Aust. interest in transport study

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 34

Aust. interest in transport study

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney Australian State Transport Ministers are eager to see the results of a New Zealand study of on-shore transport costs, said New Zealand’s Minister of Transport, Mr Gain The study will be completed later this year and Mr Gair, who was in Sydney for conferences of state and Federal Transport Ministers and Ministers of Ports, said New Zealand was 12 months ahead of the Australians on the topic. Costs were treated separately when a comprehensive study of New Zealand’s shipping policy was prepared for Parliament as a White Paper last year. “A lot of shipping costs involve transport from the factory or farm gates to the port and out to the harbour heads and is separate from blue water shipping,” he said. “Our study is to identify the problems and develop solutions, and the Australians have similar problems. “The Australians have decided to hold a symposium on on-shore costs later this year and they are hoping New Zealand will help by bringing along the results of

our research.” He said the Australian Ministers had been impressed with the scope of the New Zealand inquiry. “They are still at "the point of looking at where such a study can take them,” he said.

The other major area of study at the meetings was road safety, and Mr Gair said some Australian states had already shown interest in the “Roadshow 83” production developed in New Zealand. “Western Australia has already asked for the scripts of the show, and the others showed keen interest,” he said.

Mr Gair, who has pushed strongly for random stopping powers for New Zealand traffic police, said figures available in Australia from the different states showed there was no consistent picture of results of random breath testing.. “You need three years before you can get proper results and lessons you can heed, and so far Victoria is the only state that can provide that,” he said. “But if you get a reasonably substantial reduction even in the first few years, then it’s something we must take heed of.”