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Labour has been reminded that their record on giving locals rail jobs isn’t that flash.
During their term of office, the decision was made to build Wellington’s new Matangi trains in South Korea.
For the past 2 days in Parliament, Labour MPs have been attacking transport minister Steven Joyce about the KiwiRail announcement of potential jobs being lost at the Hillside workshops with rolling stock being ordered from overseas.
The Minister told the Labour MPs it was a KiwiRail decision.
“It is for KiwiRail to determine the best mix of resources it needs to try to turn-round its operations. It is an organisation of some 4,000 staff, it needs to be turned-round successfully, and it is very challenging to do so. We need it to be able to make sensible business decisions, and we need to stop asking KiwiRail to do something that we would ask of no other New Zealand company.”
He said the Government does not expect any other company or organisation in the country to maintain the exact same workforce and the exact same roles for ever and a day.
“It would be great if we could do that, but we do not do that. They have to have the ability to adapt and make changes, and that is no different from any other organisation in this country.”
And he reminded Labour that under their watch, Wellington trains were ordered from South Korea.
The next day Labour’s David Parker (no sign of Shane Jones) tried to argue that at that time the railways were not owned by KiwiRail but by Toll, and the tender was not from either Toll or the then Government, but rather from the Greater Wellington Regional Council.
The Minister countered by saying the previous Labour Government provided $200 million of funding through the National Land Transport Programme to the Greater Wellington Regional Council to purchase new electric trains. It could have placed any condition it chose on Greater Wellington’s procurement, but in fact decided not to.
“I understand that the then Minister of Transport was at the signing ceremony for the purchase of the trains. That Government placed no limits on the procurement whatsoever, and Labour members are now sitting in Opposition and saying that they would have done it differently if it had been them. That is absolute rubbish.”
Matangi were built in South Korea
He has a point.
Labour’s record on rail was patchy and they came to the table late with electrification and issues like the New Lynn transport hub that finance minister Cullen initially rejected.
They still give no sign of embracing rail. Shane Jones is still missing in action, and the Greens have been the party actively campaigning on both the CBD rail issue and provincial line closures with only a very odd statement from someone in Labour -such as Clare Curran who has been active on her local Hillside closure issue.
Labour love to criticise in the traditional Opposition role.
It’s time they started leading from the front and advocating policy -such as how the CBD link could be funded - if they ever want to be taken seriously again.
12 Comments
Well here’s Jacinda v Nikki:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10730975
And on the CRL:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10729361
Labour wasn’t claiming that they were taking measures to grow the economy, however. National are meant to be helping us recover from the economic crunch, whereas Labour were presiding over a thriving economy.
Anyone spotting the difference?
To be fair I think if Labour had their time over again or now they would be building trains here to some degree.
And it was Labour who presided over the rebuilds of British Rail stock in NZ, not Aussie as was the way in the 70′s with the DA to DC conversions.
Trevor Mallard was keen on constructing locomotives here but there was criticism I recall.
@Matt, Good point to regarding presiding over a thriving economy.
Weren’t the Matangis ordered by the GWRC?
Nothing to do with the Gummint?
@Chris R Yes.. but read the post. The Minister countered by saying the previous Labour Government provided $200 million of funding through the National Land Transport Programme to the Greater Wellington Regional Council to purchase new electric trains. It could have placed any condition it chose on Greater Wellington’s procurement, but in fact decided not to.the then Minister of Transport was at the signing ceremony for the purchase of the trains.
Sure Labour’s performance is patchy but does anyone think for a moment that rail would be advancing the way it is had National been in power 1999 through 2008?
Jon, did Hillside try and bid for the Matangi work? We know they tried to get work on all of the KR projects that are underway at present, but I don’t recall if they sought to build the Matangis.
Plus, of course, there’s a fairly significant difference between entirely new classes of EMUs and a bunch of freight wagons.
Also, National ought to be very bloody careful about using funding out of the NLTP for rail projects as a stick against Labour, given that disallowing such funding was one of National’s first actions.
@Jon C agreed - but the Government didn’t place the same restrictions on KR did it?
@ Patrick R. Oh yes, the blogging spot that the Herald offers to Nikki & Jacinda but mysteriously denies to MPs from any other party
If only Gareth was a hot female brunette, then he would get a place to spout pro-rail beliefs as well no doubt…
To be fair, Labour are full of it. About the only good thing you can say about them is that they’re less worse than National.
@George
They are both pretty bad….
Oh who am i kidding they are both VERY bad. Im not really a Green supporter but It looks like I got no choice….
Anthony, I don’t think they’re terrible. But they seem to have awful blindspots and like to criticise other people for policies they hold themselves in whole or part. That’s the really galling thing - I want them to do what they claim they’re going to do (and have done what they claim, but it’s too late for that).