Finance Minister Grant Robertson says the fact the National Party hadn’t costed a centre-piece of its transport announcement yesterday “is a further sign of the shambles in the Opposition”.
It comes as National leader Judith Collins yesterday announced the party wanted to build a four-lane expressway from Whangārei to Tauranga, complete the Auckland Rapid Transit network and look into building a tunnel across Auckland's Harbour should it be elected.
Part of the expressway would include tunnels under the Brynderwyn and Kaimai ranges.
Clint Smith, a former senior communications strategist for Jacinda Ardern, asked National’s transport spokesperson Chris Bishop on Twitter yesterday whether the party had done the costings for the Brynderwyn and Kaimai tunnels it announced.
Mr Bishop said the party “haven’t costed the tunnels as they’re second decade and we haven’t put numbers on 2030 onwards”.
However, Mr Roberson said the tunnels “weren’t just a side note to the announcement”.
“National has now confirmed that they have no idea how much these projects might cost … it's a real shambles.”
He labelled the transport plans “an uncosted, unfunded shambles”.
“National is also still yet to come clean over which existing projects in the transport plan it will cancel. Yesterday it said it would reallocate $6.2 billion of money in the National Land Transport Fund,” Mr Robertson said.
“It highlighted light rail funding ($1.8 billion in the NLTF) for being cut.
"The question is very simple: What else will they cut to make their numbers stack up? They’ve already banked the money.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says "the proof is in National's past" as to whether the announcement would come to fruition should National get into Government.
He says National closed "many railway lines, and ran railways into the ground last time they were in government," Mr Peters said in a statement.
"While it is promising to see that National all of a sudden has rediscovered railways in Auckland, including trains to the airport and extending commuter trains to Huapai, the proof is in National’s past."
Major projects include an additional Auckland Harbour crossing with at least one tunnel for road, rail and public transport and a four-lane expressway linking Whangārei and Tauranga. (Source: Other)
The plan announced yesterday is thought to cost $31 billion in the next 10 years, with more than half going to the upper North Island.
Ms Collins said $300m would be pumped into projects in 2021 – "like fixing potholes, roundabouts, and crash corners".
She said the total cost was estimated to be $31 billion for the next decade.
"Around half of that – $17 billion – will go to today's Upper North Island Transport Package for the half of the nation's population who live here."
Seven billion dollars will come from the Government’s $20 billion Covid Fund and NZTA will be able to borrow $1 billion more a year and use $4 billion from fuel taxes and road user charges to pay for the debt.
Ms Collins said there would be rail to the airport from Puhinui, starting in 2026, and then up to Onehunga, to create a rail loop.
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