Auckland Council is set to be the first local authority the government will look to partner with when establishing the Land Transport Management (Time of Use Charging) Amendment Bill. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Legislation to allow the introduction of congestion charging has passed its third and final reading at Parliament.
The Land Transport Management (Time of Use Charging) Amendment Bill establishes a framework permitting local authorities to set up a congestion charging scheme, by notifying NZTA.
Auckland Council is set to be the first local authority the government will look to partner with.
Transport minister Chris Bishop said the charges were not about raising revenue, but accepted the charges would be contentious at first.
"People, broadly, don't like paying for things they think they've already paid for. Fair enough," he said.
"Once it starts, and the benefits start to flow in terms of smoother journey times, reduced traffic at peak times, smog goes down, safety improves, people go 'this is fantastic,' and immediately public opinion turns around. So we've just got to hold, ride it out, literally ride it out."
The legislation passed with the support of all parties in Parliament.
While supporting the bill, Labour said it would be keeping an eye on its implementation.
MP Tracey McLellan said public buy-in would depend on whether there were alternative choices available.
"It's OK for people that have relatively equal choices to make. Do they travel at this time? Could they travel a little bit later to avoid the traffic and avoid the congestion charge? But we do have to acknowledge that for lots of people, they simply don't have the luxury of necessarily being able to time their life around peak traffic, or they don't have the luxury of being able to take any other form of transport other than their personal vehicle," she said.
"So we do have to ensure that the system is fair and that it's equitable, otherwise that public buy-in will erode-and that public buy-in, that social licence, will be incredibly important to this."
Exemptions to the charges will be narrow, with emergency vehicles and school buses excluded. Bishop said anything wider could lead to a "slippery slope."
Green MP Julie Anne Genter said it was right to give local authorities the tools to better manage their transport systems.
But she cautioned the government against introducing new lanes to roads, which would not reduce congestion.
"Bringing in congestion pricing or enabling more direct pricing, whether that's through time of use charges or changes to road-user charges, will result in a shift in demand away from private car trips to other modes of transport, hence why the Green Party has always said that we need to invest better in more capacity for public transport, for rail and coastal shipping, and for active transport modes," she said.
"These are all things that absolutely have to happen, and if we're going to bring in congestion pricing, or if local authorities are going to be enabled to do that, we need to have a shift in transport investments."
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