“Labour is trying to slow Kiwis down on the road, and they’re spending millions of taxpayer dollars doing it,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“When questioned by ACT on how much the Government has spent on speed management plans, the Minister of Transport replied, “The cost to-date for speed management plans, investigating speed limits, and making changes to limits is $44.8 million.”

“There’s now an open question about whether New Zealand’s roads have more orange cones or more potholes. Waka Kotahi’s solution is to spend your money reducing the speed limits instead of fixing the roads.

“We are the first society in modern history to reduce our travel speeds.

“Lowering speed limits causes immense frustration for motorists and reduces productivity. Rather than look at opportunities to improve the efficiency of the road network, Labour is slowing the movement of freight and people.

“Documents obtained by ACT under the Official Information Act show that Waka Kotahi didn’t even perform any cost-benefit analysis when dropping the speed limits from 100km/h to 80km/h in Hawke’s Bay.

“It doesn’t need to be this way. The Waikato Expressway is a great example of a road that supports a thriving economy and healthy communities - safe, efficient and with a 110km/h speed environment.

“ACT supports moves to lower the road toll – but that comes from better roading infrastructure, not slowing people down, causing frustration and putting further restrictions on businesses who have quite frankly put up with enough under this Government.

“Increasing the level of private sector funding will inject much-needed discipline into decision-making while allowing the Government to maintain prudent levels of public debt.

“Between 2007 and 2017, more than NZ$300bn was raised by funds globally to invest in infrastructure. Most of that capital was raised from insurance companies, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds (including our own New Zealand Super Fund) looking for long-term investments with reasonable returns.

“The Government needs to sort its priorities out.”

© Scoop Media