It seems a long time ago, but in 2018, a delegation of Northland mayors came to the Beehive asking the new Labour-led Government to continue work on turning the Auckland–Whangarei two-lane highway into a four-lane motorway.
Labour’s Transport Minister Phil Twyford turned them down.
His party had bagged the four-lane proposal as a “holiday highway” when it was proposed by National, largely, it seemed, because Prime Minister John Key had a holiday house at Omaha on Northland’s east coast.
But last night the Mayors came back; this time armed with a large delegation of Northland business and community leaders and a substantial report from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research arguing that with a little bit of Governmental help, Northland could become an economic powerhouse.
Central to their proposal is one big idea: that Northland and Auckland need each other.
“The key message to really get out is that we are a solution for Auckland, whether it’s energy or whether it is housing, it’s population growth, it is support,” said Paul Linton, the CEO of business group, Northland Inc.
But for that relationship with Auckland to produce economic results, the road and rail links, along with the electricity transmission lines that tie the north to the city, need to be upgraded.
There is a wide range of proposals in the NZIER report, but the road between Auckland and Whangarei is the key.
The road became an urgent issue after slips closed it for 36 days in 2023 and forced lengthy detours for the 1000-plus trucks that use it each day.on
“Fundamentally, what we’re looking for from Northland is a long-term government commitment over many governments to build the key infrastructure, which is the road and the rail connection to the port,” said Northland MP Grant McCallum.
“That will enable the port, that will enable, that would enable the plan for growth to actually be delivered.
“That road is crucial.”
The Northland Corporate Group, which comprises the leaders of six of Northland’s largest businesses, led the presentation at the Beehive last night.
The group wants to see the region move up from having the country’s lowest GDP per head and the highest rate of those not in employment or education.
Currently, Northland has a GDP of $11.2 billion, but the group last night produced a plan to make that $60 billion by 20250.
Speaking for the group, Northpower CEO Andrew McLeod said transport would be critical.
“The thing that will make the real difference is actually building that connection back to Auckland,” he said.
“Because what we’re finding, if you look at that growth rate, that’s the 25-year growth rate. Northland’s been growing, but we are finding out that the connection to Auckland is so fragile that it’s just starting to kill business confidence.
“If we know there’s going to be a decent connection between the North and Auckland, these investments will turn up.
“So that’s the number one investment we need to see.
And it’s great to see the government committing to the first stages of it. We’re really looking for a long-term commitment, a long-term plan to build it all the way north.”
The report says the gap between Northland’s GDP per capita and the national average” cannot be sensibly explained via resource or geographical considerations.”
“In fact, the opposite is true; the region has natural advantages given its geographical location to the north of Auckland and is rich in natural resources.
“Northland’s low GDP per capita can therefore be considered to be indicative of sustained underinvestment in physical infrastructure, institutional capacity, and human capital development.”
It said the constraints also contributed to lower household incomes and diminished living standards, with adverse implications for overall well-being.
“A lack of year-round, reliable roading infrastructure has much more long-reaching economic impacts for Northland,” the report said.
“Freight delays and poor access are forcing companies to reassess how and where they operate, which risks compromising long-term economic growth.”
And so, transport, including rail and coastal, will be essential.
“Improvements to transport links, including road, rail, and coastal shipping, will be essential to reduce supply chain costs, improve access to national and International markets, and enable the movement of goods at a greater scale.
“Investments in port capacity, logistics hubs, and intermodal freight facilities would help Northland to develop potential as a nationally significant energy and logistics centre.”
The other immediate proposal to boost the economy is energy.
The “winterless north” is already hosting an increasing number of solar farms, but it is the potential to expand the geothermal power plant at Ngawha that has the most potential.
Its owner, Top Energy, is proposing to expand it so it would be the same size as the Karapiro hydro station.
The problem is that though there are high-capacity transmission lines between Marsden Point and Auckland, a legacy of the old oil-powered station there, the lines do not link up with the new generation being planned for the north.
Therefore, the government is exploring creating an ‘Energy Bridge’ between Northland and Auckland by updating these transmission lines.
“Northland could unlock the first 600 MW of new renewable electricity generation within five years, significantly exceeding local demand and positioning the region as a net exporter to Auckland and other high-demand areas,” the report said.
But the report said current regulatory settings allocate a significant portion of the infrastructure cost to local consumers, despite the national benefits.
“This presents an economic barrier in a region with limited capacity to absorb additional energy costs,” the report said.
The report therefore proposes exploring alternative funding models and revised pricing structures.
Meanwhile, there are plans to repurpose parts of the redundant Marsden Point Refinery to have it produce bio-fuel and aviation fuel.
However, Northland needs Transpower to upgrade transmission lines between Auckland and the north to enable it to become a net “exporter” of electricity rather than an “importer” as it is now.
There is considerable detail in the report about the potential of the Maori economy, agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and tourism in the north.
Northland politicians have looked at the impact that the Waikato Expressway has had on that region and, scarred by the frequent weather-driven closures of State Highway One, believe that the highway they asked for in 2017 would not just bring people in but, perhaps more importantly, allow the region to get its produce out.
There remains the question of whether Labour has moved on from Twyford’s opposition to the road.
Maybe not.
Parliament’s Transport Committee has just released a report on the economic study of the road undertaken by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.
Labour and the Greens questioned the viability of the road.
“The Green Party and the Labour Party consider that the evidence provided to the committee during this briefing is wholly insufficient to conclude that the Northland Expressway is the best way to improve transport links, improve economic productivity, and increase resilience for Northland,” their minority report said.
“The unknown, but likely extremely high, cost of a new four-lane expressway must be evaluated against other investments in infrastructure and services that will benefit the people of Northland.
“No evaluation of alternatives was undertaken by NZIER, as they themselves acknowledged.
“There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and New Zealand has a limited financial budget and a limited carbon budget to invest in infrastructure that will enable the efficient movement of people and goods.”
Making the case for the road and putting the ghost of Twyford finally to rest in the Labour Party is one of the hopes for the publication of the report.
