Just like their prison policy, National’s new roading policy is an un-costed joke using garbage numbers…
National proposes new highways, Labour dubious on cost estimates
1 News on Sunday reported documents showed officials’ cost estimates were much higher than what National claimed – such as the Warkworth to Wellsford section, which National said would cost $2.2b but officials put at up to $4b.
The $6b cost National cited would be almost as much as the government planned to spend on state highways nationwide between 2021 and 2014 ($6.6b) through the NLTF. It was larger than planned spending from the NLTF on public transport over that same period ($4.b) and dwarfs the $1b allocated to walking and cycling improvements.
…their numbers are bullshit and they are already mooting Tolls and Public Private Partnerships to fund this infrastructure because National and ACT refuse to raise taxes on the rich to fund this necessary infrastructure.
But it is dinosaur thinking that utterly ignores the climate and its impact on our roading system. We have the current pot hole problem because when National were in power last time they underfunded the road repair budgets and their solution to that now is to take money from making roads safer to fund filling in the the pot holes!
The problem isn’t filling in the pot holes, it’s properly funding the infrastructure by taxing the rich to pay for it rather than user pays, Public Private rorts and bullshit costings!
If you believe National’s road costs, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
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