Northern Gateway - motorbikes to pay $2 like a car

**swbarnett** · 26th January 2009, 07:55

Originally Posted by Bren

Ya rekon...??? And where does the majority of our money come from? Agriculture and such...Primary industries, not an overbloated, ugly as arse, excuse for a city!
New Zealand was grown by the agricultural workforce (and those buisnesses linked to agriculture), they are the ones that put the sweat and toil into this country! The aucklanders sipping on lattes and sitting in their swanky offices dont know what hard work is.
So who is subsidising who?

The last figure that I had stated that 80% of the NZ GDP came out of
Auckland.

Agriculture is no longer New Zealand's no. 1 industry.

Edit: It seems my figure was somewhat inflated (or just old). Still, 33% is not to be sneezed at.

**Jantar** · 26th January 2009, 07:57

Originally Posted by swbarnett

The last figure that I had stated that 80% of the NZ GDP came out of
Auckland.

Agriculture is no longer New Zealand's no. 1 industry.

I heard it was 112%

**Pixie** · 26th January 2009, 07:58

Originally Posted by Jantar

Not just a Jafa thing, its reality at work. 30 something years ago when the Lytleton tunnel was tolled I used to take great delight in parking my bike, stripping off all my gear to get at that 10 cent coin in my trousers pocket for the toll, then putting all my gear back on again, while heaps of other traffic would be waiting in line for their chance to go through the tunnel.

The next rider would be about 15 vehicles back and do excatly the same. Our aim then was to get the tunnel toll free for motorbikes. Instead it became toll free for everyone.

You paid the toll naked???!!!

**swbarnett** · 26th January 2009, 09:17

Originally Posted by Jantar

I heard it was 112%

Read my edit. I've already admitted I got it wrong. Maybe it was tax take? I'll post back when I've got some more reliable stats.

**Bren** · 27th January 2009, 05:06

Originally Posted by swbarnett

The last figure that I had stated that 80% of the NZ GDP came out of
Auckland.

Agriculture is no longer New Zealand's no. 1 industry.

Edit: It seems my figure was somewhat inflated (or just old). Still, 33% is not to be sneezed at.

I never stated that it was our #1 industry, I stated that NZ was grown by it, yet still today if you took Agriculture etc out of the equation then NZ would be screwed!

**swbarnett** · 27th January 2009, 16:44

Originally Posted by Bren

I never stated that it was our #1 industry, I stated that NZ was grown by it, yet still today if you took Agriculture etc out of the equation then NZ would be screwed!

I quite agree. Take away any raw material and the follow-on industries are most definitely screwed. I'm not trying to belittle the primary producers. It's just that I don't appreciate Auckland being belittled either. It may be a great monstrosity at times but it's certainly not sponging off the rest of the country.

**MarkH** · 3rd February 2009, 07:03

Originally Posted by Bren

Thats funny that....Auckland generating more than 33% of the GDP

As you can see the population in Auckland was 1,303,068 in the 2006 census, which is just over a third of the total population in New Zealand (4,027,947)

Just over? You are not so hot with the mathematics are you?

**more_fasterer** · 3rd February 2009, 07:53

Wouldn't the tax take from petrol, registration, etc compared to the regional spend on roads be a more pertinent comparison than "agriculture is betterer!" "No manufacturing is more betterer!" "Go back to your latte & ciabatta Jaffa!" "Get off your sister Cletus" etc etc????????

**swbarnett** · 4th February 2009, 14:59

Originally Posted by more_fasterer

Wouldn't the tax take from petrol, registration, etc compared to the regional spend on roads be a more pertinent comparison than "agriculture is betterer!" "No manufacturing is more betterer!" "Go back to your latte & ciabatta Jaffa!" "Get off your sister Cletus" etc etc????????

This was my thought. Afterall, roads are paid for from tax revenue, not GDP. The trouble is that I can't find any data on tax revenue by region.

**dpex** · 10th February 2009, 08:39

Is there any substance to the rumour that bikers travel free on the new toll road up North?

**jrandom** · 10th February 2009, 08:42

Yup.

"The toll for motorcycles is currently set at zero but is subject to review."

**Devil** · 10th February 2009, 08:44

That was awfully polite of you. Are you ill?

**Dean** · 10th February 2009, 09:02

yes i agree

**Finn** · 10th February 2009, 09:04

What makes me laugh about this Northern Gateway is all the PR bullshit surrounding it. We are meant to believe it was an engineering achievement equal to the great Chinese wall and the Eiffel Tower. Absolute bullpuckey! It's a little hole in a tiny mountain, cost 10 times more than it should and took 10 times longer to build than it should. And lets not forget the outcome... it doesn't make the trip any faster and can't handle holiday traffic. Quote Land Transport "Avoid the Northern Gateway this long weekend due to teething problems" How the fuck does a road have teething problems?

Only in NZ.