Labour’s unfunded transport plans

The Herald reports:

At the same time the former Labour Government was laying into the National party for announcing a poorly costed Transport plan on the campaign trail, its own officials were warning that Labour’s transport plan was substantially unfunded and undeliverable.

Treasury was so concerned that it recommended the ministers drop all new projects from one of the most significant parts of the plan.

Nevertheless, the former government proceeded.

If Ministers were company directors, they’d be prosecuted for fraud. They were told their plans were unfunded and impossible to deliver, yet they still proceeded with announcing them.

The combined list of new and old projects would require the Government to find $43 billion in funding over the next decade, officials said.

They also warned that an additional 100,000 workers would need to be found to deliver the new projects – a number roughly equivalent to the number of soldiers New Zealand sent to fight in the First World War. The current workforce is just 180,000 strong.

So that is $43 billion of more debt they hid, and it would require a magical increase in the construction workforce of around 70%!