KEY POINTS:
Privatisation opponents warned a Government-appointed steering committee yesterday that Aucklanders would not tolerate a $1.89 billion set of motorway tunnels through Waterview built and operated as a public-private partnership (PPP).
"This PPP is aimed at putting more of the load on to the poor and the working class," Avondale resident Jim Gladwin of the lobby group Citizens Against Privatisation told a panel of three of the committee's seven members, including its chairman, former Chief Ombudsman Sir Brian Elwood.
"Please tell the Government we do not want a road that is privatised, and if they can't do it themselves: forget it."
Lobby group spokeswoman Rose Hollins suggested Aucklanders may resort to blockading the two tunnels, rather than pay tolls to drive through them. She called for the project to be bankrolled through progressive general taxation, the traditional method for ensuring public infrastructure was paid for by those who could most afford it.
The steering committee says its role is not to make recommendations to the Government on tolls, but it intends considering these to the extent they may "impact on the attractiveness of a PPP for the Waterview Connection."
Sir Brian told the pair, who were joined by Water Pressure Group anti-privatisation campaigner Penny Bright, that the committee's task was to determine whether there was a willingness in the private sector to enter into a partnership with the Government on the country's most expensive roading project.
The Government has asked the committee - comprising three private-sector representatives and three from Government departments as well as Sir Brian - to compare the most suitable forms of public-private partnerships with the best conventional method of procuring the project to determine which would deliver the best "value for money."
It must report to Finance Minister Michael Cullen and Transport Minister Annette King by the end of next month.
Ms Hollins also took exception, in the absence of better public transport alternatives, to a suggestion by Transit NZ that tolls may be necessary as a "travel demand management" tool to keep the tunnels clear of congestion.
"We don't have public transport in Auckland, but you're planning to charge us for every mile we travel on our roads to encourage mode shift."
Ms Bright said there had been no cost-benefit analysis of services which local councils contracted out to the private sector, and she challenged the steering committee to obtain facts to support "a mantra that PPPs are more efficient."
She said she was refusing to pay her rates bills because of the large proportion of Auckland City Council funds paid to contractors and advice from Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee that his organisation did not hold any specific reports about the cost-benefit of public subsidies to private-owned passenger transport companies.
Whangaparaoa resident Jan Gillespie said she did not believe there could be any real partnership between a profit-driven private sector and the Government which is obliged to provide public infrastructure.
