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The BulletinDecember 4, 2024

What Wayne Brown wants from his ‘fundamental reset’ of Auckland Transport

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A major win for the mayor as he successfully guts the city’s transport organisation, explains The Bulletin’s Stewart Sowman-Lund.

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‘A fundamental reset’

Auckland Transport is set to be legislatively gutted, with many of the core responsibilities of the agency to be picked up by the city council and local boards. It fulfils a pledge made by mayor Wayne Brown, who was frequently taken issue with the actions of his own council-controlled organisation. The changes are explained here by the The Post’s Sapeer Mayron.

In short:

  • A new Auckland Regional Transport Committee will be established and charged with developing a 30-year Integrated Transport Plan for Auckland;
  • Auckland council will be designated the Road Controlling Authority;
  • Local boards will now also have more say in transport decisions; and
  • Auckland Transport would continue to deliver infrastructure services, but its policy and planning and strategy focus would be removed.

On the one sense, it’s a shock – this is a major shake up to a major, public facing organisation. On the other, it’s exactly what Wayne Brown has been wanting to do for much of his tenure in the top job. “This is the fundamental reset I have long advocated for,” the mayor said yesterday. “We can now begin transitioning AT to a council-controlled organisation focused on delivering better transport for Aucklanders.”

It’s Wayne’s World

The reforms are a “huge win” for Wayne Brown who had put forward a very similar proposal around Auckland Transport for next year’s budget, argued the Herald’s Bernard Orsman. The mayor has previously advocated for council taking back control over several “council-controlled organisations”. Along with AT, the mayor wants to take a knife to events agency Tataki Auckland Unlimited and entirely abolish Eke Panuku, the city’s urban regeneration organisation. When the mayor first put forward this idea, Bernard Orsman reported at the time, the organisations disagreed. AT chief executive Dean Kimpton argued against a “full reset” and believed that “long-term infrastructure investment requires certainty beyond the political cycle, which is somewhat ‘protected’ by AT’s arm’s length status”.

Transport minister Simeon Brown said yesterday that with Auckland Transport’s responsibilities shifting to the council, the public would now be able to vote against decisions it disapproved of. In a statement, reported Stuff’s David Long, Auckland Transport’s chief executive Dean Kimpton was diplomatic and accepted the changes put forward. “AT acknowledges the announcement from the minister of transport and the mayor of Auckland… which sets a clear direction for transport governance and decision-making in our region.”

Populism vs evidence

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Speaking to RNZ’s Finn Blackwell, Greater Auckland blog founder Matt Lowrie was sceptical over parts of the decision, praising the shift of some responsibilities to council but warning “this means that a populist decision might be chosen over an evidence-based decision simply because the politicians don’t want to upset people”. On a recent post for his website, at the time Wayne Brown formally put forward his idea, Lowrie acknowledged there had been ongoing concerns about the lack of control the council had over transport decision-making, listing several times when Auckland Transport had “undermined” council. “The status quo clearly hasn’t worked, despite a lot of efforts to make ‘soft changes’ to it by the council over the years.” But the area where Lowrie had most of his concerns was over the new powers for local boards, telling RNZ it could be risky for them to have authority over certain transport decisions like setting speed limits.

The ‘optics’ of it all

As noted by Matt Lowrie, giving the council more power could lead to more political decisions. But Wayne Brown clearly believes that’s the right approach. As reported by BusinessDesk’s Oliver Lewis (paywalled), the mayor told reporters yesterday that people already believed the council was responsible for transport issues in Auckland and this move would make that a reality. “If it doesn’t work, I will be responsible. And I’ll happily be responsible for things I’ve had a say in,” said Brown.

The government has previously advocated for a local approach to local issues, suggesting it would like to see more responsibility shifted from central government to councils. The Spinoff’s Joel MacManus questioned whether the coalition was adhering to this in reality, noting several times when the government appeared to meddle in local politics. This latest issue is a bit of both – the government is wading into Auckland, but on the request of the mayor and in an effort to give more power to the city’s elected officials. As one local board chair claimed to RNZ, the announcement would allow for more community involvement in decision-making. The changes will take time to come into effect, given they require central government sign-off. It will likely take until after the next local election to be implemented in full, giving the mayor a lengthy runway to prove his views make sense. Time will ultimately tell whether it pays off or, as Wayne Brown observed, the city tells him he got it wrong.

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The BulletinDecember 3, 2024

A bird flu wake up call

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(Getty Images)
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New Zealand has recorded its first case of highly pathogenic bird flu at an Otago chicken farm, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund for The Bulletin.

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Bird flu detected at Otago farm

New Zealand has recorded its first case of highly pathogenic bird flu, with 80,000 chickens on an Otago farm now set to be culled in efforts to try and stop the spread. As the Otago Daily Times reported, the virus was detected at a commercial egg farm near Moeraki and is believed to have been picked up through interactions with local waterfowl and wild birds. RNZ reports this morning that the virus has spread to a second shed at the farm, doubling the number of chickens that will need to be killed. Crucially, the strain identified on the farm is a high pathogenic H7N6 subtype of avian influenza and not the H5N1 type circulating among wildlife elsewhere in the world, meaning transmission to mammals is “unlikely”, according to Biosecurity NZ’s Stuart Anderson. Nevertheless, officials are taking the presence of the virus seriously with a a 10-kilometre “buffer zone” around the farm and restrictions on the movement of animals, equipment, and feed.

As Reuters reported, we’ve suspended all poultry exports until a point at which it’s believed the strain has been eradicated – at least 21 days. “Until we’ve cleaned up the situation on this farm, and assuming no other issues pop anywhere else, then we will be able to export again,” primary industries minister Andrew Hoggard told RNZ.

Humans not at risk

In an interview with RNZ’s Lisa Owen, virologist Jemma Geoghegan said that the H7N6 subtype can be found in many different wild birds and often doesn’t cause disease – meaning it is low pathogenic. However, when it jumps across to chickens, “it can be highly pathogenic which means they have disease and they can die quite rapidly. It can also spread quite quickly between chickens,” she said. But humans are not at risk from this variant of the flu and it will be safe to continue eating chicken and eggs, so long as proper cooking methods are followed. Andrew Hoggard urged people not to “go out and stockpile eggs”.

In comments to the Science Media Centre, public health expert Nigel French said there was a good chance this outbreak could be contained since the affected farm was found early. However, “vigilance and raised awareness for avian influenza is needed, whether it is for the globally circulating H5N1 strain, or locally evolved strain”.

The bigger picture

This outbreak is clearly cause for concern, but it’s not the strain of avian flu that has had officials here on high alert. So far, New Zealand has evaded the H5N1 subtype of bird flu. That’s despite it spreading from birds to mammals, as explained here by The Conversation, though the risk to humans is considered low. Just a week ago, a child in California became the first American minor reported with a case of bird flu – with 55 infections in humans recorded across the United States this year.

Should it make it into New Zealand, there is concern about the devastation it could cause to our native wildlife, as Virginia Fallon looked at in an excellent feature for the Sunday Star-Times over the weekend. “If the virus gets into our taonga, our treasured wildlife in our captive breeding flocks it would be ruinous,” said Kent Deitemeyer, co-founder of Pacificvet. “We have 245 kākāpō, 300 takahē, and that’s it. It’s taken years and years to bring the numbers up; we cannot lose them.”

The vaccine race

It’s understandable that any mention of a potentially dangerous virus will bring back Covid-19 flashbacks. And much like then, the race is on to get our native bird population vaccinated and ready for the probable arrival of H5N1. As RNZ reported in August, the flu has even made it to Antarctica – probably through the arrival of migratory birds – meaning it is almost inevitable it will eventually make it to our shores. As Michelle Duff wrote for The Guardian, New Zealand is currently in the second phase of a vaccination trial on native birds and early results are highly positive. A small group of birds from five critically endangered species – the takahē, kākāpō, tūturuatu, kakī and one type of kākāriki – were given two doses of the vaccine a month apart, starting in late January.

But some, like Kent Deitemeyer and Jemma Geoghegan, are worried the rollout is too slow – yup, another Covid flashback there. “For the species that will be vaccinated, obviously, it’s a great thing, but use of wider vaccination, not just in wildlife, but in poultry and other animals would help us prepare,” Geoghegan told the Sunday Star-Times.

The current outbreak is a timely reminder that New Zealand isn’t immune and the consequences of a more deadly spread could be devastating. This time it’s chickens, but next time it could be our native birds.