Jami-Lee Ross - Transport; Paul Goldsmith - Regional Development

7 September 2018

Today’s roading announcement in Gisborne shows what damage Phil Twyford is doing to the transport sector, National’s Transport spokesperson Jami-Lee Ross says.

“As the Transport Minister taxes people more while sucking billions from the regions to fund Auckland trams, the Government scrambles to use special funds for what should be business as usual.

“The Government cut $5 billion from regional highway projects and is hiking taxes to fund trams in the Auckland CBD. Now it’s dipping into the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) for $153 million of spending in the Gisborne region, most of which will go into roading.

“This is a shambolic approach to the management of taxpayers’ money. It is a giddy money-go-round.”

National’s Economic and Regional Development spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says while he supports regional investment, he’d expect the spending announced today to be part of normal transport funding.

“Instead the Government has shown that the PGF is an all-purpose funding vehicle with murky decision-making.

“The Government has been coy about how Shane Jones is running what amounts to a coalition slush fund. Funding decisions should be open and rigorous. Instead, the process is so opaque that it is hard to assess the quality of decision-making.”

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