Maurice Williamson National Party Transport Spokesman

3 August 2005

Piecemeal, drip-feed road funding not sound policy

Labour's announcement of $150 million extra over the next 10 years for Bay of Plenty roads is a piecemeal, drip-feed way to fund roading and not sound policy, says National's Transport spokesman, Maurice Williamson.

He says he is pleased to see that Labour agrees with National that considerably more money needs to be spent on roads. "But one-off announcements of largesse are not the way to fund roading," says Mr Williamson. "National's policy of spending all the petrol excise tax on roads will mean two things:

* More money will be available for roading under National than under Labour, even after taking into account Labour's recent one-off add-ons.
* Having all the petrol tax going towards roading will allow certainty of funding for the future and allow contractors to build up their capabilities with confidence.

"Labour's on-again off-again approach to road funding doesn't do any of that. "This latest announcement, together with previous one-offs for Auckland and Wellington, is nothing more than political panic.

"No doubt a Waikato package will be announced soon. I wouldn't be surprised if the much needed Waikato Expressway can now be funded by the Government within 10 years," says Mr Williamson.

ENDS

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