Crowds at a public meeting in Thames on Thursday became frustrated when talk turned to their district's pothole, the large slip on State Highway 25A.
After fielding questions about education and agricultural policy, Coromandel MP Scott Simpson prompted the audience of about 100 to ask Luxon his thoughts on the peninsula's roading woes.
Instead, the audience answered.
Heman Ahlowalia was especially forthright in his comments to the National leader, imploring him to get the ball rolling with the road's reconstruction.
He added that he was incensed that the region's infrastructure manager, Waka Kotahi's Jo Wilton was on holiday, to titters of agreement from the rest of the audience.
'The lady who's looking after SH25A, Jo Wilton, she's on holiday. I sent her an email and got one in return saying she was on holiday from the ninth of April until the second of May. This makes me very, very angry.”
Ahlowalia asked that the party's transport spokesperson, Simeon Brown, who was also in attendance, to push 'Minister Wood every Friday on the AM Show, like Erica Stanford did on immigration”.
With a poetic end to his rejoinder, Ahlowalia added that 'while other countries are sending satellites to space, these guys can't fix the road”.
Luxon told Ahlowalia he was right.
A fellow audience member said a trip that had formerly taken 'less than two hours” to truck cattle from near Kopu to a farm near Morrinsville, had become a five-hour trip around the top of the peninsula.
Another told of sending an email to Transport Minister Michael Woods, only to receive a reply saying that it would take a minimum of two months before a proper response would be sent.
A Waka Kotahi spokesperson wanted to remind concerned residents that Wilton has 'worked incredibly hard this year” and has a contractual right to a holiday, like every other New Zealander.
They also added that there was appropriate cover in place while Wilton was away.
'The work programme of Waka Kotahi to build, manage and maintain the state highway network in the region is not affected by individual employees using the annual leave to which all New Zealanders are legally entitled.”
5 comments
Welcome to the govt policy
Posted on 14-04-2023 10:20 | By an_alias
Why get angry with this clown, lets actual ask the other clowns in power why in 6 years ALL of NZ roads have been allowed to be destroyed. How much have the spent and got nothing to show for it.
Let us
Posted on 14-04-2023 12:00 | By Merlin
Let us not forget this is a major repair job which requires technical and engineering skill to ensure that the repair has stable ground before the repair can be achieved and no politician can expedite it unless it is safe to do so and they did not cause this the cyclone did and they rely on the advice of the experts whom I am sure will get this done as soon as possible.No politician can wave a magic wand on this.I feel for the people affected and also for the people of Wairoa who lost their road South.
NZTA Workforce Imbalance
Posted on 14-04-2023 13:20 | By Ceem
Here we go again - too many Chiefs and not enough Indians, I hate to think what the NZTA workforce Chiefs versus Indians ratio is nationwide - almost as wide as most of the potholes.
Where has the money gone
Posted on 14-04-2023 15:36 | By oceans
Much of the Public funding seems to be syphoned off into projects that don't help the situation we face now. Woke programmes can wait, infact indefinitely in my opinion. Maybe the roads are being left because this Government wants to get as many cars off the roads as possible. Look at the major cities. Car lanes have been drastically reduced, and what for? Bike lanes that are hardly used. This Government needs to take a long hard look at why they lost in the coming elections
& By oceans
Posted on 16-04-2023 07:23 | By Thats Nice
I agree, you are 100% spot on with your comments. Cars seem to be the enemy nowadays unfortunately.
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