David Shearer

Awarding a contract for route investigation work on the so-called Puhoi to Wellsford Road of National Significance is an example of pure 'road overkill', say Labour's transport spokesperson Darren Hughes and Mt Albert MP David Shearer.

Darren Hughes said: "This Government is fast making a travesty of the term roads of national significance.

"Transport Minister Steven Joyce's new definition of a road of national significance is a road of National Party significance. There's a huge difference."

David Shearer said: "Mr Joyce is on record as saying in Parliament that one significant reason for building this road is for people travelling to the eastern beaches.

"That does not meet the criteria of national significance. Making it easier to go for a swim is hardly justification for spending goodness knows how many tens of millions of dollars on a road that will have marginal if any impact on the country's economy, and not for many, many years at that.

"It is significant that Mr Joyce won't talk in detail about the cost of even this first stage of the contract," David Shearer said.

"He knows that in the wider context of Auckland transport issues, this project doesn't stack up. There is a whole range of public transport projects, like the CBD rail tunnel, that offer far greater benefit to Aucklanders."

Darren Hughes said he was well aware from travelling around New Zealand that provincial areas were desperately worried about the lack of funding for maintaining local roads, let alone improving them.

"These are roads that are vitally important strategically and economically to regions around the country.

"Mr Joyce fails to grasp this reality. He can see the importance of Aucklanders being able to get to their weekend baches quickly, but when it comes to appreciating the crucial significance of local roads to people who are the backbone of this country, he's missing in action."