Dunne: Transit NZ distorting Govt policy

United Future leader and Ohariu-Belmont MP, Peter Dunne, said today he was alarmed to hear that Transit NZ seemed to be distorting the Government’s national roading infrastructure policy.

“Before Christmas, I received several assurances from Transport Minister Paul Swain that while solving Auckland’s roading problems was a priority, it was not the Government’s sole priority for spending on improving the national roading infrastructure,” he said.

“Now I find that Transit NZ, an agency of the Government, has taken off in a different direction and is proposing that Auckland gets the lion’s share of new national roading spending for the next decade.

“One has to ask what planet these people are living on. Of course, it’s vital to the country that Auckland’s roading congestion is sorted out, but to do so at the expense of the rest of the country is long-term planning of the Mr Magoo variety,” said Mr Dunne.

“I call on Mr Swain to direct the bureaucrats to come down to earth and devise a sensible plan that will benefit the whole of New Zealand, not just a part of it.”

Mr Dunne said it would also be very helpful if the Government increased the size of the roading cake by not grabbing a large chunk of road and petrol taxes for the Consolidated Fund and instead spent all that money on establishing a 21st century roading infrastructure for New Zealand.

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