{"id":261394,"date":"2026-01-31T19:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/261394\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T19:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:08:09","slug":"150000-road-cone-hotline-an-absurd-waste-of-public-money-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/261394\/","title":{"rendered":"$150,000 road cone hotline an ‘absurd’ waste of public money – Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No<\/p>\n

\nNearly $150,000 was reportedly spent on the project.
\nPhoto: Photo \/ 123RF\n<\/p>\n

Labour says a review of the government’s axed road cone hotline<\/a> – designed to report excessive and unnecessary traffic cone use – was an “absurd” waste of public money.<\/p>\n

A WorkSafe review<\/a> found excessive use of cones at just 6 percent of the 250 sites inspected.<\/p>\n

Labour transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said nearly $150,000 was spent on a project that was “clearly not going to be required in the first place”.<\/p>\n

“I mean, we’re talking about huge amounts of public money that could be prioritised to address real concerns that the public is feeling right now.”<\/p>\n

The digital hotline was launched last year as part of the government’s wider health and safety reforms.<\/p>\n

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden directed WorkSafe to place more emphasis on guidance and education<\/a>, rather than enforcement.<\/p>\n

The hotline allowed members of the public to report what they believed was excessive or unnecessary use<\/a> of traffic cones and other temporary traffic management devices.<\/p>\n

The government shut down its hotline on 19 December, six months ahead of schedule. By then, WorkSafe had received more than 1300 notifications.<\/p>\n

Reports peaked at 641 in June, before dropping to 217 in July<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This pilot has done exactly what we needed it to do,” Van Velden said at the time. “It gave the public a voice, identified the root causes of concern and clarified WorkSafe’s role in temporary traffic management.”<\/p>\n

WorkSafe chief executive Sharon Thompson said the review showed the main issue was not widespread non-compliance, but inconsistent use of NZTA’s newer, risk-based guidance by councils.<\/p>\n

“As a result, cone use was often consistent with council-approved plans, even if it appeared excessive to the public.”<\/p>\n

Labour had previously described the initiative as a “performative battle”.<\/p>\n

Utikere noted that by September, the government had spent $148,545 on the hotline – $136.15 for “every one of the 1091 complaints logged to that point”.<\/p>\n

As of November 2025, there was an average of fewer than 20 valid complaints per week nationwide, he said.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly $150,000 was reportedly spent on the project. Photo: Photo \/ 123RF Labour says a review of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-261394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}