The mana whenua representatives who are a part of the Te Ahu-a-Tūranga Project Alliance Board have sent a letter opposing the government’s proposed tolls on the newly built replacement road in Manawatū Tararua.

It was co-written and signed by representatives from local iwi who helped with the rebuild project that started almost a decade ago: Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua, Rangitaane o Manawatū, Rangitāne o Tamaki-nui-ā-Rua, Ngāti Kauwhata, and Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga.

Rangitāne o Tāmaki Nui a Rua chair Mavis Mullins, was one of the people who signed the letter. She told Te Ao Māori News the tolls were never part of the development.

“This was never part of the conversation ever, and yet there were a lot of scenarios that we all worked through together.

“I think that if a toll road had come forward earlier, there would have been the opportunity to work through it, we wouldn’t have the angst and frustration that’s going on now.”

The proposed tolls between Ashhurst and Woodville would cost light vehicles $4.30 per use, with heavier vehicles (over 3500kg) paying double. In comparison, the current most expensive toll road, Auckland’s Northern Gateway, charges $2.60, making the new toll nearly two-thirds higher.

Danielle Harris, Rangitaane o Manawatū chair, called the tolls abhorrent.

“For me, it’s actually destroyed the fundamental principles that were behind the project for building Te Ahu a Tūranga highway.

“It’s just another example of the Crown passing on cost to us, the community and users.

“Some of our whānau travel over the track three times a day and there is no way they’re going to be able to afford to pay a toll tax to travel over our maunga.”

The new road is built over the sacred tīpuna maunga Ruahine, which the mana whenua representatives granted to Waka Kotahi.

Harris said after the sacrifice made it was a “slap in the face” adding the tolls.

“We’ve opened up our maunga to the destruction that’s happened upon it over the last years to create a new safe and durable road for our community,” she said.

Forced to use unsafe roads’

In early 2017 a major slip left SH3 through the Manawatū Gorge impassable, so many in the area had to take more dangerous alternative routes.

“We have lost whānau over the last eight years as they’ve been forced to use unsafe roads. We’ve paid, we’ve already paid and you’re going to make us pay yet again. Again it’s just disbelief, hōhā," Mullins said.

In the letter addressed to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Transport Minister Simeon Brown, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka, and Waka Kotahi chairS imon Bridges, it said they would stand with the communities’ opposition to the proposal.

“When we originally supported Te Ahu-a-Tūranga, with all its impacts on our whenua and our taiao, we did so on the basis that it was providing a public good.

“We see the replacement highway as a saviour to our rural communities, ensuring safety in travelling between Tararua and Manawatū and providing an economic lifeline to towns such as Woodville, Pahiatua, Eketahuna, and Dannevirke and the other 15 rural communities that make up Tamaki-nui-a-Rua.

“For our whānau and community to now have to pay a toll, a tax, to use an essential road is anathema to us," it said.

‘Insult is added to injury’

Waka Kotahi tolling consultation ended on October 7, with Palmerston North City Council, Tararua District Council, and community members putting in a submission opposing it.

“Insult is added to injury when we consider the mahi toi that we have gifted to the project and the nation. Across Te Ahu-a-Tūranga, mahi toi is being installed to tell our stories, our whakapapa, to those who travel the route. For us to have to now tell our mokopuna, rangatahi, kaumātua and hapori that they will have to pay the government for the privilege of seeing these representations of their own whakapapa is extraordinarily offensive," the letter said.

The new road is expected to be completed by the middle of 2025.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Transport Minister Simeon Brown, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka, and Waka Kotahi were all contacted for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.