Clayton Mitchell New Zealand First MP

At Thursday night's opening of our new Tauranga electorate office, the Rt. Hon Winston Peters' speech also opened the door to a radical overhaul of the Tauranga Transport network: No more tolls on Route K, and investigation into a Tauranga light rail network.

Tauranga is the birthplace of New Zealand First, and that is one more reason why I am honoured and determined to keep standing up and fighting for our city.

With some history and humour before officially unveiling two new major party policies, Winston's speech touched on the following topics.

He reminded us how we were "instrumental in removing $63-million-dollar debt" on Route K and getting it designated a state highway". This, before announcing it was time to take the tolls off Route K altogether, to get heavy traffic off Cameron and Cambridge roads and straight from New Zealand's largest port onto the national highway network.

I will continue calling on the blue team to honour their promises on double-lanes each way for Turret Rd and 15th Ave. This is a crucial central government issue that will not be allowed to be weaselled out of, on my watch.

We also intend to fully investigate the feasibility of establishing a light rail network for New Zealand's fastest-growing city, with Winston observing that, "we don't want to see Tauranga, in 30 years' time, having to deal with the problems Auckland's facing today".

Also in attendance, mayor Stuart Crosby agrees, "Removing the tolls would be a substantial benefit to our economy" and that light rail, "should always be on our agenda" adding, "the main thing is keeping the corridors open for the future".

Auckland Transport recently stated that, if they could go back in time 30 years, they would create large spines throughout the city for the establishment of light rail and inter-modal transport options.

Tauranga requires forward thinking today, for the sake of Tauranga 30 years from now. We at New Zealand First are ready to deliver.