'Completely wrong': Labour MP's gaffe on live radio, attack on National

Labour’s Ginny Andersen admits she wrongly claimed the National Land Transport Fund doesn’t pay for road maintenance during a live radio exchange in which she also attacked National minister Mark Mitchell. 

Appearing on The Mike Hosking Breakfast on Newstalk ZB on Wednesday morning, Andersen claimed maintenance on roads wasn’t funded by the NLTF. 

The NLTF funds road maintenance with an allocation for state highway and local road pothole prevention. 

Andersen repeatedly told Mitchell that money came from a “different budget”. 

“You don’t even know what you’re talking about. That is not that budget,” the Labour MP said. 

As Mitchell said maintenance money did come from the NLTF, Andersen said: “No, it’s not. It’s not. It’s a separate fund. You need to go check that. It’s a separate fund.” 

She said if Mitchell didn’t understand the budgets and “you want to be credible on financial things, then you’re really kidding yourself”. 

After a commercial break, Andersen admitted she had “got it around the wrong way”. 

“I just went and checked that. Yes, [the NLTF] is for maintenance and the other one is for roads, so I take that. I got it wrong.” 

The NLTF also funds state highway and local road improvements, which the NZTA describes as including investment in new state highways and local roads, as well as improving them. 

Governments can inject capital funding – Budget 2026 invested $1.773 billion to extend the Cambridge to Piarere expressway, with the balance coming from the NLTF. 

Mitchell has claimed that when National came to office “there were potholes everywhere [and] there was no maintenance being done” – maintenance was occurring but NZTA acknowledged in 2024 the network condition was below standards. 

National's Mark Mitchell was speaking alongside Ginny Andersen. Photo / Mark Mitchell 

Transport Minister Chris Bishop said Andersen’s comments went to “the heart of Labour’s economic credibility”. 

“Ginny Andersen’s comments beggar belief. First she claimed the land transport fund doesn’t pay for road maintenance (which is completely wrong) then after accepting that was wrong, she bizarrely continued to insist there was another ‘separate fund’. There is not.” 

The radio exchange kicked off over Mitchell asking Andersen how Labour planned to pay for its promise to cancel fuel excise duty hikes next term. The fuel excise duty goes into the NLTF to pay for road maintenance and other transport projects. 

National has claimed this would cost about $4.7b. It got this figure using the “rough rule of thumb” that for every 1% per litre increase in the duty it raised between $50-$60 million per year. It took $55m as a “midpoint assumption”. 

Based on a “best case scenario” of a 12-cent increase next year, a 6c increase in 2028 and 4c increases for the following three years, National estimated it would raise $5.1b in revenue. 

Assuming Labour restarted the 4c increases after the next term, that would raise $440m, leaving $4.675b. 

Labour has disputed the figure as it goes beyond the next term, although the party hasn’t provided its own figure for how much its policy will cost. 

It plans to do so after the Government has provided the pre-election economic and fiscal update. 

Andersen said the cost would be “significant” but didn’t agree with it being $4.7b. 

She said National was going to be “taxing New Zealanders more at a time when they’ve promised no taxes”. 

The Government’s position on fuel excise is to not go ahead with the 2027 increase, and apply smaller 5c increases over subsequent years. 

National’s promise is “no new taxes” next term. It has not promised to not increase existing taxes, though finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis has said there are no current plans to do so. 

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.