Confirmation that National hasn’t even costed the centre-piece of its transport announcement yesterday is a further sign
of the shambles in the Opposition, and raises serious questions about National’s competence,” Finance Minister Grant
Robertson says.
“The Brynderwyn and Kaimai tunnels weren’t just a side note to the announcement. They were literally the “first”
projects Judith Collins talked about in her press release about a transport plan that she said was “worth $31 billion
across New Zealand.”
“National has now confirmed that they have no idea how much these projects might cost. It’s hard to believe that this
sort of omission would have been allowed under John Key or Bill English. It’s a real shambles,” Grant Robertson said.
“National is also still yet to come clean over which existing projects in the transport plan it will cancel. Yesterday
it said it would reallocate $6.2 billion of money in the National Land Transport Fund. It highlighted light rail funding
($1.8 billion in the NLTF) for being cut. The question is very simple: What else will they cut to make their numbers
stack up? They’ve already banked the money.
“In the meantime, the Government is getting on with our plans to invest in New Zealand with fully funded transport
projects like today’s investments in Auckland’s roading and public transport network.”