Simon Watts criticised councils for implementing the government’s own parking policies. He’s not the only one who seems confused.
Simon Watts was in the wars at the launch of the Committee for Auckland’s State of the City report last week. The minister for Auckland sparred with Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. He argued with Ockham developer Mark Todd. The government’s shift from advocating for local control to advocating for controlling the locals was at the centre of his frequent confrontations. Brown claimed, as he does at least 11 times per public engagement, that Wellington needs to get its nose out of Auckland’s business. Watts disagreed. “Yeah, all good to give all the power to Auckland, but when your planners decide you don’t need carparks on houses and your streets are full of cars and all that kind of dumb stuff,” he said. “It’s not what the people want.”
That would have been a good burn if it bore any relation to reality. If Watts is mad at buildings being consented without car parking, he should moan at his fellow ministers rather than whining to Wayne. Labour abolished minimum carparking rules for new developments in 2022 with National’s support and the coalition government has retained the ban, partly thanks to its important role in dropping house prices to less-than-apocalyptic levels for the first time in decades. As Dileepa Fonseka noted in his On The Money column for BusinessDesk, the minister for Auckland “spent part of the morning blaming Auckland for obeying the government”.
Watts may not know what his own government is up to, but at least he’s in good company. National has now performed 360° worth of U-turns on its legislation aimed at increasing housing supply in Auckland, dropping its capacity target from two million, to 1.6, to 1.4 million homes. Its backtracks were partly a response to a loud backlash spearheaded by Act, and in particular its leader David Seymour, who sharper readers may remember as part of the ministerial cabinet that signed off on the two million housing capacity target in the first place.
Seymour has offered various explanations for the turnarounds, including that he initially thought councils would zone many of the new houses in greenfields areas. He claimed councils should have restricted upzoning to the immediate area around train stations and left the suburbs alone.
Neither option would have been easy under the legislation he and his colleagues approved, which insisted councils zone for housing where it’s commercially feasible rather than just plonking thousands of residents in a field near Wellsford. But if he’s worried about the prospect of housing development in the suburbs of Parnell and Remuera, he may be disappointed to learn more about the Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms he’s championed as an end to this nation’s 35-year-long planning nightmare. The proposed new planning bill outlaws the character protections that restrict development in large parts of his Epsom electorate, meaning councils will have to find a new way to stop development in rich suburbs or, steel yourself, upzone them.
If that happens, Seymour may find himself in the uncomfortable position of protesting the changes he’s promised will unbung our clogged planning system. He wouldn’t be the only member of the government getting antsy about bills they’ve had a hand in advancing. Last year, Māori development minister Tama Potaka was one of the ministers who signed off on the removal of a treaty clause in the RMA reforms. When reporters confronted him about that the next day, he said it was the first he’d heard of it before heading off to look over his notes. Sometimes Act has been on the receiving end, including when NZ First brought up last-minute objections to health and safety reform legislation that had already been approved by Cabinet.
It all gives the impression of a government that isn’t 100% across the detail of the policies it’s advancing. Either that, or one that’s prone to adopting politically expedient positions when its decisions are put under pressure. On that note, transport minister Chris Bishop has long promised to put up fuel taxes by 12 cents per litre in 2027, saying transport is supposed to be user pays and hasn’t been for a long time. Scratch that now though, as the government announced this week it is delaying its increases to fuel taxes, saying it doesn’t make sense to heap more costs on taxpayers who are doing it tough. Labour has executed a similar turnaround. Sometimes policy positions are forgotten. More often than not during an election, they just conveniently vanish from memory.
