Labour utterly incapable of transport delivery

The Government’s flagship $8.7 billion NZ Upgrade transport package is in disarray and in danger of going the way of Auckland Light Rail, National’s Transport spokesperson Simeon Brown says.

“Labour’s ridiculous decision to cancel National’s pipeline of infrastructure projects to prioritise the ghost train that is Auckland Light Rail has almost guaranteed that Labour will not deliver a single major transport project they promised.

“Some of the NZ Upgrade projects were fully funded under National and have now been restarted after Labour initially cancelled them, but reports of cost blowouts and massive delays show the dire situation the programme is in.

"Only Labour can spend millions of dollars and not deliver anything.

“Ten projects in the NZ Upgrade programme are now in serious jeopardy of not being delivered on time and within budget. Six other projects are trending towards cost blowouts and time delays. Only two are set to be delivered on time and within budget. 

"This is a Government that couldn’t deliver KiwiBuild, hasn't delivered Auckland Light Rail as promised, and now they can’t even build roads that were previously funded and ready to go.

“New Zealanders deserve much better from Government when it comes to delivering major infrastructure projects. It's pretty clear that Michael Wood is just another Phil Twyford - all talk and no delivery."