Don Brash MP National Party Leader

14 June 2006

Ministerial infrastructure group failing miserably

National Leader Don Brash is questioning what has happened to the Labour Government's infrastructure group of ministers.

"The latest power crisis in Auckland shows this much-vaunted group of ministers has failed miserably," says Dr Brash.

"Finance Minister Michael Cullen has been chairing this ministerial infrastructure committee, which was set up in 2003.

"Questions now need to be asked about its impact after the latest power crisis in Auckland.

"Has it been reconvened for this crisis? Did it ever consider the weakness of the national grid's entry point into Auckland? How often has it met in the past?

"The public will be cynical about Labour's continuing claims that all this is somehow the fault of the last National Government.

"How many years in office does it take before Labour starts accepting some responsibility for the infrastructure mess New Zealand now faces? Labour has been the Government now coming up to seven years.

"If National had become Government last year we would now have an Infrastructure Minister, who would have been responsible for accelerating vital infrastructure development. That would have included the national grid.

"Instead, we are left with an impotent committee of Ministers in a failing Labour Government."

ENDS

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