Political road rage - budget holes and emissions omissions

The UN says we've reached "the era of global boiling". Given that, you'd think climate might have got more of a mention from the media as the National Party released its road-heavy $24 billion transport package.The UN says we've reached "the era of global boiling". Given that, you'd think climate might have got more of a mention from the media as the National Party released its road-heavy $24 billion transport package.Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a grave warning."The era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has begun." That sounds like a relatively serious issue. So it was slightly surprising that the subject didn't seem to be on our reporters' minds as the National Party announced its policy on one of the country's biggest and fastest-growing sources of carbon emissions: transport.There were no questions on climate put to the party's top brass as they unveiled their $24 billion transport package in Hamilton on Monday.Only one question on the topic was put to prime minister Chris Hipkins in his weekly media standup later that afternoon.That's particularly perplexing given National's policy is heavy on roads, lighter on public transport, and virtually weightless on walking and cycling.Thankfully news organisations did start to address that potential drawback as the week wore on.On RNZ's Morning Report, Guyon Espiner asked National's transport spokesperson Simeon Brown how the party's plan addresses the "elephant in the room" - climate change."What we're doing here is we're saying we've got to focus on making sure we have high-quality safe modern roading connections around our country. "What ultimately drives on those roads is going to change dramatically over the coming decades. We're going to have hydrogen trucks. We're going to have electric trucks in much greater numbers."Brown later got some backup from Dom Kalasih of Transport New Zealand, which lobbies on behalf of road haulage companies."Better movement of freight - which is what these better roads will do - is good for climate," he said.Question asked and answered, or so it seemed.Other reporters cast a more sceptical eye on those claims.Over at Newsroom, senior political reporter Marc Daalder projected that the highway-heavy transport package would generate an additional 327,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.That figure was based on projections outlining the induced demand from the new roads…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details