Far North roads

I have to ask, how can we trust National MP Matt King?

His party was in power for nine years, and promised to widen 10 one-lane bridges. We are still waiting, Matt. Also a super fourlane highway between Auckland and Whangarei. Still waiting, Matt.

There was never any mention of investment i nto roading between Whangarei and Kaitaia, but increased tonnage on trucks, from 44 to 50 tonnes on rural roads in the Far North, without any improvements.

Perhaps Matt can provide the extra road user charges and the GST his government gained for the extra six-tonne gross weight paid going to the Government, at the cost of road repairs, to the taxpayers.

Many roads in the Far North are being destroyed by logging trucks. They were good secondary roads but should now be state highways because of truck tonnage weight allowed by Matt’s team, the National Party.

Tell us the truth, Matt. Where is the main trunk rail to Kaitaia and Northport, the upgrading of SH1 north of Whangarei, the 10 twolane bridges and reclassifying of secondary roads to state highways?

I will tell you where they are — non-existent. Governments fleece billions of dollars each year from the Far North with GST, excise tax etc, leaving the ratepayer to foot the bill for road repairs.

Time to wake up, Matt King. You are in la la land. This is the real world we are in.

With National’s policies, many people are in poverty or struggling in the Far North, and no amount of bull crap is going to improve the lives of the young or hard-working people.

Tell us, what’s the future for the Far North with the next harvest of logs? Road trains with trucks towing three trailers, 100-tonne loads with no roading upgrades? I know that the 50-tonne allowable load at present is hardly profitable now, so how can it be profitable in another 20-30 years, with everrising costs?

Is it your intent to screw wages down, or place a larger burden on ratepayers, creating more poverty? JOHN BASSETT Diggers’ Valley

Matt King responds.

We made the 10-bridge promise at the 2015 byelection. By 2017 the three most important, substantial and expensive bridges were under construction, which is exceptional given the usual time frames achieved for major roading pro- jects.

The promise to build the four-lane highway between Auckland and Whangarei was made during the 2017 election campaign, to be built over 10 years. In 2017 the first leg from Puhoi to Warkworth was under construction, and scoping work for two other legs was well under way.

We completed substantial upgrade work to the value of millions on State Highway 1 at Akarana, north of Whangarei.

We reclassified Mangakahia Rd, between Kaikohe to south of Whangarei as a state highway, which takes the burden of maintenance and upgrade work off local ratepayers on to central government. This represents a substantial saving to Northlanders, and over time provides an alternate route for heavy transport in Northland. The current government has been responsible for massive increases in fuel costs in just one year by increasing national and regional fuel excise taxes at a rate far higher than the previous National government did.

During National’s last term we were experiencing job creation at a rate of 10,000 jobs per month. Northland topped the regional growth rate in 2017 for two quarters, and has been near the top for many more quarters. Employers were struggling to expand their businesses because they could not get labour.

We enjoyed the longest period of low interest and inflation rates for many decades. The average wage rose at twice the rate of inflation, and despite the political rhetoric, the gap between the rich and poor did not widen.

In terms of Maori, we had the biggest improvement in academic achievement ever achieved, and improving health outcomes. We secured 46 individual Treaty settlements in our nine years in office, as opposed to only eight in Labour’s previous nine-year tenure.

It is our view that State Highway 1 is not fit for purpose given Northland’s economic growth over the l ast f i ve years. A dual carriageway, purpose-built, well-engineered motorway will be the key driver of continued economic growth in Northland.

Rail is not the answer in Northland, as they need bulk and distance to compete with trucks, and we don’t have either. It is not costeffective to offload logs from trucks on to trains to take to the port, even if the rail line went right to the port.

I dispute many claims John Bassett makes, and ask that he do his research before putting pen to paper.