Wayne Brown is known for saying inflammatory and offensive things, but when I heard him say at the weekend we should never waste a crisis, I had to agree.
Referring to the fuel crisis, he said it was a time when the government, instead of giving some families $50 a week to "carry on doing the wrong thing" and driving their cars to work, could have given money for them to spend on buses.
Obviously, that would only work where there is suitable public transport, but doesn’t it make sense? While fuel costs are high we could be encouraging greater use of public transport and promoting cycling and walking.
To date, this let’s-pay-lip-service-to-climate-change government has not been enthusiastic about cycleways, preferring to promise big spending from who knows where on roads which have now been mocked as National Party Roads of Significance (or Stupidity). Now, the government could rethink that emphasis without losing face.
It could heed the call of the Cycling Action Network and others who wrote an open letter to it seeking a comprehensive quick-response strategy to ensure the safety and comfort of all people travelling by active transport including walking, cycling, scooting and skating.
Among the suggestions in the letter are deploying pop-up bike lanes by repurposing the left-most traffic or parking lane of multi-lane roads in built-up areas as cycle lanes.
(Sadly, I can hear the screams of the we-must-never-lose-spaces-for-car-parking no matter where they are because, well, just because.)
They are also wanting funding for active travel projects reinstated, as bike network funding has been severely constrained by this government.
As they point out, there are many shovel-ready active transport infrastructure projects awaiting funding which could be quickly progressed.
We might think this would already be parked up the government’s fast-track-obsessed alley, but what’s the bet it would be labelled woke, part of the war on cars, or even something to do with Freddy the Frog?
It might be more popular than our leaders believe. A 2024 Public Health Communication Centre survey of more than 1000 New Zealanders found more people supported increasing investment in urban cycleways (41%) than opposed it (35%), and 24% were neutral.
Green Party voters were the most likely to support increased investment (58.8%), surprisingly followed by New Zealand First voters (55.1%).
The survey report suggested it could be helpful to explore how much opposition was linked to concerns about council rates rises. Mostly is probably the answer.
The network and supporters would like public transport to be free during the crisis, which they say would be much cheaper than the $50 targeted funding. Reducing speed limits is another of their suggestions, something this government has previously actively opposed on spurious grounds.
These are all worthy ideas, but the government seems reluctant to take a comprehensive approach to the fuel crisis.
Could there be any better time to try to instil carbon-emission reducing behaviours which hopefully might stick even if fuel prices reduce considerably? Instead, the attitude so far seems to be that we should carry on as usual with our fuel usage insofar as we can afford to, with a limited amount of support.
It is bizarre we still do not know how, if rationing eventually had to be introduced as part of the government’s fuel response plan, that would work.
It is as if the government is too frightened to announce details of that because it fears a backlash from anyone who thinks they should be afforded preferential treatment and wouldn’t be.
Maybe, behind the scenes, there is a heck of a fight going on to establish the logistics of it all and to ensure the government keeps all its donor friends happy?
Whatever it is, it looks unnecessarily indecisive and treats the public as being too immature to cope with something which might not receive universal acclaim.
Wouldn’t it be better for us all to know how this would work now, rather than have it sprung upon us suddenly if we ever have to progress down the levels of the plan?
Two months on from the beginning of this illegal war, this dithering needs to stop.
All of this is making me grumpy, although I have not yet resorted to making jokes which amuse me and no-one else.
I am not alone in my dissatisfaction with the government’s fuel crisis response. According to a Horizon Research survey of 1037 adults across the country reported by Newsroom this week, only 12 % had a great deal of confidence in the government’s ability to manage the crisis effectively.
I do not find that reassuring.
• Elspeth McLean is a Dunedin writer.
