Today’s Budget will lead our transport network down a road of more emissions and more misery.
“The Coalition Government is stuck in a time warp, obsessed with building a handful of expensive highways to take us back to the past with them,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Transport, Julie Anne Genter.
“New Zealand has had an unbalanced transport budget for decades. The vast majority of the transport budget has been going to roads, that’s why so many people have to use a car to get anywhere.
“Funnelling an additional $1 billion from this Budget into roads of National Party significance is ridiculous and irresponsible. This will result in huge costs for our climate and our people.
“”We will be paying back these projects for decades, just to wind up stuck in traffic again. Investments that improve public transport, walking and biking cost far less, and have higher benefits – unlike vanity roading projects.”
“The investment in rail is necessary to keep our metro networks in Auckland and Wellington functional, but that is all. Overall, this Budget contains a woeful lack of new investment in low-carbon and low-cost ways of moving people and goods.
“Investment in roads over everything else robs New Zealanders of the resilient transport system they deserve, and pours more petrol on the climate crisis fire.
“Owning and maintaining a car is very expensive for people – yet they have no other alternative when we neglect investing in the alternatives, like public transport networks, and safe walking and biking routes to schools for our kids.
“The Government is displaying short-term thinking by neglecting to invest adequately in upgrading shipping and port infrastructure as well as rail freight connections. So much for a government that says it wants to help business get moving, says Julie Anne Genter.
“This government wants to drive New Zealand back to the 1950s where simply adding lanes to urban highways guides our response to congestion – instead of moving people and goods more efficiently. This approach makes our necessary transition to a more resilient transport system with sustainable alternatives so much harder,” says Julie Anne Genter.