We need an MMP type campaign for free public transport

UNITYblog editorial 11 July 2008 A just released Australian report claims petrol could hit $A8 ($NZ10) a litre within a decade. The report confirms that people on low incomes will be the worst affected by Peak Oil scenarios. See 'Fuel for thought - The future of transport fuels: challenges and opportunities' But still NZ's Labour government wants to spend billions of dollars on new roading projects. They've been deafened by the honks of the roading lobby and aren't hearing the voices of people calling for a 21st century public transport system. Green Party co-leader Russel Norman responding to the Aussie report in the NZ Herald says: "Petrol at that price would make the Government's entire motorway building project a white elephant - modern day Easter Island statues. Our new motorways would be monuments to short sightedness and profligate waste of resources." "We have no choice but to move to a far less oil-dependent economy, because rising prices will give us no choice." That's why we need to forget about tinkering around with emissions trading schemes that are next to useless and build a nationwide, multi-organisation, campaign for free and frequent public transport. This is the solution that's desperately needed and which hundreds of thousands of people in NZ - and around the world - will see the sense of. Free and frequent public transport needs to be turned into the kind of high profile broad-based campaign that won MMP voting.