PM says highway upgrade on track

Government support for a four-lane highway between Puhoi and Wellsford, known as the “holiday highway”, was restated by Prime Minister John Key in Warkworth during his visit on Friday June 3.

Commenting on Labour leader Phil Goff’s statement that Labour would divert the $1.6 billion designated to the road to Christchurch recovery work, Mr Key said he thought Mr Goff should take a holiday.

“We are committed to building that highway extension as it will be very significant in opening up far north, as well as meeting the needs of burgeoning business in this part of the world,” he said.

“We have more than enough to fund Christchurch. Part of the reason behind the sale of state-owned assets is so that we have the capital to fund projects like the highway.”

Mr Key was in Warkworth as part of a familiarisation tour and was accompanied by National’s candidate for Rodney Mark Mitchell.

His visit included a tour of the Rodney Surgical Centre, which he described as “world class”.

Mr Key said outsourcing operations to the private sector, which were closer and more convenient for patients was a good thing.

“Ultimately, those decisions are made by the DHBs, but the Government funds DHBs. I will certainly raise this issue with Tony Ryall when I see him on Tuesday.

“We are very focused on trying to lift our overall performance rates. Last year there were 20,000 more elective surgery operations undertaken than the year earlier, the cancer waiting list is down to under four weeks and we haven’t sent anyone to Australia for cancer treatment since we’ve been in Government. We’ve also hired a lot more doctors and nurses.

“Our focus is very much on lifting front-line performance and we don’t believe we have to own all the facilities to make that happen.”

Pictured: Prime Minister John Key with one of the owners of the Rodney Surgical Centre Andrew MacGill.

Published June 3, 2011