Paul Goldsmith - Transport

23 October 2018

After a year of this Labour-led Government there have been 15 strikes in the transport sector compared to 12 under nine years of a National Government, National’s Transport spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says

“This Government has emboldened the union movement to the point of militancy and Auckland and Hamilton commuters today are the collateral damage. On Thursday it will be Wellington commuters.

“Aucklanders in particular are now facing a bus system on strike, record high fuel prices, new regional fuel taxes and no improvement to the city’s congestion.

“They are rightly frustrated with disruptions to their daily travel.

“The lack of leadership coming from this Labour-led Government is seriously undermining confidence in our public transport system.

“As Transport Minister Phil Twyford rightly said in Parliament today, the public won’t turn up to the bus stop if they don’t believe a bus will turn up.

“If we want public transport use to grow in order to ease congestion on our roads, it needs to be reliable.

“The Minister needs to talk with his colleague Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway, to dial back on industrial relations reforms, and to his friends in the unions, calling on them to show commuters respect.

“Mr Twyford needs to be showing some leadership in strengthening public confidence in our transport system.”

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