When, as the Prime Minister says, New Zealand is faced with a housing crisis and a healthcare crisis, the Government’s commitment to spending $1.6 billion on a second motorsport park in the Waikato region seems like a confused priority.

New Zealand already enjoys a range of motorsports parks, including the grade 3 Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in northern rural Waikato, and the grade 2 Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park slightly further south in Taupō.

“No need for another motorsport park has been demonstrated anywhere except for in the Kiwi Party’s confidence and supply agreement.” says imnofox.

The government has agreed with the Kiwi Party to spend $1.6 billion on a brand new grade 1 motorsport park. In contrast, it cost just $13 million to upgrade the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park from grade 3 to grade 2 in 2006.

“Why the ACT Party is splurging $1.6 billion to build a new motorsport park, when upgrading an existing motorsport park up one grade evidently costs just a hundredth of that is beyond me. If the government really thought it necessary that New Zealand have a grade 1 track, they ought to be upgrading the Bruce McLaren track instead of blowing out the budget on yet another motorsport park.”

“The infrastructural differences between a grade 1 and a grade 2 park are much less costly than the differences between a grade 2 and a grade 3 park. The government needs to fire their accountant, because it’s clear they’ve lazily agreed to the option that will hurt taxpayer funds the hardest.”

Motorsports is also a very high emissions sport, one the government should not even be considering investing in. In NASCAR, standard fuel efficiency for a vehicle is as low as 2 kilometres per litre, compared to the average fuel efficiency of normal cars at 8.5 kilometres per litre. The energy expended in one race could power more than three houses or drive seven cars for a whole year. 55,000 kilograms of CO2 emitted in one race weekend is a lot compared to the 7,700 kilograms of CO2 emitted by the average New Zealander in a whole year.

“We’re faced with a climate crisis. For the ACT Party to be wasting over a billion dollars to subsidise such an emissions-intensive industry in the face of tens of billions of dollars of climate costs in the future is astounding. It especially highlights the government’s priorities when in the last budget, the coalition cut subsidies for sensible rail services by $1 million a year, but will now spend $160 million a year on an additional motorsport park.”

Not only should the ACT Party be more responsible with public finances, but they should be more responsible with our climate too. On both counts, the ACT Party are absolutely reckless.