The National Party needs to clarify its position on toll roads, says the car buyers’ Dog & Lemon Guide.
Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson said today:
“National is promising public-private partnerships in order to build new roads. That sounds fine on paper. However, taxpayers need to know what the real-world costs of these public-private partnerships will be.”
The Dog & Lemon Guide has posed a number of questions to the National Party.
- In 2006, Treasury concluded that funding roads by tolls was less efficient than simply building them from taxes. What is National’s response to this?
- One of National’s advisors is former party leader Jim McLay, who is executive chairman of Macquarie New Zealand, a branch of a major Australian builder of toll roads.Because of the clear conflict of interest in such an arrangement, can National categorically promise that it will not sign a contract with Macquarie or its subsidiary companies?
- Many toll road projects in Australia have been an economic disaster. For example, Melbourne’s newest toll road, EastLink, is currently running at 28% below projections and Sydney’s Cross City Tunnel project went bankrupt.Can National categorically promise that it will not sign a deal whereby the government has to compensate the private road builders if the road builders make less money than they expected?
- Metronet, a public-private partnership responsible for maintaining and upgrading two-thirds of London's underground network, went bankrupt, leaving the taxpayer to bail out the project to the tune of billions of pounds.Can National categorically promise that it will not sign a deal whereby the government has to pay out any part of the road building costs in the event that the project goes bankrupt?
- National’s transport spokesman Maurice Williamson has stated publicly that National will repeal the "Greens amendment" that requires that whenever a toll road is built, the public must always have an alternative route available for free.Can National categorically promise that it will not sign a deal whereby existing roads are closed down or restricted in order to force motorists to use a nearby toll road?
- Will National legislate to control the tolls on private roads, or will the private road operator be free to charge whatever the market will stand?
- Faced with high fuel bills, many motorists are now looking to take public transport to work.Can National categorically promise that it will not sign a deal whereby public transport is effectively excluded or restricted from competing with a toll road?
