KEY POINTS:
Labour says a six-year allocation of up to $19.4 billion for transport other than rail infrastructure spells efficient planning rather than "half-baked" political wish-lists.
Transport Minister Annette King said yesterday, in announcing an updated policy package, that Labour was promising certainty around spending on a balanced portfolio including roads, public transport, rail and sea freight, and walking and cycling.
Although National says it will trump Labour by borrowing an extra $2.2 billion over six years for transport and associated infrastructure, Ms King accused the rival party of lining up with truckies and bitumen suppliers. "They throw some crumbs at public transport and a nod at other modes, but it's all about roads and trucks," she said. "That's very bad planning ... in my view."
She noted that the only specific transport infrastructure announcement made by National had been for an extra $790 million over 10 years for the Waikato Expressway, which she said was in defiance of an orderly planning process already underway, while still leaving big funding gaps.
"Why the Waikato, why just that one? It was pure pork-barrel politics and the investment into the Waikato area over the last nine years by this Government has been huge."
Labour's package contains no big new announcements, being centred around confirmation of a Government policy statement issued in August which promises between $15.3 billion and $19.4 billion for land transport for the six years from next July.
Ms King said that did not include more spending on rail infrastructure, which Finance Minister Michael Cullen has indicated will amount to about $2 billion for electrification projects in Auckland and Wellington and to make the most of the Government's $690 million buyback of KiwiRail.
But she said Labour's "open book" policy offered a level of certainty not forthcoming from National, even though Dr Cullen has left voters guessing over a supplementary infrastructure package to be announced next month, if his party is returned to power. "Sustainable and efficient transport policies are built on planning and certainty not on half-baked and poorly considered political wish lists," Ms King said.
"When we came into Government in 1999, we inherited a transport policy that was more like a dried arrangement. Since then, we have been working as hard as we possibly can to back-fill the decade of infrastructure deficit that National bequeathed to us."
Labour's policy package promises to devote all revenue raised from petrol tax, road user charges and vehicle registration fees to land transport, a practice for which it has passed new legislation.
