Formation The agency was established on 1 August 2008 by the
Land Transport Management Amendment Act 2008, merging
Transit New Zealand with
Land Transport New Zealand. A
National Party-led government was formed after
2008 New Zealand general election, and a number of board members were reappointed or replaced. In January 2019, three members of the board of directors resigned, about six weeks after the resignation of chief executive Fergus Gammie. They were Adrienne Young-Cooper, Chris Ellis and
Fran Wilde. Minister of Transport
Phil Twyford said the agency had been "going through a massive change process", with its compliance work in the issuing of vehicle
Warrant of Fitnesses under review. Mark Ratcliffe, former head of telco
Chorus, was appointed interim chief executive. Nicole Rosie, former CE of
WorkSafe New Zealand, replaced him as chief executive mid-February 2020. On 26 April 2019, chairman Michael Stiassny announced his resignation. On 11 June 2019,
Brian Roche commenced his second term as chairman of NZTA; Roche had previously been the inaugural chairman from 2008.
Waka Kotahi, 2019–2023 In August 2019, Waka Kotahi changed the order of its name to emphasise its
Māori language name "Waka Kotahi." The logo was also changed to reflect this change of order. Kane Patena was appointed the first Director of Land Transport for Waka Kotahi from 1 April 2021. In early November 2023, Waka Kotahi suspended its NZ$305 million Transport Choices Programme where local councils would receive funding to encourage walking, cycling and public transportation. Waka Kotahi suspended this programme amidst coalition talks to form the
National-led coalition government following the
2023 New Zealand general election.
Reversion to NZTA, 2023–present In December 2023, the
New Zealand Minister of Transport Simeon Brown ordered that the agency was to give primacy to its English name. In mid-December 2023, Transport Minister Brown ordered the NZTA to halt funding and work on various local council projects to promote cycling, walking and public transportation. Notable projects affected by the Government's transportation policy change included the "
Let's Get Wellington Moving" programme. On 11 March 2024,
Simon Bridges was appointed a member and chairperson of the NZTA board for a three-year term. On 15 May,
RNZ reported that NZTA had paid consultant
PwC to design two new vehicle-spotting technologies at a cost of NZ$130 million only to abandon the project after the technologies were found not to work. On 16 May 2024, NZTA confirmed that it would slash over 120 jobs as part of government cutbacks. 109 of the affected roles came from the former
Clean Car Discount, Climate Emergency Response Fund, and Let's Get Wellington Moving projects, which had been cancelled by the National-led coalition government. In early May 2024, NZTA also announced it would cut another 12 roles from its Customer and Services and Digital teams to meet the Government's 7.5% cost cutting target. ==Public data access==