The Te Atatu member of Parliament was in Dunedin yesterday, discussing local road issues with representatives of the Otago Regional Council, Dunedin City Council, New Zealand Transport Agency and Port Otago.
He will visit members of the Clutha, Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes district councils as he travels to Balclutha, Alexandra and Queenstown today.
Mr Twyford's venture south from his Auckland electorate is an effort to better understand transport concerns of New Zealand's rural population.
He said Labour opposed the Government's flatlining of its budget for rural road maintenance for the second consecutive three-year term.
The Government had prioritised the development of seven motorways it deemed of national significance, which would see $12 billion spent on those projects in the next decade, Mr Twyford said.
He said the annual $3 billion transport budget could be better apportioned.
"Those highways of national significance are all duplicates of existing roads and are all in the North Island, apart from one in Christchurch. They are what I call big ego projects, but actually the economic value of them doesn't stack up," he said.
Otago and Southland roads were used to transport a large proportion of export product to port, and could not be neglected for future ratepayers to worry about because "that's bad asset management", Mr Twyford said.
"Spending on new motorway projects has had the effect of crowding out all the other activity classes of transport and local roads has suffered particularly. Councils are being squeezed and they don't like it."
Inflation and the ever-increasing cost of road material including bitumen meant a flatlined budget was effectively a funding cut, he said.
"That means local councils either have to reduce the level of service or get ratepayers to chip in more, and in the current economic climate that's not possible. The DCC and almost all other Otago councils are clear that it will mean a reduction in service."
Mr Twyford said the Government did not lack money for transport, and, if Labour could, it would prioritise rural road maintenance and rail development over new city motorways.
