The Transport Minister is defending the time it will take to reverse the last Government's blanket speed reductions. 

Cabinet has agreed to reverse most of the changes and require travel times and other economic factors to be considered in all future decisions. 

But speed limits may not return to what they were until the end of the year. 

Minister Simeon Brown told Mike Hosking that there's a process they need to go through. 

He says the rules the last Government put in place took about two years to do so, and they have to go through consultation before they change the rules back to what they were. 

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