“The release of the ‘secret letter’ from former Associate Transport Minister Julie-Anne Genter to Labour’s former
Minister of Transport shows that Labour and the Greens are united in their viewpoint of making life impossible for
drivers,” says ACT’s Transport spokesperson Simon Court.
“Genter’s letter shows that Michael Wood has taken inspiration from her car-hating stint as Associate Minister. First he
nicked her idea of taxing tradies to subsidise Teslas, now he’s taken her philosophy that driving should be punished.
“As part of the Emissions Reduction Plan, Minister Wood wants reduce the number of kilometres we can drive by 20 per
cent by 2035, regardless of whether you drive an EV or not. Meanwhile the Ministry of Transport is telling us that we
need to be increasing capacity on the road by 30 per cent due to population and economic growth.
“Labour politicians don’t live in the real world. The reality is that New Zealand’s economy and geographic layout relies
on people being able to drive. Labour seems to think they can bully the population into cycling, walking and bussing
everywhere, what they forget is that people will only do that if it’s convenient and for many it is not.
“Meanwhile when they try and deliver a public transport project it is a total disaster. Light rail in Auckland has been
a four year ordeal of trying to make a hollow political promise work at great expense to taxpayers.
“Truckies, tradies and hard working Kiwis are begging for better investment in roads and infrastructure.
“ACT would take the politics out of transport and infrastructure and get central and local government working together
through 30-year infrastructure partnerships, devolving revenue and responsibility to regional governments and the
private sector, while strengthening accountability and oversight from central government.
“By setting plans decades in advance, we can avoid the on-again, off-again uncertainty created by the political cycle
which deters councils and private infrastructure investors from undertaking ambitious projects.”