Unfrotuantely I would have to disagree with your opinion on Orsman. I thought many of his reports and columns on the Unitary Plan were sensationalised, hyped-up and often misleading.

Also, we need to see a large trimming in the investment in roading infrastructure that will bring dubious returns. Unfortunately, most of the councillors who cry about a financial crisis are also supporting many of these large spending projects.

Great post, good to see someone calling for some sense on the Council's "financial crisis". As far as I know it's unprecedented for a council to pay for rail network infrastructure, it has usually been a central government exercise. I had assumed that if the 50/50 split between local and central government regarding funding the CRL goes ahead, then the track would be owned by AT. The current system of track access charges need to be thought again, because it seems that OnTrack are using track access fees as a way to make a profit, rather than just to cover the costs of points and signal operations. This needs to change because it's just a transfer of money from ratepayers to the central government.

My experience with using the OIA is that you have to very specific about the information that you want, otherwise it will be declined. I'd have thought it would be hard to get your hands on this document if you didn't know it existed in advance.

I think Team Waitemata are the Tory candidates. Some of them are ex C&R candidates.

Thanks for your hard work Russell and everyone involved. A fantastic show that I really enjoyed watching on the telly and occasionally attending in the audience. Programmes like Media3 are essential to preserve and protect democracy and information in New Zealand.

Time for public broadcasting. Commercial media is clearly not set up to provide quality current affairs.

The Western Ring Route project has divided me. Huge amounts of money have been spent on motorways in this country and it's time to stop. Having said that I can see the benefits of the Waterview Connection that it can divert traffic away from the city centre area. Frankly this project should have been built earlier and they should not have built the inner sections of SH1 and SH16.

Waterview connection is not the world's best project, but at least I can see the benefits. I certainly do not see the benefits of Puhoi to Wellsford Holiday Highway or of the Transmission Gully Wellington project.

One aspect of the ring route that I completely oppose is widening SH16. This should not happen. Induced demand will simply clog the motorway with more traffic.

What needs to happen is a Northwest busway. This could take place instead of widening SH16 and would be modelled on the highly successful Northern busway on SH1. This would provide superb benefits of speeding up buses.

I fully agree with the Auckland City Rail Link project. This is an essential project for many reasons. I call on this government to adopt a more balanced transport budget and spend money on essential projects like the CRL and can money on expensive motorways like Transmission Gully and Holiday Highway.