Phil Twyford is Labour’s reverse Midas. Everything he touches turns to great mountains of poos. His latest failure is the light rail to the airport folly. Another “flagship” policy of the Government and another broken promise from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The Government’s flagship infrastructure project has been put “on hold” while it fights the Covid-19 pandemic, but there are some doubts it will ever get going again.
Transport Minister Phil Twyford said decisions on Auckland’s light rail project “are on hold while the Government’s full focus is on fighting Covid-19”.
During the election campaign, Labour had promised to have the first stage of the Auckland light rail scheme built by 2021.
But after a long and protracted process, the Government has yet to decide who will build the scheme, let alone begin construction.
… Associate Transport Minister and NZ First MP Shane Jones has previously said party members were “doubting Thomases” when it came to the “light rail kaupapa”.
Jones has also pointed out the commitment to begin work on the rail line was included in the confidence and supply agreement between Labour and the Greens, not the coalition agreement between NZ First and Labour.
The two agreements both include a clause that says that the agreements are to be consistent with one another.
It’s a dead duck. There are no tourists to take a ride from the airport to Mangere by bus and then by train to the city. Also there is no money to pay for it all; it’s a hopeless business case that is daily becoming more forlorn.
Jacinda Ardern’s election promises of Kiwibuild and light rail now lie broken at the feet of Phil Twyford, the Minister of Failure.
