Auckland mayoral election: Goff says challenger's policies are a 'fantasy', Tamihere accuses Goff of selling out
Wednesday, 28 August 2019
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says the Government will tell John Tamihere 'to go to pixieland' when the mayoral hopeful requests funding for his 'fantasy' policies.
But Tamihere was quick to bite back during a testy debate on Wednesday, accusing Goff of selling out to Wellington bureaucrats, while imploring voters to 'get rid' of the incumbent.
Tamihere's transport policy, announced last week, includes scrapping the 11.5 cent regional fuel tax, while proposing 49 kilometres of new railway lines and a double-decker Auckland Harbour Bridge. Under his plan, the cost of those moves would be borne largely by the Government.
On Wednesday, Goff once again proceeded to poke fun at his political rival's policies, repeatedly writing them off as fanatical.
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'There are some people that will say we'll build a wall and Mexico will pay for it,' he joked.
'That doesn't work with central Government – you talk about reducing your revenue and … really what you're saying is we want the rest of the country to pay for what we have.
'Sadly, while we're 35 per cent of the country, 65 per cent of the country don't live in Auckland.'
Tamihere needed to provide more evidence to back his polices, as well as business cases, Goff said.
'And you've got to demonstrate that what you want to invest in has been properly thought through, is sound, meets all of the requirements for a major investment and then you can, on that basis, get some collaboration,' he added.
Tamihere returned the serve, accusing Goff of surrendering to the Government when it came to securing more funding for Auckland's infrastructure projects.
'We are the whole population of the South Island plus 50 per cent,' he said.
'I'm telling you right now, Auckland has the mana to break Governments in Wellington.
'If you've got a negotiator that's going to sell Auckland out, as he does and consistently does for the reasons that he's just expressed, you have to get rid of this guy.'
Tamihere ripped into the regional fuel tax, championed by Goff during his last mayoral campaign.
'He'll sell us out on petrol – discriminatory – Aucklanders will cop 11.5 cents a litre if everyone else does,' Tamihere said.
'[But] he brought it into town and we're the only ones paying it.'
The regional fuel tax kicked in last July and is expected to raise about $1.5 billion over 10 years to go towards transport projects.
Government subsidies and development contributions were expected to take the figure to $4.3 billion.
During his sustained attack on Tamihere's plans, Goff also turned his attention his challenger's controversial plan for the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
'No Government is going to spend billions of dollars on what you're asking for unless you can develop a properly thought out and persuasive case to do that,' he said.
'You've come up, you've thrown these ideas out there – hey, they don't work mate, they're fantasy.
'If you go down to Government with a fantasy, they'll tell you to go to pixieland.'
But Tamihere said he had raised a potential solution for Auckland's congestion problems, before slamming Goff for writing off his ideas.
'If I said nothing in this election, it would be fantasy, if I raised an idea, it would be fantasy,' he said.
'You can't kick the can down the road to 2030 for the people on the North Shore, or on this side of the bridge, that want to get over and want another crossing.
'You need to bring closure, because if you don't have closure in terms of a project nothing happens.'