Is Transmission Gully back on?

The Dominion Post repeats Peter Dunne’s claim that Transmission Gully is back on the agenda. I’m not so sure.

Dunne deserves praise for kepping the profile of the issue alive, but I’m not sure what the Government has agreed to is anything more than a restatement of their current policy which is that in theory the local body leaders can decide what to spend the northern access money on.

However the reality remains that the amount of funding has not shifted, and only one option is affordable due to this, and it isn’t Transmission Gully.

Personally I think the local bodies should call the bluff of the Government, pick Transmission Gully and then force the Government to pay for it later by threatening to blame $500 rate increases on them if they don’t!