.
For instance I drove SH1 in the Waitaki through that storm last week. Scary. If ever central barriers were needed it is there.
Yea..Nah. Its called driving to the conditions surely?
However agree with your other. Also check out my reply to Andrew Riddell
@ 1.1
The climbdown by Bishop is a red herring. The real and underlying issue is that the National-led Coalition failed to deliver economic growth, more stability, and a brighter future for all New Zealanders. Bishop’s admission is an admission of ideological failure, of execution failure, and of management failure. However, we won’t see a climbdown by the Captain of this string of failures, Christoper Luxon, nor by the blind Nicola Willis who keep pointing at green shoots that were mowed down by their austerity mower (https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361003698/christopher-luxons-year-long-mission-get-robotic-lawn-mower). Least of all, no climbdown clown acts from ACT and NZ First who pretend they were never in the tent with National and never held hands with Luxon and Willis. Chris Bishop is the fall guy in this sordid tragedy and thrown under an overloaded Fonterra diesel truck and into a pothole whilst traffic is quickly diverted away via orange road cones by traffic controller Simeon Brown dressed in a deep-blue safety vest and a horned helmet.
Agree red herring – Keep message simple
National = failed at cost of living crisis – indeed – made it worse!
Instead of spending on unnecessary 4 lane highways, we need to finance the development of new industries to manufacture liquid fuels (diesel and petrol) from wood. This will have a double benefit, reducing carbon emissions and reducing fuel import costs.
I don’t see how burning one carbon source instead of another is going to reduce carbon emissions, so please explain this for me.
I’d introduce subsidising tuning and tyre pressure checks + wheel alignment with each WOF for older vehicles. This will improve fuel efficiency and safety and bridge the rather large gap between people who can afford buying an EV or PHEV and those who can barely afford using a car at all.
Carbon from a wood feedstock has absorbed CO2 while the trees grow so burning the wood later does not add to total carbon emissions. Germany produced synthetic hydrocarbon fuels during WW2, using coal as the feedstock. The same technology can be based on wood.
I see, thanks. Sounds like a short carbon cycle that’s almost carbon-neutral. Still, it would be better to get away from carbon-based fuels altogether. So, why go down this route?
You are aware of how much forest it would take, to replace even a fraction of our fossil fuel use?
From a monetary point of view it is much more lucrative to use plantation timber for house building.
And. we are still emitting carbon.
Wood waste is already used for power saving for drying timber and the like.
For limited usage close to the source of supply it makes sense.
But not to replace transport fuels.
I did a university research project on it in 2009.
This is one of those (IMO) yesteryear ideas. There was some investigation…..
2018 Dream?
And from 2022 another look….
And to summarise (This IMO is the Rational way forward)
Keep Wood for Building, making furniture, etc etc.
Electrify NZ : )
a great leap backwards…
https://www.fst.com/news-stories/automotive-transportation/a-technology-left-behind/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator