Hon John Banks QSO Mayor of Auckland City

24 June 2004

Approval for western bypass great news

“Fixing these major missing links is very good news for the Auckland roading public,” Auckland City Mayor Hon John Banks said today in response to the news that Transfund has approved two Auckland major transport projects worth $300 million.

Today’s news means Transit New Zealand can now proceed with the two projects which extend State Highway 20 - the $152 million Mt Roskill extension and the $157 million Manukau extension.

“I am committed to completing Greater Auckland’s entire motorway network within the next 10 years and under my leadership more progress has been made in the past 30 months, than the previous 30 years. “While Auckland needs a substantial investment in modern public transport, the reality is the number of cars in Greater Auckland is set to double in the next 20 years.

“Today brings us another step closer to equipping Auckland with a workable motorway network complete with western and eastern bypasses and an additional harbour crossing,” Mr Banks said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>