Labour leader Chris Hipkins against tolls on Auckland Harbour Bridge, unsure on second crossing funded

The opposition leader is against tolling motorists $9 to cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and is unsure about where the money will come from to pay for a second crossing.

Last week, the Infrastructure Commission suggested to the Government a toll as high as $9 each way would need to apply to both the new and existing crossing to cover the costs of building a second Waitematā Harbour crossing.

The project is estimated to cost around $20 billion.

In his state of the nation speech yesterday, Chris Hipkins said if Labour came into power, it wouldn’t toll the existing harbour bridge.

“Labour supports a second harbour crossing. But we won’t penalise people for using the one that already exists,” Hipkins said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins unsure on plans to fund second harbour crossing. Photo/ Michael Craig

When asked on Ryan Bridge TODAY about how Labour intends to fund a second crossing, Hipkins said there’s no current fiscal plan by the party.

“No one will use a crossing tolled at $9 ... so we will need to figure out numbers first,” Hipkins said.

“We need to look at economic analysis of the benefit ... if it’s expensive and people don’t want to use it, then it answers itself.”

Hipkins said he was waiting on numbers to “figure out the how, when and why” around how to fund the second crossing.

“We haven’t seen the books yet, we don’t know what we’re dealing with.

“We’ll look at options that deliver best value for money and that’s not necessarily a gold-plated option.

“It’s [the crossing] 10 years away at least so we have plenty of time to come up with a fiscal plan.”

Hipkins pointed to National’s Road of Significance as an example of “driving up costs without knowing all the details first”.

“Kiwis have had enough of promises that aren’t kept. We’ve got to break out [the numbers] first and be realistic,” he said.

Hipkins encouraged borrowing money for things like infrastructure but said Labour won’t borrow just to “balance the books”.

The party leader said Labour won’t be announcing its fiscal plan until after the current coalition Government releases its budget plan.

In 2023, as Prime Minister, Hipkins announced plans to build a light rail from the city to the north shore.