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I see provincial Labour MPs have a campaign to ensure Auckland doesn’t get the big 3 rail projects Len Brown promises.
Labour MP Stuart Nash, writing on Labour’s blog on the day of the new supercouncil, tells Auckland to buzz off when it comes to wanting Government to help with this.
Under the heading “There is life beyond the Bombays,” he writes:
“All this posturing, threats and huge budget promises re Auckland from their new councillors etc makes me shake my head in disbelief. … if Aucklanders think they have pre-eminent rights on all of our taxes then they need to pull their heads out from their nether-regions and get real.”
Thanks Labour. I was wondering why Goff and your transport spokesman had not said an audible word about Len’s big rail plans. Only the Greens have issued statements calling on Len’s plans to get Government help.
Nash’s attitude to Auckland is typical of the small minded attitude the rest of the country has and why Auckland will never get to be a real super city if such MPs get into government.
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15 Comments
To be fair Phil Twyford (Labour’s spokesman for Auckland Issues), David Shearer and Chris Hipkins have written at considerable length in Red Alert blog posts in support of rail and the CBD tunnel.
Nash’s post is more than likely an example of his own provincial thinking (and posted at 11pm not well thought through) rather than being Labour policy.
What a idiot, this is exactly the kind of provincial crap that holds this country back. Perhaps Auckland should send him and his supporters a bill for our share of the roads we have helped pay for.
Sorry, but his attitude really does pale into insignificance when compared to Nationals Bill English.
“Sorry, but his attitude really does pale into insignificance”
It does however allow people like English to say “see, the rest of the country agrees with me - you want too much”.
It also obscures the fact that per-capita, we are still getting less than we are paying for. People like Nash are using cheap populism to keep being subsidised by others.
That attitude is pandering and encouraging the old ignorant city vs. rest divide just because he has some crazy idea it might work politically. Perhaps he’d be more at home at NZ first.
We pay a pretty big chunk of tax in Auckland, it’d be nice to finally have some say in how its spent. I hope that voters in Napier see this scare-mongering for what it is.
Also Labour should remember the party vote message sent to them from large swings in Auckland at the last general election.
This man is an idiot. If this is an example of their thinking they deserve a long, long time in opposition.
Can someone pass on to Mr Nash that I would rather him to catch the Airport rail line to than use a taxpayer funded taxi ride the next time he is in Auckland
Luke, he probably spends a lot more time in Welly than in Auckland, which makes this doubly ironic.
He studied at Auckland Uni, contested Epsom for Labour in 2005 and was Director of Strategic Developments at AUT University from 2006-2008.
So the comments are major blunder on his part
If that’s the case, it’s not a blunder, but indeed pandering to local prejudices.
I mean, I have no clue what a “Director of Strategic Developments” does, but it sounds like he should know more about Auckland than to simply rubbish rail ambitions, or pander to the “Auckland is sucking the rest of the country dry” claim.
So a regional MP makes a statement supporting trains elsewhere? He means well for his region but he’s not the Labour Party’s Transport spokeperson or he would know that Labour’s 2008 Policy Manifesto gave a commitment to Auckland rail
“Labour will continue to increase funding… for public transport and energy efficient freight transport modes such as rail.
Major initiatives in the past nine years have included the $340 million Northern Busway project and the buy back of rail. We have recently announced another major project: the electrification of Auckland’s rail network. Labour will provide around $500 million as its share to help Auckland Regional Council ensure that by 2013 at the latest, Auckland’s rail network will be electrified, modern, will run frequently and on time.”
That was in 2008 so costs may need updating, but the Party’s support for sustainable transport now is probably even stronger than it was then.See More
@Kay Thanks for that historical background but the point I made in the post is that Goff and Hughes have been noticeably absent from the current Auck train debate even though their favoured candidate got elected as Mayor.
Hughes issued a statement yesterday on the Wellington coastal road but I have not sighted a word from him or Goff on the train debate.
By contrast, the Greens’ Gareth Hughes has been extremely active taking the government to task for not buying into Len Brown’s 3 projects and has been leading a campaign for the CBD loop.
Come next year’s election, those disappointed the government isn’t coming to the party will know who to vote for and Labour will find it missed an opportunity- or do they not actually agree with Brown’s plans? Who would know because they have not said.
I suspect Labour are deathly afraid of being seen as fiscally irresponsible “tax and spend” guys. The biggest club-with-nails the right has ever invented against the left since the right lost the culture wars.
Despite the fact that it’s a myth in most countries and most administrations.
This doesn’t seem like an anti Auckland campaign to me and just what is a super city?
Ian, we don’t know either - its the label Rodney Hide and his fellows used (at least I think that is where it got popularised, somebody else may have invented it).