New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the best option for a second harbour crossing in Auckland should go out to tender now.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop is defending commissioning another report on a second harbour crossing in Auckland, while Labour says in three years the government has made no progress on the issue.
More than $106 million has been spent on consultants and contractors to date, but there is still no plan for what should be built and how.
But Peters told the NZ Herald that was a gross waste of money.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he did not know what Peters was talking about.
"It was a Cabinet decision, made a while ago, and there are three New Zealand First ministers in that Cabinet," he said.
"They signed up for this decision."
Bishop was repeatedly asked whether Peters had breached Cabinet rules by publicly saying he disagreed with the decision.
"All I'll say is that Cabinet has agreed to what was announced yesterday," he replied.
Cabinet ministers did not speak publicly about what happened in their meetings, Bishop said.
It was put to him that Peters had.
"I took a paper to Cabinet and I faithfully announced what Cabinet decided," Bishop said.
The project would be put to tender once the business case had worked out what will be built and how it would be funded, he said.
Peters said New Zealand First would put the harbour crossing decision to tender now.
"Let them do all the work, let them make all the payments and let them do all the costs."
Peters said the government could consider subsidising that exploratory work but should not be footing the whole bill.
Peters said New Zealand First would put the harbour crossing decision to tender now.
"Let them do all the work, let them make all the payments and let them do all the costs."
Commissioning another report as the government had done was not the right way to go about it, told Ryan Bridge Today.
Peters told the Herald that he would like to see the government make information held by the NZ Transport Agency and Auckland Council available to infrastructure builders through an open tender process.
It would then be up to the infrastructure builders to assess that information and determine the most cost-effective solution.
Those infrastructure firms would then compete for tender to do the work, with the government and Auckland Council selecting the best option, he said.
Bishop defends harbour crossing report
On Monday, Bishop announced plans for a detailed business case due next year.
He told Morning Report on Tuesday that previous reports have answered the 'why,' and now it needs to answer the 'how.'
"This will be multiple billions of dollars, one of the biggest projects we've ever built in New Zealand, and it's really important we get it right. I think everyone would agree on that," Bishop said.
"So, all the expert advice on this from when you do a mega project from the Infrastructure Commission and from others is that you need to follow a proper, thorough process, and that's what we're doing.
"We're going to do a detailed business case. That will take a bit of time, but that will give Cabinet, whoever is in the Cabinet, whether it's us or another set of parties, that will give the Cabinet good decisions on how to make an informed decision, and that's what we're all about."
Bishop said the NTZA had done two investment cases into a bridge next to the existing one and also into a tunnel.
He said it looked at what's preferable to be built from engineering, network connectivity, and transport point of views.
Bishop said if he had announced then they were building a tunnel, he'd be asked to explain how.
"You would say, 'well, how are you going to pay for it?' And then you'd say, 'how much is it going to cost?' And then you'd say, 'when's it going to start?' And then you'd say, 'how's it going to be delivered?'
"We need to answer all of those questions because they're completely legitimate questions that the government has, and we need to do that work, and that's what we're going to do," he said.
"I think we're taking a very thorough, evidence-led approach to this."
He said another report did "absolutely" not mean they were back at square one.
"People who are framing it like that are, frankly, being a bit misleading and a bit mischievous," he said.
"There's been a huge amount of work done over the last two years or so, and, frankly, over the last four years, this whole process actually started with an indicative business case kicked off by the previous government."
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is backing a second bridge connecting Meola Reef in Point Chevalier with the North Shore. (Source: Breakfast)
Bishop said in 2027, Cabinet would be in a position to decide on what to build and how to pay for it.
"Once we have that information in a package, there'll be a range of options we look at, we'll be able to make an informed decision," he said.
"My hope would be that whoever is in government does it on a cross-party basis, because this will span multiple parliaments and multiple governments, and we need to get it right.
"We're setting the project up for success now and taking an evidence-led approach, which everyone says we should do, and I hope that we will end up with a good outcome next year."
Government's made no progress on Auckland harbour crossing - Hipkins
But Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the government had made no progress on a new Auckland harbour crossing in three years.
Hipkins told Morning Report when he was prime minister in 2023, he announced NZTA had indicated a tunnel was its "emerging preferred option", and ordered a detailed business case.
"Effectively the government have announced the same thing again yesterday, which is that... the likely preferred option is a tunnel, but that they'll also weigh up the potential for a bridge instead," he said.
"That's not really any progress on where we were three years ago."
The business case was necessary, Hipkins said - but he thought that's what was being completed over the last three years.
"It is important that you get a good, robust business case because we need to make sure that the choices that we make are the right choices, and that we're going to get good value for money for whatever spending that the government ultimately decides to spend."
Hipkins said if Labour was elected in November, it would support the business case continuing, and go from there.
Bishop said he was seeking bipartisan support on the project, and Hipkins said he was open to that.
"It's a project that's going to take decades to do, so I think it is important that we try and get some stability in the decision making here," Hipkins said.
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