Labour gets it right for Auckland

This ad from the New Zealand Labour Party underscores an important part of Labour's transport policy, released today: Labour will contribute $1.2 billion to Auckland’s rail link, which National opposes because they favour roads. To pay for it, Labour will cancel National’s “holiday highway”, the $1.69 billion motorway extension from Puhoi to Wellsford. I think this is the right thing to do.

Labour’s plans would make a much less expensive round of improvements to the road, which is prudent in this economy, anyway, but it also frees up allocated money to go to public transport, which Auckland desperately needs. All political parties have long acknowledged that Auckland’s traffic and transport problems cost the country dearly, but National’s solution has been limited almost exclusively to road construction. That’s just sanding some of the rough edges off the problem, but leaving the real problem unaddressed. Labour’s plan will help to finally deal with the problem.

At the risk of making the obvious pun, Labour’s clearly on the right track.