Shane
JONES
Transport Spokesperson

5 August 2011 MEDIA STATEMENT
Minister for Warkworth should let Auckland think for itself

Minister for Warkworth Steven Joyce should stop meddling in Auckland’s internal politics, and let the city determine for itself how it can best shape its own transport future, says Labour’s Transport spokesperson Shane Jones.

“Steven Joyce should butt out of Auckland’s deliberations,” Shane Jones said.

“He is fixated with building his holiday highway for his rich mates to travel from Puhoi to Warkworth, and he’s allowing that to cloud his views of anything else Auckland is trying to achieve.

“Auckland, however, has other priorities--- like the inner city rail loop, and a host of other infrastructure projects that will need funding from one source or another over the next decade or so,” Shane Jones said.

“Quite rightly, Mayor Len Brown and his council are looking for innovative funding solutions. Steven Joyce is rubbishing them even before people can start thinking about them.

“These solutions might not be Mr Joyce’s cup of tea, but if Aucklanders are prepared to debate them, then the prince of tarmac has no right to try to kill off that debate before it even properly begins,” Shane Jones said.

“As the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development said today, Len Brown should be applauded for broaching the politically prickly but absolutely fundamental question of transport funding.

“The Minister for Warkworth has a one-highway mind that ill prepares him even to participate in the greater Auckland debate.
“We are talking about the Super City that National created,” Shane Jones said. “A Super City is surely entitled to at least a small mind of its own. It doesn’t need a closed and arrogant mind telling it what to think.”

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