The turrets of the lost road cone city. Photo: SCIRT
A pilot programme will allow peeved drivers to report over-zealous use of road cones, but one critic says it's a further waste of resource for a problem that's already being solved
The government may have declared war on the "sea of cones" on New Zealand roads, but a road cone apologist claims it is on a hiding to nothing.
"I think that the war on cones is unwinnable," Newsroom political reporter and road cone fan Fox Meyer tells The Detail.
"It's like the war on drugs. You are not going to beat the road cone; it is here forever. If you try to go up against it and make it your enemy, you will lose.
"Those road cones are out there because someone is doing work. The work is being done because you want development here."
This month, the government launched a new reporting hotline and assigned two ministers - Brooke Van Velden and Chris Bishop - to tackle the "real issue" of excessive road cone use, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying "you can drive around this country at different times of the day and you've got whole roads shut down, no one is doing any work and the cones are frankly just clogging up the joint".
Van Velden, the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister, added that the issue of a "sea of cones" was brought up at almost every meeting during her recent national road trip.
"I am directing WorkSafe to confirm and provide guidance on instances of road cones overcompliance," she told journalists at the press conference for the launch of the pilot hotline programme. "Having WorkSafe focus on this will be a culture shift for the agency, but it signifies the broader direction this government is taking with the health and safety system."
She says the amended bill will be put before parliament by the end of the year and - if passed - would come into effect in early 2026.
A road cone somehow found its way to the top of a pine tree in Whangamatā Photo: Amanda Gillies
But Fox Meyer tells The Detail the move to introduce a tattle hotline to dob in excessive road cone use has frustrated traffic management bosses, who say the move "primes the public to disregard basic safety measures".
And he points out, an industry steering group has already been working on a plan to change the code of practice to reduce the number of road cones on roads.
"As the government is taking another stance in this endless war on cones debate, I think it's important to remember that, at the end of the day, [cones] are all about safety. It's an unwinnable contest to go up against cones as a population.
"Because under the surface work has been going on for a while to reduce their usage, and that's being led by industry groups who know this is a problem and who want to change it and who are actively taking the steps to do so.
"And they are saying that, inflaming this debate about the war on cones and putting the power to dob them in in public hands is going to undermine the progress that's going on in this area.
"As a population, if we want to be serious about road cones, as funny as that may sound, it's going to take a national reset on how much we are doing to take this issue seriously and not take the piss out of it."
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