Even the NZ Herald sees the injustice of this dispute, much to the suprise of most people I speak to. See the editorial at here.
I joined the drivers on their mass picket in Auckland city on Friday. They were in good spirits bouyed by the support of the public and the ARC. There is no question that they should receiving support given the heavy handed reaction by NZ Bus. In response to working to rule they were locked out. As one letter to editor writer in the Herald said the Company can’t have much faith in their own rules.
The bus drivers have a very responsible job – they are responsible for expensive equipment (the bus), they are responsible for dealing with money and ensuring people get to where they need to go and most importantly for the safety of their passengers and other road users. Anyone who drives in Auckland would understand the stress of driving in peak hours. The drivers are not well paid for the responsibility they have. They recognise the responsibilities of the job and the increasing demands on them. They are legitimately seeking through collective bargaining to increase their pay.
It is NZ Bus, not the drivers who are responsible for the inconvenience facing many Aucklanders. Brian Rudman in todays Herald makes some very interesting points.
This is an absolute no brainer, it brings worrying signs for the already disgraceful public transport in Auckland…
It seemed like Labour finally figured out PT was important in Auckland at the end of their last term, I expect big things from your party in term of correcting the funding imbalance in your next term… I especially don’t want to hear David Cunliffe quoting from the Road Transport Lobby publications like I heard Michael Cullen doing as late as 2006…
I think NZ Bus should just give up and negotiate with the drivers!
There is nothing to be gained for them by having their buses off the road and the public are not amused. 
Three months ban blatant trolling at first attempt. Trevor
So what’s that now, five days @ $150.000 = $750.000.
Could have been in the drivers pockets and NZ Bus would be no worse off.
Okay, just for silly ole me, remind me again: why do we have private companies running our public transport system?
Because they are so ‘efficient’. And National want to a
sell Kiwirail again?
Carol, great to see you supporting the drivers.
I think more righties such as myself are struggling to lend support to NZ Bus over this. Infratil needs to take decisive action here as the repercussions could snowball.
Infratil – this is the mob Trevor Mallard wants running integrated ticketing in Auckland. Can you now see why ARTA decided to go with someone else. This company obviously has no problems holding the city to ransom.
@Blip, I’m usually all for privatisation but in public transport the productivity and efficiency gains usually obtained through private operation don’t transfer, it needs to be provided as a public good…
Even Margaret Thatcher didn’t mess with London’s PT control being handled by a powerful government controlled agency in the 80’s while she was happily privatising everything else PT related in the rest of the country…
The Public Transport Management Act Labour passed a couple of years ago was good (soon to be reviewed by government) it should have even been a bit stronger, as I said before if Labour wants to win back their base in Auckland next election they need a comphrensive Auckland PT plan… Good luck under Goff and Cunliffe though…
Goff and Cunliffe wouldn’t be the ones handling the transport portfolio and I don’t think there would be a problem with how Labour would handle it.
Well said Jeremy. We’ve not heard a lot from Labour attacking Stephen Joyce about his lack of commitment to Auckland PT recently and the fact he keeps delaying electrification. That seems to have been left to the likes of Mike Lee.
Could it be that Labour are worried about not getting campiagn donations from the RTF as well?
When was the last time Labour asked Joyce a question for oral answer on transport issues in parliament? May? Oh that’s right, there was one moaning about how New Plymouth didn’t get a road of National (big N) significance too.
Come on guys, you can do FAR better on this important issue. How about some questions about why Steven Joyce is spending $100 million investigating his Puhoi-Wellsford holiday highway which is clearly never going to have a good business case, yet letting Auckland’s electrification be butchered for the sake of…. hey, around $100 million! Or why he’s still skeptical about the CBD Rail Tunnel when even his buddy John Banks in Auckland is 100% for it? Or whether he personally fiddled with the cost-benefit analysis of the Waterview Connection to make the numbers stack up?
Yes I do distinctly remember Trevor Mallard strongly advocating for Infratil to run Auckland’s integrated ticketing system – what was up with that Trevor? Do you still want these idiots running Auckland’s ticketing system? The NZTA board was meeting to make a final decision on funding integrated ticketing last week, and Infratil were lobbying like crazy for them to overturn their decision.
Anyone know why the NZTA decision has not been released? Is it that they don’t want to annoy Joyce and his Infratil buddies, or that they don’t want to make it obvious that they have overturned the previous decisions of ARTA and NZTA to give the job to Thales, at a time when everyone hates Infratil’s guts?
Comes on Labour, there’s just a few ideas for some tricky questions to pose to Steven Joyce tomorrow.
I think you know the answer Josh… Labour needs the Road Transport Forum’s campaign donations as much as National…
Massively expanding public transport should be core Labour policy given the helping hand it would provide those under 16, too disabled to drive, on to low an income to afford a car or those too elderly to drive (not going to be many of those soon, yeah right) but no fat checks in it you see…
Jeremy Cam and Jabury.
Fair to debate question priority. My view is that we don’t do enough Education and Labour. Core areas for us and very weak Ministers. I don’t win often enough. Maybe we don’t do enough Transport because the shadow leader is spokesperson and takes care to be seen to be fair in allocations.
But to suggest it is donation related is deleted because of language Trevor. You should know better. You meant to say that the implication was untrue. Perhaps you could try again! Clare
Look at the position taken here on NZ Bus. Look at the postings I have made re Talleys the company with the worst IR record in the country but big political donors.
I think most of us bend over backwards to be seen not to favour donors.
Tough Clare but I can take it unlike some of those right wing softies.
Busted Trevor!
I am not saying that Labour is being bought off by the road transport forum, though considering the mess Steven Joyce is making of the transport portfolio by acting as the RTF’s mouthpiece I do wish Labour would prove that fact.
There are some great QWAs that you guys are putting to Joyce, but that is pretty behind the scenes stuff reallt. Surely it is time to hold Joyce to account for the mess he is creating a bit more publicly.
Sorry one more thing, Trevor do you still think ARTA was stupid to give Thales the integrated ticketing contrat instead of Infratil? Do you really think the conflict of interest would not be an issue?
Yes, I apologise… Sorry that was unfair, borne of frustration…
As I’ve said on other threads, I don’t see why Labour is making such a huge deal over $45 million (?) night classes while SJ is wasting $100 million on studying a dream holiday highway and planning to spend a further $2.3 billion on it… I’ve seen endless oral questions in Parliament over what is essentially chump change ($45 million) out of a $64 billion dollar budget but nary a one over $2.3 billion…
The majority of the public couldn’t care less about night classes while up here you have 1.4 million Aucklanders drowning in gridlock and crying out for it to be made better, motorways cannot solve this…
With the consequences of peak oil and climate change looming I really wonder where Labour’s priorities are at…
Oh and Trevor I pretty sure of the three you mentioned I’m the only right-wing softie, us law enforcements types always are…
This isn’t on topic but I couldn’t resist laughing out loud at Mr Mallard getting censored by Ms Curran for trolling and bad language!
up here you have 1.4 million Aucklanders drowning in gridlock and crying out for it to be made better, motorways cannot solve this…
Reality check Jeremy; You are one of 1.4 million Aucklanders. They don’t ALL take to the roads at rush hour.
Right wing?? I think you’ve got me wrong there Trevor.
Ok it may have been unfair to suggest Labours lack of action on this was releted to campaign contributions. However like Jeremy and others i’m getting increasingly frustrated that Labour is not advocating for Auckland on this. Joyce needs to be challenged on this he’s getting a free ride.
@phil, congestion/gridlock now lasts 7 hours hours a day here so you don’t have to be travelling in rush hour…
I actually didn’t talk about rush hour if you’ll read my post… While myself and a few others take PT as much as possible, there are still 1.4 million people living in a gridlocked city…
Jabury there is a range of views on this issue but I don’t think it is impossible to build walls into a computer system that stops Infratil getting data that helps them in competitions. It is then a matter of considering performance, cost and timing matters. I think that your debate with Tim Brown got the issues out pretty clearly. People can read it here:- http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2009/07/25/arta-falls-for-french-kiss-incis-ii/
Yeah but this is the same company that has ground Auckland’s bus system nearly to a halt and held the city to ransom over the last seven days. Is this who we want administering an integrated ticketing system in Auckland just because they come cheap?
You get what you pay for and cheapest is not always best (just ask the Auckland district health board). This is an important project for Auckland so we have a system that lasts us for years to come.
NZ bus have been negotiating for 5 months. Clearly the combined unions believe they have NZ Bus over a barrell to be holding out such a long time for more and more. So ask the unions why they did not settle months ago.