Joyce Proving Himself A Cabinet Heavyweight
March 19th, 2009
Steven Joyce is proving one of John Key’s Cabinet heavyweights, though he went into Parliament and into Cabinet without any previous political experience. He’s navigating the often turbulent passages of managing a major portfolio smoothly, quickly winning the confidence of officials, and exerting an influence far beyond his ranking at 14 in Cabinet would suggest. Some observers believe he’s one of John Key’s intimates, certainly among the inner circle of Ministers, brought into consultation on many issues outside his immediate portfolio. It’s not surprising since he was deeply involved in running the National show before he entered Parliament and had previously built a multi-million dollar business in radio.
This week Joyce began the process of reconstructing the country’s transport programme. He abolished the previous Govt’s regional petrol taxes, replacing them with smaller nationwide increases. He says it will be more sensible for KiwiRail to buy and own new commuter trains for Auckland and Wellington. And he is proposing a boost to state highway funding, which will largely focus on highway corridors of national significance.
The rationale is to simplify the rackety structure built around the concept of regional fuel taxes, a compromise solution reached by Labour when Auckland Regional Council ruled out tolling to build new highways. Regional taxes are expensive, distortionary, and penalise local users where there is national benefit in unclogging congested arteries. As for electrification of the Auckland rail network, which was to be financed by ARC borrowing, the state can undertake borrowing at cheaper rates. In the NZ Herald even the acerbic Brian Rudman said “good riddance to the iniquitous double-fuel tax the Labour Govt imposed on Aucklanders.” The changes may smooth the way for the concept of a “super-city” in Auckland, expected to be recommended by the Royal Commission into Auckland governance. The “super-city” would subsume the ARC, and perhaps see a contest between the ARC chairman Mike Lee and Auckland’s Mayor John Banks to become its Lord Mayor.
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Duncan Cotterill