Julie-Anne Genter: Public transport, rent controls, housing & tax

<p>The Green Party’s finance (and transport) spokesperson Julie Anne Genter has an unlikely ally on a handful of policy issues: Mayor of Auckland Wayne Brown. </p><p>Both politicians agree New Zealand needs to scale up its public transport, move more freight by rail, implement congestion charging, and build cheaper versions of big Labour projects. </p><p>The Greens already have three former mayoral candidates (one successful) in winnable spots on their party list — could Wayne Brown make the 2026 list? Genter doesn’t think so. </p><p>“I think that my colleague Chloe Swarbrick, MP for Auckland Central, has had to be involved in some campaigns to stop cuts to the Auckland City budget”. </p><p>“But I do think it's great that Wayne Brown is onside with surface light rail,” she said, in an interview for the <a href="https://www.interest.co.nz/category/tag/interest-podcast" target="_blank"><i><strong>Of Interest podcast.</strong></i></a></p><p>Genter supports light rail in Auckland but opposes Labour’s plan to build it in a tunnel under Dominion Road, which could cost roughly $15 billion. </p><p>Surface light rail might be up to $6 billion cheaper, savings which could be used to build light rail projects in New Zealand’s other major cities. </p><p>“We could deliver surface light rail in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch—as the spine of an improved public transport system that connects with bikes and buses and everything else. </p><p>And, we can do that for less than the cost of the tunnel light rail line in Auckland, and we can do it faster with less disruption and make a bigger difference to people,” she said.</p><p>The parties which “claim to be fiscally responsible” are simultaneously promising projects that don’t stack up just because they think they will be popular with voters. </p><p>One example of this could be Labour’s multi-tunnel Waitemata Harbour crossing, which was<strong> </strong><a href="https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/infrastructure/substantive-concerns-over-harbour-crossing-proposal" target="_b