New Zealand Taxpayers Union Incorporated

Postal: PO Box 10518, The Terrace 6143, Wellington

Physical: Level 2, 50 Manners Street 6011, Wellington
Telephone: 04 282 0300
Email: enquiries@taxpayers.org.nz
Web: www.taxpayers.org.nz

Friday, 13 March 2015


Rt. Hon. Winston Peters
Parliament Buildings
Wellington

By email: winston.peters@parliament.govt.nz


Dear Mr Peters,

REQUEST FOR CLARIFICAITON COST OF NORTHLAND RAIL/PORT POLICY

The New Zealand Taxpayers Union has relaunched its popular election costing mechanism, the
Bribe-O-Meter, to track the policy announcements from the leading contenders in the Northland
by-election.
We note your policy announcement on upgrading the Whangarei Port, as well as the rail
infrastructure between Auckland and the North. On Tuesday we left a message with your Chief of
Staff as we wanted to verify what costs might be incurred by taxpayers as a result of this policy. To
date he has not responded to our enquiry.
Having reviewed the New Zealand First website and your reported comments, we have also been
unable to find details that would assist our expert in estimating the likely cost to taxpayers.
We noted with interest your comments in this mornings New Zealand Herald that the policy would
be funded by investment, as opposed to Government funding. The NZ Herald attributes a quote to
you that To say that a politician is promising money for that is just plain balderdash.
We would appreciate your elucidation of the policy and an indication of whom you expect to pay for
the promised infrastructure upgrades. In particular, who do you intend to fund the policy if taxpayer
money is not going to be used? Are you aware of a private investor who has offered to build the line,
or to purchase railway assets North of Auckland?
An obvious candidate to put up the investment would be the Port itself. We understand however
that you have never visited the Port or raised the policy proposal with its management. That could
explain the apparent confusion between Northport (at Marsden Point) and Port Whangarei in your
reported statements. The latter Port has been closed to commercial shipping for nearly eight years
and a number of covenants exist which prevent it reopening.
On this basis we have assumed that any private investor you are referring to would not be the Port,
through invite you to correct us if we are wrong.

Your Money, Your Voice

Championing value for money from every tax dollar

Having not yet received any information from your Chief of Staff that would help us estimate the
cost to carry out the rail upgrade and line extension, we have asked KiwiRail to assist us and expect
to publish a more accurate estimate of the cost well before the polling day.
We invite you to respond to this letter before 5pm Tuesday 17 March 2015. You should be aware
that we intend to release this letter as well as your response (or lack thereof) on Wednesday 18
March.
We look forward to your reply and wish you the best of luck in the coming weeks.

Yours faithfully
New Zealand Taxpayers' Union Inc.

Jordan Williams
Executive Director
Jordan@taxpayers.org.nz
Direct Dial: 04 282 0301

New Zealand Taxpayers Union Inc.

PO Box 10518, The Terrace 6143, Wellington

www.taxpayers.org.nz