Labour & Greens Must Endorse Road Toll Undertakings of Revenue Neutrality
7 JUNE 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union welcomes the Government's undertaking that any form of roadway variable pricing will be used to replace existing road
taxes and ease congestion, but not raise more revenue. The group says that the Labour and Green parties need to give the
same assurances so that members of lower socioeconomic communities, which often have longer commutes, have certainty
that their transport costs will not surge under a Labour-Green Government.
Speaking on the announcement, Jordan Williams, the Union's Executive Director, says “Tolls disproportionally affect
lower socioeconomic communities because they usually live on the outskirts of the City. The opposition parties need to
guarantee that they will not fall for Auckland Council's rhetoric that it desperately needs to dig deeper into our
pockets using road tolls to afford transport infrastructure.”
"Auckland Council's problem is its ballooning operating costs, which is seeing less and less being put back into
infrastructure investment. It's not a revenue problem, it's a leadership problem, and tolls are never going to fix
that."
ENDS