Pursuant to section 95(1)(t) of the Land Transport Management Act 2003 and section 112 of the Crown Entities Act 2004, the Minister of Transport gives the following direction.

Direction

1. Title

This direction is the New Zealand Transport Agency (Additional Delivery Management Function) Direction 2021.

2. Commencement

This direction comes into force on 1 January 2022.

3. Application

This direction applies to the New Zealand Transport Agency (which is a Crown Entity pursuant to section 93(2) of the Land Transport Management Act 2003) (“Agency”)

4. Background

The statutorily independent functions of the Agency under section 95(2) of the Land Transport Management Act (the Act) include determining whether particular activities should be included in a national land transport programme and approving activities or combinations of activities under section 20 of the Act.

The delivery of activities approved by the Agency under section 20 is generally managed by Police, KiwiRail, regional councils, territorial authorities or other approved public organisations. Under section 95(1)(h) of the Act, the Agency is responsible for managing the State highway system, but does not otherwise have the ability to manage the delivery of approved activities even if these are not managed or appropriate to be managed by Police, KiwiRail, regional councils, territorial authorities or other approved public organisations. This affects activities that operate on an inter-regional or national level and which are not easily managed in or through Regional Land Transport Plans.

An example of this is coastal shipping. The 2021 Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS 2021) included a new coastal shipping activity class, which has an allocated funding range of $30–$45 million over three years, until 30 June 2024. Delivery of this activity class does not easily fall to Police, KiwiRail, regional councils, territorial authorities or another approved public organisations, nor does it fall within the Agency’s existing statutory functions.

The decision by the Agency about whether to approve activities under section 20 of the Land Transport Management Act is a statutorily independent function. Consistent with section 113 of the Crown Entities Act 2004, this Direction does not relate to that section 20 function or in any way require the Agency to exercise that function in a particular way. This Direction allows the Agency to manage delivery of an activity only if it has already exercised its statutorily independent function of approving it.

5. Additional Function

The New Zealand Transport Agency is directed to carry out the additional function of managing the delivery of any activities approved under section 20 of the Land Transport Management Act 2003 that are funded or to be funded out of the Coastal Shipping Activity Class in the national land transport programme.

6. Expiry

This direction may be revoked at any time.

Dated at Wellington this 20th day of December 2021

Hon MICHAEL WOOD, Minister of Transport.