More policy on the hoof

Brash says he wants to spend $750m on expressways in the Waikato.

Cool. Let's turn the whole region into a giant grid of roads.

How much are we going to get in Wellington?

How inadequate was the government's $18.6bn package, Don?

$2bn light?

$5bn light?

$10bn light?

If it's light, where are you going to get the money from, on top of your tax cuts and defence spending hikes and more for police and more for health and more expensive welfare and...?

This is the classic example of why people on the right are beginning to turn away from National again - just as they did in 2002. There is little credibility in a party whose leader seems to go around making up policy on the road, and trying to buy people's votes off them with pork-barrel spending. No wonder support for National is flatlining while support for NZ First is rising. Whatever else you might say about Winston, at least nobody pretends he's serious.

Comments

[Conservative Spice]

I've got an idea: let's build a dual carriageway Super Expressway (named the Ruth Richardson Memorial Freeway) from Auckland to Wellington with a McDonalds and KFC super service centre every 60 kms, thereby bypassing every single town in between! It will be much more convenient for commuters who can get from one place to the other in as little as six hours! Super express buses could be in order as well!!!

Another project is a toll bridge across Cook Strait! That would be a monument for the world to watch in awe! After that a tollway from Picton to Dunedin would be in order.

Funding? Not as hard as it seems. Scrap maternity leave and student allowances while raising university fees by 50%. After all, education benefits them financially in the long run, so why shouldn't they contribute?

And all of this would be a golden opportunity to institute a Work for the Dole scheme! A lot of digging ditches would certainly be required!

[Jordan]

New Zealand First beat you to it - except it was the Winston's Brylcreem Expressway. Seriously, they did promise a $2bn four-laning of the part of State Highway 1 that is in the North Island. It went nowhere.

[David Farrar]

National's policy is very explicit. The $600 million a year that goes into the consolidated fund from petrol tax will be spent on roads instead. The policy will be implemented over six years.

Labour's $18.6bn over ten years sounds a lot but it leaves us well below what otehr countries spend on roads. In fact it is no more than the average increase over time.

National's policies will deliver an additional $4.5 billion over the ten years. That will allow for safer roads with less congestion.

The $600 million a year less income for the consolidated fund, is well well below the forecast surplus levels.

[Mr K]

Why is it that people here still persist in believing (saying that they 'think' would be flattering them) that building roads reduces congestion? All the evidence from around the world is that building more roads only encourages more people into their cars and on to the roads, in the mistaken belief that they can get from A to B quicker. Far more sensible to invest in more busses, or - dare I say it - trains.

[Gooner]

Would the more busses levitate Mr K, or would they travel on the roads?

[Tristan]

Damn! who the hell cares what "other" countries spend on roads, or defence or any other bloody thing... surely there is a better way to decide how we spend out money that what the neighbours are doing!

[GeniusNZ]

Its just classic opposition party stuff.
rather like the far left on politics. You say a whole lot of stuff that sounds good on its face and dont worry about if it actually works or not.

By the way I dont know anywhere where buses have solved transport problems. they only vaguely improve the situation. it is not the roads but the buses that are the tiny bandage on the fatal wound.

I suggest.. wait for it... tube apartments! a few hundred thousand apartments in the city in huge buildings all about big enough to fit a normal person lying down.
Just like japan but even better ! stupid council laws requiring us to live in such huge spaces and therefore have to pay so much for them.

[sagenz]

cool - lets not build the roads and watch hundreds more people die overtaking around maramarua and meremere on roads inadequate for the traffic there

[Sean]

Jordan - if you honestly think spending $750 million on an expressway in the Waikato would "turn the whole region into a giant grid of roads" you are absolutely clueless. Using such reasoning, the recent defence budget increase should buy us a wing of F-22's, a division of M1's, and a carrier battle group! But it isn't reasoning - is it?

[Graham watson]

Lets get real here, improving the state highways from auckland to hamilton , and East to tauranga is a great policy. A huge percentage of new zealand's population lives in this zone,there is high traffic volume and it constitutes something like half the national economic activity.

I wish these left blogs went beyond blind partisan assertions. I am sure that if Clark came out with this policy Jordan would be spinning " we have decided to rebuild some of the national roading infrastructure seriously neglected by the previous National government, by directly returning the recently levied petrol tax on upgraded roads. This illustrates our commitment to road safety and providing an infrastructure for businees to prosper and the people to enjoy leisure pursuits".

Please don't insult my intelligence by telling me you wouldn't, the spin I've seen recently on this site speaks for itself.

Sometimes I wish party hacks would have the decency to praise a policy advanced by their opposition if it is good.

I support at least one thing from all parties, and given the relative homogeneity of political views in our society never cease to marvel at the joke that is made of public policy when presented in black and white terms.

It is little wonder so many new Zealanders are turned off political involvement by the single minded tit for tat behaviour of politicians and hacks from most parties.

[kakariki]

Youz just don't get it. Sure the Nats want to spend x money on roads, x money on defence (list goes on..) AND they want to cut taxes. If you're wondering who's going to pay for it, the answer is obvious. Our kids, and their kids, and their kids.

[Gooner]

Let's spend heaps more on Health shall we. From this morning's Herald, and quoted from a locum GP:

"My tale of two cities would suggest the public sector responds inappropriately to acute problems and to significant but non-urgent ones.
When we look at the significant investment in the health sector over the past four years, it is devastating to see how little effect it has had.
Pouring more money into the system without significant functional change is like pouring water into a coarse sieve.
I have wondered for the past 20 years when common sense will triumph so that the health sector serves the population and ceases to be self-serving and inefficient".

Nuff said.

[Jordan]

David - money which is already spent on transport-related costs. How much more are you planning to give away out of this non-existant pot of gold?

[Michael Wood]

I drive between Auckland and Hamilton about twice a month for work purposes.

Funny thing is, unless I'm mistaken, they're already building the road in question. A couple of large segments have already been converted to a 4 lane highway, and there is currently a massive amount of work going on to extend this section by section.

When the current work in progress is completed, virtually all of the road from Auckland to Huntly will be 4 laned. What is Brash talking about?

[dogsbody]

"All the evidence from around the world is that building more roads only encourages more people into their cars and on to the roads"

Or, to put it another way, there is strong evidence that not enough roads are being built to meet the pent-up demand.

Brash's plan, then, is probably not ambitious enough.