Phone runs hot over $1b region fund
Shane Jones says he has already fielded phone calls from regional figures lobbying for money from a new provincial development fund established as part of the LabourNZ First coalition arrangement.
Almost no detail has been given about the new ‘‘Regional Development (Provincial Growth) Fund’’, aside from that it would cover the capital cost of planting 100 million trees a year, would make ‘‘significant’’ investment in regional rail, and would commission a feasibility study of options for moving Ports of Auckland.
Jones, named yesterday as the new Regional Economic Development Minister, told reporters that people from across the country had begun calling him.
‘‘We’re going to use it [the fund] for neglected provincial infrastructure projects, not the least of which, some of which, will be rail,’’ Jones said.
‘‘There’s already been a host of requests on my cellphone from regional airports and a variety of other things.’’
The fund will have $1 billion a year allocated to it.
‘‘The vast majority of it is dedicated to the capital projects that people tell us have been neglected over the last nine years.’’
Jones said incoming Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had indicated strict budgetary rules would have to be followed, and the funding available would not be enough to meet possible demand.
Details of how the money would be allocated were still to be teased out when the new Cabinet meets.
However, Jones said new Labour Party ministers David Parker and Grant Robertson would establish criteria ‘‘so that allocation decisions meet a very high threshold’’.