June 21, 2024
Four-lane highways bypass regional recovery
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Labour’s Te Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP says the coalition Government is forgetting about small-town and rural New Zealand.
Cushla Tangaere-Manuel has been guiding leader Chris Hipkins and other colleagues around Hawke’s Bay to check progress on Cyclone Gabrielle recovery.
She says many people including marae are still waiting for repair, and futher north in Tairawhiti roads and other infrastructure are being ignored in favour of think-big projects.
“They want big four-lane highways elsewhere… and I don’t want to create a competition amongst them, but the coast still has value, and I’m just using the coast as an example – isolated areas of New Zealand still have value to our economy,” Ms Tangaere-Manuel says.
She says Labour is working on plans to win back the Maori vote.