Cabinet paper: no confidence for national cycleway

Cabinet paper: no confidence for national cycleway

Kelvin Davis

Labour Tourism Spokesperson

18 June 2009 Media Statement 

Cabinet paper provides no confidence that national cycleway will ever become a reality.

Papers released by Tourism Minister John Key's office and the Tourism Ministry give no confidence that the vision of a cycleway the length of New Zealand will ever be anything more than a disconnected patchwork of small tracks, says Labour tourism spokesperson Kelvin Davis.

"I am astounded at the lack of detail in John Key's cabinet paper seeking cabinet support for the $50 million Budget allocation for the national cycleway," Kelvin Davis said. 

"Absolutely no rigorous --- or even token --- cost-benefit analysis has been done on this Jobs Summit project in terms of short-term or long-term economic benefits and its effectiveness in relation to job creation.

"About the only thing that has become really clear from the cabinet paper is that the national cycleway is no longer truly national, but rather a series of 'great rides'."

Kelvin Davis said the "development of new individual sections of cycle way is good news, and will help in specific regions, but Mr Key can't get away from the fact that this is a lot different to the original plan for a cycleway the length of the country. 

"This has become a bitser cycleway, in fact, with a bit from here and a bit from there, and the twain is never likely to meet,"

Kelvin Davis said.

"The only great ride is the ride that New Zealand taxpayers are being taken down in paying $50 million as the price to preserve what remains of the credibility of John Key's Jobs Summit.

"The first sections of the bitser cycleway will be announced before the end of this month. It will be very interesting to discover which bits of the country feel a bit happier, and which bits are more than a bit disappointed that John Key's vision has become an extremely expensive pipedream."