National releases its transport plan

The new leader of the opposition National Party Judith Collins has released her party’s transport funding policy last week.

“Over the next ten years National will spend $31 billion on additional transport projects across New Zealand. Of this, $17.5 billion will be on additional transport projects in the upper North Island. This includes $12.8 billion for Auckland and $4.7 billion for the remainder of the upper North Island,” the policy document says.

On the potential benefits, the document adds, “There are three clear benefits from this policy. The first is we can significantly increase transport investment. Our change allows NZTA to borrow $1 billion per year for ten years to fund our massive new investment in transport infrastructure.”

“The second benefit is that we can properly develop a pipeline of projects across the country, which communities can then plan around with confidence. At the moment, regions live in near perpetual uncertainty about whether particular projects will get the green light from NZTA, or not. This causes angst and produces poor planning outcomes. Our approach allows a much more coordinated pipeline of projects to be planned and funded. The third benefit is that we can invest ahead of time rather than after an investment is needed, which so often is the current approach.”

-TIN Bureau