“Building a new four-lane road full of traffic lights isn’t the answer.”
Brown also disputed National’s suggestion that the project formed part of its agreement with Auckland Council.
“This wasn’t in the Auckland Deal and it’s not in the 30-year plan so National just can’t do that, especially as the Government has just thrown $3b out the window on the unjustified motorway from Warkworth to Te Hana.”
He said National should instead focus on transport projects where the Government and council agreed, including level crossings and the Northwest Busway.
National’s transport spokesman Chris Bishop said yesterday the project had been discussed with Brown as part of the Auckland Deal.
Bishop also rejected suggestions that the Government had shelved its Roads of National Significance projects, saying they were being built in stages.
“We were never going to start and build all of these projects at the same time.”
He said Mill Rd was important to South Auckland and would go ahead under a National government, with construction scheduled to begin in the “late 2028 construction season”.
However, Brown’s response puts him at odds with Manurewa-Papakura councillor Daniel Newman, a long-time supporter of the project, who said he was more confident than he had been in years that it would finally be delivered.
Newman said he had been frustrated with the lack of action on Mill Rd over the past five years and Luxon would be held accountable if National won re-election but failed to deliver.
“We’ve seen previous commitments walked back, including a post-election backflip from the former Labour Minister of Transport in 2021.
National leader Christopher Luxon (centre) says the next National-led Government will get on with building Mill Rd in South Auckland if the party is re-elected next month. Photo / Dean Purcell
“The Prime Minister’s toes are going to be singed by the fire on this because this is a matter that’s been promised before by previous governments.
“I give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt, but he will be held to account if he wins re-election and he doesn’t deliver on this.”
Newman said he wanted construction brought forward, arguing that further delays were unrealistic given the scale of development planned for Drury.
Auckland councillor Daniel Newman (left) with National’s transport spokesman Chris Bishop (centre) at the Te Mahia Station level crossing opening in August in Auckland. Photo / Jason Dorday
“The Auckland Deal signed between the Government and Auckland Council identified Drury as our region’s priority growth location. Vital improvements to Auckland’s rail corridor, the purchase of land for a new base hospital at Drury, and both residential and commercial property construction already taking place in that part of Auckland means delaying the Mill Road corridor is completely unrealistic.”
He said the project had been identified for the latter phases of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s road-building budget, but its timing needed urgent review.
The Mill Rd corridor is needed to serve huge growth in South Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig
The delays have also left residents facing the possible acquisition of their homes uncertain about their futures.
“There is a concern obviously that this thing has been so promised and overpromised, but there needs to be a result and that result needs to be spades in the ground,” Newman said.
“For the first time, we can actually see a path because there is ability to fund it, but people who are sitting in houses that need to be purchased, those purchases need to take place. People need certainty in their lives, and we actually need to see the transformation begin.
Some residents who would be forced to move have opposed the proposal, but Newman maintained the project was necessary for Auckland and the wider upper North Island.
As well as announcing a start date for the first stage of Mill Rd, National allocated $100m towards protecting the proposed route for stages two and three.