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Great to see a vote for National, means more rail in the future.
BILLBOARD: National promises more rail in the brighter future
What could that refer to?
It must mean a guarantee that the CBD Rail Link is happening.
But then this billboard is near Devonport so maybe it means a North Shore rail link.
More rail certainly means no less rail which also means the provincial rail must be safe.
26 Comments
Must be a Tui ad.
Making a Brighter Future … in Hawaii
Getting us back to surplus … After going $12 billion backwards in a year,
and now this one, it’s hard to say anything other than,
to use the Australian vernacular,
National are full of shit.
“ROADS, RAIL, AND BROADBAND” belies a phenomenal lack of understanding by the policy makers and/or the campaigners. Dumping all these things into Bucket 5 because it’s all infrastructure is a sick joke modelled on Toogood-era reruns of “It’s In The Bag”.
i consider this neither an election promise nor a harbinger of anything good.
Vacuous, self serving, myopic and directionless, and we have at least another three years from them.
It’s ironic that a government stuck so firmly in the past is campaigning on a bright future.
The National Party, dreamers of the future based on the past.
If they get three more years, that is it. They will most probably do major damage to NZ’s rail transport and state asset infrastructure on their way out. Almost Gadaffi syndrome.
Hope National stays in. They don’t do anything, but that is also a good thing at times. Green and Labour will improve the economy, but they have rubbish social policies (minimum wage increase, legalised marijuana).
John Key does well to promote NZ overseas though. I don’t know anyone better than him at that.
The choice of the majority of voters is either going to be for Greens or National.
Labour, now full to the brink with ugly lesbians and unionists, wants to charge us “a small levy” to use the internet. They want to remove the power of the individual employee and give it to the union. They want to discourage anyone from starting a business. They want to increase our taxes, and spend our money how they think it should be spent (and I don’t mean on infrastructure, I mean on election bribes).
It’s a pity these billboards are so meaningless. Although it’s better than Labour’s tactic: insulting John Key because he is rich and has been to Hawaii.
tbird- Levy to use the internet? WTF? When did they release this?
I agree with you about Greens vs national. Damn, labour can’t even be bothered to put up an electable leader, or make some decent hay over the Rena cockup.
Road Transport Forum still dictating policy it seems…
The National Party signs are pretty galling.
Sorry Chris but doing nothing except worrying about getting re-elected is why we have had a credit downgrade and up to our eye balls in debt, too scared to make tough unpopular decisions.
Surely………..
The Brighter Future signs are missing - “Only if you move to Australia”.
The Balancing the books signs are missing - “By Flogging off what State Assets are left”.
“Labour, now full to the brink with ugly lesbians and unionists, ”
tbirds, why would anyone not already drinking your cool-aid take your comments serious after such a stupid, mean-spirited attack?
I don’t even talk about Labour. You could have been talking about National, or about penguins. You are full of irrational bull**** if that is your opening line.
Also, tbird, without unionists, you’d not be posting on the net - you’d be at work in the factory, because it is SATURDAY, and one WORKS on Saturday, you lazy layabout!
I actually saw that sign when I was out and I thought to myself how long it’s going to take to end up on this site =)
Chris, that you think the Greens are about “legalised” marijuana says that you haven’t actually read their policies you just rely on rehashed bollocks parroted by a media too ignorant and bigoted to do more than spout National’s talking points.
If you’re going to reject a party because of their policies, at least know what those policies actually are, rather than relying on what you glean from the media. Especially when it’s the Greens, who don’t have sycophantic journos fawning over their every word and reprinting it verbatim.
Labour/labour
I was going to make it Labour/NZ First but that would be the waste of a perfectly good vote.
Since National’s billboards are more about deception and tricking people into voting for them, maybe we should come up with some more honest billboard slogans for them. Feel free to add to these suggestions:
“Brrrmm, brrrmm” with a piccie of Steven Joyce instead on John Key
“Born to rule”
“Dumbing down education so you’re more likely to vote for us”
“It’s a smirk not a smile” with a picture of John Key.
“Let us f*ck up the economy some more”
or inspired by some recent signs in the media:
“The trickle down is really us pissing on you”
Now now to be fair National have spent quite a lot on Kiwirails turnaround plan. they could have said no money but instead they are trying to get the rail network back into shape. im sure it would never be enough for some people though.
Same poster is here in Wellington, so maybe its a nationwide campaign? Light rail to the airport and some integrated ticketing please
It doesn’t matter whether National or Labour lead the government, as KiwiRail funding is determined by big business, not government.
Labour bought it back for $690m, and National is doing it up for $4.6b, because of the efforts of the Rail Freight Action Group, not because of any ideological standpoint.
Neither National nor Labour have any vision of their own for KiwiRail. It’s up to the users and KR management, and through their lobbying, and proven business plans, they get the funding from government, be it National or Labour.
That’s why we don’t see new passenger trains being started - the passenger transport industry doesn’t lobby for them, as the freight industry does for freight infrastructure.
Don’t look to government for rail vision. Look to the users, as it’s their vision the government funds.
@Geoff
“Don’t look to government for rail vision. Look to the users, as it’s their vision the government funds.”
or doesn’t in the case of the Auckland CBD Loop.
@Pubilus. I agree with you. For instance, there has been a lot of money spent on the Wellington commuter network (think double tracking, signaling, new trains). It’s sometimes easy to forget this.
@Nigel. Re Wellington Rail upgrade- money was committed before National got in. It’s sometimes easy to forget this. The only thing you can say about them is that they didn’t cancel it.
And now their Wellington masterplan is a damn stupid motorway flyover in a residential neighbourhood.
Don’t forget that there is also the godammed holiday highway that Nationaliers want to throw in…….-.-’
Nigel, National haven’t funded a single new commuter rail project. Not one. Everything for which they’re claiming credit has been underway since the previous government, and as Handlebars Matt says, the only positive thing you can say for National is that they haven’t cancelled the funding.
As for KiwiRail, Joyce has made it pretty clear that, were it not for the money already sunk in by Labour, he’d be quite happy to slash the entire thing and throw the carcass to the private sector wolves for finishing-off. His “generous” turnaround funding package of $750m over three years (all the rest of the $4.5b has to come from KR’s operational revenue) is about half of one year’s funding for his 10-year Roads of Dubious Significance vision (which I understand is the thick end of $30b).
Matt - Not quite true, they this year funded some more upgrades for Wellington network that weren’t part of the initial works so that is new spending. Also while the money from the turnaround plan is mostly coming from operating revenue you have to remember that as a result Kiwirail will not be paying any form of dividend like other SOE’s have to do.
“Nigel, National haven’t funded a single new commuter rail project. Not one. ”
@Matt - cars arent that bad. Ive changed from train commuter to driving the car everyday and its actually very nice.
@Matt, when a government announces a project it does not spontaneously pay for it upfront. The annual grants applied to DART and WRRP projects have been made as much under National as Labour.
As for announcing new projects, a number of new DART stages have been planned since National came to power, and some additional projects to that are also planned, such as the third main south of Otahuhu.
Geoff, again, you’re wrong. Major capital projects are up-front funded. The money for DART, etc, was held aside on the books from the Budget where Labour announced them. Similarly with Waterview, the money for it will be held aside in future Budgets unless the project gets cancelled.
It may not be paid for upfront, but the money is reserved in the Crown accounts until completion or cancellation. National did not reserve a cent, they just refrained from cancelling the projects.