From Lost Funding to Lost Time: Why Our City Needs Real Leadership

We need a champion for Christchurch.

It’s become clear over the last week that The Mayor has over-ridden democratic decisions by the City Council and used the Old Boys Club. The future of our city has not been the driving force, but a short-sighted self-interest. It has cost the city in additional rates to pay for infrastructure and planning, cut construction jobs for local companies and cost us more hours stuck in traffic instead of easing congestion. 

We deserve better.

Ōtautahi Christchurch already has New Zealand’s slowest commute and with 30,000 people more due to be living here in the next 10 years, that could be an additional 15,000+ cars on our roads during rush hour - we will grind to a halt if we don’t plan ahead. 

Planning ahead means putting in place great public transport infrastructure to make catching the bus an easy, convenient and affordable option for residents. We’ve been working with ECan, Selwyn and Waimakariri on a plan called PT Futures and all Councils had signed off on it.

Canterbury already gets a smaller share of the National Land Transport Fund than our population and it shows - especially in public transport. We have 13% of the population, contribute 14% of the money into the fund, but get only 5% reinvested into our region, so any additional funding we get should be used wisely, not given away.

DECEMBER 2021

CCC and ECan passes a Notice of Motion to ask central government to fund the Public Transport (PT) Futures programme to enhance bus transport in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Councillor Mauger and Keown vote against making the request.

October 2022

Phil Mauger becomes Mayor of Christchurch.

March 2023

Minister Wood (Labour) announces $78 million for PT Futures.

October 2023

National Government elected.

‘Soon After’

‘Soon after’ the General election - Mayor Phil calls Minister for Transport Simeon Brown to say we don’t need additional transport funding, but he would like to be able to call on funding when he needed it.

March 2024

‘Due to funding uncertainty’ work stops on the business case, but it’s not clear why the funding has disappeared.

June 2024

Minister Brown receives a memo on the $78 million for PT Futures with options including allocating the funding or keeping it tagged for the work until 2030 or reallocating it.

December 2024

$78 million PT Futures Funding reallocated to South Island projects.

June 2025

Council has to pay the full $7 million to build the next stage of the Lincoln Road bus lane to ease congestion as there’s no government funding available.

August 2025

At the start of the election period, Phil Mauger gets $38.5 million Pages Rd funding announcement from National Party Ministers.

Pages Road Bridge has been going through a regular business case process with NZTA Waka Kotahi and Council had committed to rebuilding it, as it’s such a crucial lifeline asset for New Brighton. The Regional Transport Committee, made up of the region’s Mayors, had deprioritised it from #1 to #12 in the Draft Regional Land Transport Plan (Canterbury’s bid for national transport funding) last year, but thanks to the pressure from the community, local Councillor, local MP and others, we managed to get it up to #4.

The Mayor’s excuse that his phone call to Minister Brown to offer back public transport funding was due to Cyclone Gabrielle, is disingenuous and cynical, given that the devastating cyclone was in February 2023, long before the National Party were elected and a month prior to the announcement of the PT Futures funding. 

Christchurch is also, of course, missing $26m that had been allocated to make streets safer for walking and cycling as part of the Climate Emergency Response Fund (CERF) Transport Choices funding which was reallocated to tax-cuts and $800m for the first stage of the mass rapid transport build in a few years time. That funding was originally in the Draft Regional Transport Plan, but NZTA directed ECan to pull it out at the last minute and it’s not clear why. 

It’s time that the Government recognised the opportunity that we have here in Ōtautahi to invest in great public transport and get it done soon, so we can ease congestion, lower emissions and provide residents with a more affordable, reliable and convenient way to get around our city - and time that the mayor recognised it too.