Jacinda Ardern accepting Greenpeace’s petition at Parliament. (Twitter/ David Tong, WWF New Zealand. @Davidxvx)

PoliticsApril 12, 2018

Ardern makes big call on offshore oil. Is this her nuclear free moment?

Staff Writer

Jacinda Ardern accepting Greenpeace’s petition at Parliament. (Twitter/ David Tong, WWF New Zealand. @Davidxvx)

Jacinda Ardern sprung a surprise this morning in announcing an end to offshore oil exploration. So what’s the catch?

What’s this all about then?

A few weeks after PM Jacinda Ardern stepped onto the parliament forecourt to accept a petition from Greenpeace, speculation has been swirling that a ban on offshore oil exploration was imminent. And today, it’s going to come to pass – which really is a huge win for the environmental movement. Ardern once described climate change as the “nuclear free moment” for her generation. And now, like David Lange banned nuclear ships from our waters, she has drawn a line in the sand.

WOW! That is huge! So no more drilling?

Er, no, actually, actual extraction of oil and gas will continue.

Okay, but still, no new rigs going into the sea, that’s pretty great.

Actually, again, no, existing permits are unaffected by this announcement. There are 22 permits for offshore oil and gas exploration that could still go ahead.

Huh. Well at least it’s nationwide. New Zealand is taking a stand!

Yeah, ah, actually you can still apply for exploration permits in Taranaki for a few more years. And land-based oil and gas extraction will also be unaffected by this.

Okay, is this actually a big deal? Or is it just – to use the National Party’s new favourite word – virtue signalling?

So the aspect of this that does make it a big deal, is that it’s a big step towards New Zealand meeting the goal of being carbon neutral energy producers by 2050. This was one of the first things the new government announced as a policy when they took office, and quite frankly is really hard to do if you’re still extracting oil and gas.

As to the symbolic value of such an announcement, it may be a fair point that this is a pretty gentle approach – and if you want to talk about virtue signalling when it comes to these sorts of things, take a look at France. They recently became the first country in the world to ban all oil and gas extraction. By 2040. Also, France produces about as much oil in a year as Saudi Arabia does in a few hours. But still, the symbolism!

Because this writing format allows it, I’ve had a massive personality change and am now pro-extraction for economic reasons. What about the jobs?

This is an area of contention, particularly for Taranaki. The mayor of New Plymouth is horrified, because at present the Taranaki region has the highest GDP per capita in the country, largely because of extraction. Walk around the town and it’s incredible how many public buildings and landmarks have the names of oil companies on them.

But, because of the aforementioned softness of aspects of this policy, no currently existing jobs are really affected. If you were a 22 year old rig worker, you might want to think about a career change at some stage down the line, but you’ll still be safe turning up for work on Monday.

It strikes me that many of these jobs are in places that don’t have an awful lot else going on.

Uh, excuse me, New Plymouth has the Govett-Brewster, that art gallery rules. (Also supported by Todd Energy)

But taking your point, in other parts of the country like Oamaru, oil extraction going ahead could pump millions into the economy. And that could politically prove to be a bit of a problem for Regional Economic Development minister Shane Jones, who will also be part of this announcement today. He put out a press release early this morning making it very clear he wanted there to be a gradual transition away from oil and gas, and that regions affected would get funding for other projects to compensate.

Still, it’s a massive turnaround from his position in 2013, which this Taranaki Daily News article makes very clear. Here’s a quote that about sums it up:

‘Offshore oil and gas drilling was an essential feature of domestic and export growth, Mr Jones said, and businesses and enterprises enabling it would get full government support.”

But hey, politics is the art of the possible, right?

The final word:

Drill baby drill (while you still can)

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New Electric Rail Travels From Onehunga To Britomart

PoliticsApril 11, 2018

Memo to Wayne Mapp: New Zealanders want more rapid transit, fewer new roads

Phil Twyford

Guest writer

Housing and Transport Minister Phil Twyford responds to Wayne Mapp’s Spinoff column accusing Twyford and Jacinda Ardern of ‘sounding like zealots’ over public transport and affordable housing.

In one of the more baffling attacks on KiwiBuild, former National MP Wayne Mapp this week claimed the government is “telling people how they should live” by building affordable houses and bringing our transport system into the 21^st Century.

In his column for The Spinoff, he also attacked the Labour-led government for being part of a new “internationalist urban elite”.

These criticisms say more about Dr Mapp’s antiquated thinking than they do about the government’s plans.

I’m not sure how building affordable homes in Mt Albert for desperate first homebuyers is telling people how they should live. I will do everything I can to ensure young families can afford to buy warm, dry, quality housing. Yes, one of the trade-offs for home affordability is to minimise the cost of land by building on smaller sections. But that doesn’t mean a small or substandard home. Medium density means terraced houses and three-level apartments are easily built on smaller sections.

It is about creating options in housing – options which we know there is strong demand for. The three bedroom, two bathroom quarter-acre standalone house may have been what young families wanted in the 1950s but today many want modern, practical and well-designed homes.

I’m also not sure how wanting to ease Auckland’s congestion makes the government part of an internationalist urban elite.

Last week we released the draft Government Policy Statement on land transport which will guide transport investment for the next 10 years. The main change by this government is to stop National’s handpicked gold-plated expressways. They spent $11.3 billion on just seven motorway projects which only 4% of the country’s driving is done on. By comparison over half of all cars drive on local roads.

These expressways did not stack up. The Spinoff has previously written about a few of them. For example, Simon Wilson criticised National’s East-West Link in his story The most expensive road in New Zealand history is coming to Auckland. Why?. These expressways are expensive and their economic, safety and congestion benefits do not, or barely, outweigh their costs. This compares to local roads, which create $4 to $5 of benefit for every dollar spent. Public transport, meanwhile, generates $3 to $4 of benefit for every dollar spent. In other words, National wanted to waste a lot of money that could be spent on other, more beneficial projects.

It is also worth pointing out that Lincoln Road in my electorate has more than double the traffic of every single one of National’s seven proposed expressways.

So what do you get for this change? First, NZTA estimate that if we spent $800 million (or half of one road of national significance) on safety improvements on local roads we would save 160 lives per year. That is the cost of half of one of the urban motorways in Auckland that National had planned (the East-West Link). Refusing to spend more money on local roads is costing people their lives.

We’ve listened to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch who have all asked us to support rapid transit (rail, light rail and busways) in our cities, rather than building more, or wider, motorways. It is part of our commitment to build liveable cities.

It is not telling people how to live – it is simple economics. Dominion Road is only so wide. Yet, more and more buses go up and down the road every day. Shortly we will see bus congestion, where buses get clogged behind other buses in the bus lane, or drive past unable to pick you up because they are full. The efficient use of space drives light rail. Light rail can carry more people per vehicle than buses. It just makes sense.

We’re still going to increase funding for local road improvements by 43%, and 17% for local road maintenance. We’ve doubled funding for regional roads. The roads you drive on will be better because they will no longer be starved of funding to pay for a few hand-picked highways. It will also be cheaper, more convenient and more comfortable to catch public transport. The more people on public transport, the more our roads are freed from congestion.

Young people today no longer believe they have to own a car. In the near future they will be able to use a car sharing service when they do need one. The world has moved on from the 1950s. It’s time for Wayne Mapp to do the same.