National’s transport policy: Mayor Tory Whanau blasts ‘flaccid vision’ to scrap Let’s Get Wellington Moving

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has hit back at National’s “flaccid vision” to scrap the capital’s transport plan.

Christopher Luxon said this morning National would “absolutely” kill Wellington’s long-awaited transport plan ‘Let’s Get Wellington Moving’ (LGWM) if elected.

The announcement comes as National announced its transport policy, which also includes plans for four-lane highways from Whangārei to Tauranga to be built at a cost of $6 billion.

LGWM is a three-way partnership between Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. The Government’s preferred option for the plan includes light rail to the south and a second Mt Victoria tunnel.

Luxon told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning that the Government has “mucked around for way too long” on the transport plan, and that National would commit to scrapping it and just building a second tunnel through Mount Victoria.

Christopher Luxon. Photo / Alex Cairns

In response to these comments, Whanau said it was “disappointing” to see National “revert back to its tired, old National Roads of Significance policy with a four-lane highway to and from Wellington Airport.

“It will do nothing to grow the city, make it more liveable or tackle the climate crisis. Ramming through a four-lane highway and tunnel won’t win the votes of Wellingtonians who have shown consistent support for light rail in the city.”

Whanau went on to say it was poor timing given that the world has just experienced its hottest month on record.

“It’s very disappointing that a major political party is promoting more carbon emissions against the wishes of the public.”

Wellington City Councilor Ben McNulty told NZME Luxon’s proposal was “underwhelming” and would do little to fix the city’s congestion issue.

“It’s an underwhelming proposal at the heart of it – what LGWM tries to do is move more people in fewer vehicles. It makes travel by car more of a choice - what the Nats have put forward is the opposite of it.”

Green party candidate for Wellington Central, Tamatha Paul, said Luxon’s proposal would not work in Wellington.

“For decades, we have tried building more lanes as a response to broken transport networks. It never has and never will work. A basic 101 transport planning paper could tell you that. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.”

However,councillor Nicola Young, who placed a vote of no confidence in the plan last month, said she was “delighted” at what she called a common-sense response to Welington’s traffic woes.

“The sooner all this nonsense has stopped the better. I’m delighted at last there’s common sense about our traffic problems.”

National’s cost estimates ‘laughable at best’

Meanwhile Labour claims National’s policy costing is “laughable at best”.

National says it will not have to raise excise taxes and will fund it through the National Land Transport Fund and increased government investment.

It claims the roads will be safer and easier to drive on and this investment is necessary to strengthen the economy.

Transport Minister David Parker has responded by saying the plan was “breathtakingly misleading”.

This morning National leader Christopher Luxon told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking he “wouldn’t be taking any lessons from David Parker”.

“This is a man who wanted to spend $30 billion on light rail - we are going to scrap Auckland light rail. It’s a waste of time,” he said.

“We want roads of significance and will join up Tauranga to Whangārei, better public transport, particularly in Auckland.”

Luxon also said the party would prioritise a second tunnel in Wellington and kill the “Let’s Get Wellington Moving” campaign.

“The Mt Vic tunnel is about $2.2 billion and we want to get onto that pretty quickly,” he said.

Roads around the county would be “upgraded and properly maintained and sorted” under National.

“We’ve got to have some vision in this country and part of that is making sure we have a very strong roading network,” he said.

“Better roads would allow more houses to be built and give some reason for New Zealanders to stay here.”

Vita Molyneux is a Wellington-based journalist who covers breaking news and stories from the capital. She has been a journalist since 2018 and joined the Herald in 2021.