National has announced Whangārei to Tauranga will be linked by four-lane highways at a cost of $6 billion if it gets into power.
These are the four planned projects:
- Whangārei to Port Marsden - $1.3 billion and to start in the next 1-3 years.
- Warkworth to Wellsford - $2.2 billion and to start in the next 4-10 years.
- Cambridge to Piarere - $720 million and to start in the next 1-3 years.
- Tauriko West, State Highway 29 - $1.9 billion and to start in the next 4-10 years.
National says it won’t have to increase excise taxes and that it’ll pay for it with the National Land Transport fund and additional government investment.
It says the roads will be safer and easier to travel on and says this investment is needed to grow the economy.
However, Transport Minister David Parker said the policy is "breathtakingly misleading from the National Party."
"The costs are as woefully light as is their explanation of how they will fund these roads – the cost will be many hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars more than they are admitting,” he said.
He said the figures are old and “laughable at best”.
1News has obtained official numbers that show these cost estimates are too low. For example, National says Warkworth to Wellsford will cost $2.2 billion, but officials say it could be up to $4 billion.
The Greens say this kind of money should be going on public transport.
National party leader Christopher Luxon argues that even electric cars need good roads.
Others like Transport New Zealand welcome the plan and say more investment in roads makes them safer as well as boosting the economy.
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