‘Ecstatic’ for expressway extension: Waikato reacts to Budget 2026

Thursday, 28 May 2026

The Government will commit $1.773 billion in funding to extend the Waikato Expressway in its 2026 Budget, an announcement which has been met with open arms around the region.

The investment into the Cambridge to Piarere expressway extension was strongly welcomed by industry heads, academics, and advocates who spoke to the Waikato Times on Thursday after the Budget was revealed.

MP for Waikato Tim van de Molen said he had been pushing for the extension since he was first elected.

“It's going to have a substantial impact both locally, but also across the whole Golden Triangle in terms of being an improved connection for Auckland and Hamilton getting through to Tauranga as well as providing that interregional connection for people within the Waikato,” he told the Times.

Critically, it would also improve safety and ease congestion on the transport corridor.

Van de Molen said he had received multiple messages from people who were “very pleased” to see the project given the green light.

“[I’m] delighted…to be able to see the Government supporting strong investment into the Waikato because this is a key growth region in the country and so we should be getting this sort of support.”

Waikato Federated Farmers president Chris Woolerton previously told the Waikato Times the organisation wanted to see increased government backing for research into agricultural science alongside more investment into rural infrastructure.

Speaking on Thursday, he deemed it a “sensible” budget.

While many of his earlier wants hadn’t eventuated, he said many announcements, such as increased funding for ambulances, would benefit the rural sector.

“They haven't targeted one group…they've spread it thinly over everybody and so each area is able to get a benefit from it,” he said.

He welcomed funding committed to extending the Waikato Expressway.

“I think that's fantastic because that's going to save a few lives and it's going to make your travel time quicker.”

The investment into the road - a key route for the agriculture industry - would make delivering goods quicker, cheaper, and easier, he said.

He was also happy to see changes made to the RMA system which would see applications speed up.

Waikato Chamber of Commerce chief executive Don Good was “ecstatic” to see funding for the Cambridge to Piarere expressway extension.

“It's been long overdue,” he said, adding that previous governments had made a “dog’s breakfast” of the expansion.

With 25,000 to 30,000 road users travelling on the route daily, he said it fixed a “very unsatisfactory piece of infrastructure”.

Referring to the rest of the Budget, he said it was “better than expected” for Waikato businesses.

They were aware the Government had little or no money, and were pleased to see it get “back into a surplus and the fact that we can now start to really pay down debt”.

“I think we will look back at it from the future and say that it was actually a very good budget given the circumstances that it was created in,” Good said.

The chamber was happy to see strong investment into the education and health sectors.

“Education…it's a tide that lifts all boats and the fact that they're putting money into it, both in terms of schools and buildings and also investment in teachers - we're wrapped,” Good said.

University of Waikato professor Frank Scrimgeour said there was “not a lot to get excited about” for the Waikato region in this year’s Budget, describing it as “slow and steady, holding the course”.

Like other local figures the Waikato Times spoke to, he said funding for the Cambridge to Piarere expressway extension was important to the region for a multitude of reasons.

“Whether it be safe commuting for our local communities, whether it be for enhancing safety in terms of our tourists travelling through between Auckland and Rotorua and Taupō and places like that, to me…the expressway extension’s pretty important.”

Scrimgeour also said he saw the new Incentives for Growth fund - which would see councils be paid more per home as they consented more homes - as a “indirect influence of the government on councils to be more proactive to facilitate development, less they risk…becoming more controlled by Wellington”.

He said people in the region needed to think about what they wanted to see in two to three years time now so they could begin advocating.

“It seems to me there's been appropriate pushback from those people who have been affected by cuts and proposed cuts, but there hasn't been a lot of clarity from the community about what is high priority going forward.”

“I think that expressway extension is a result in large measure of ongoing pushing from the community on the issue… it didn't just come out of nowhere.”

St Vincent de Paul Hamilton general manager Mike Rolton said it was a tight and “no surprises” budget that made sense in the economic climate.

“I suppose at the election year they’re not throwing out lollies because they’ve got no lollies to throw out,” he said.

It was a “pretty fair budget based on how much they’ve been able to save and how much they’ve been able to hand out”.

He was happy to see the government allocate $212.4m to extend the Healthy School Lunches programme through 2027, but said he wanted to see it “tidied up” so only children who needed it were receiving it.

Rolton also believed the Government needed to take a step back when it came to social housing changes and focus on helping people adapt.

“There's a gap in the middle between going from living in the street or your car to moving into a house,” he said.

“There should be a middle step where you're actually trained to live in a house.”

He said this could involve learning how to pay rent and bills, with the money paid to live in a social house saved so it could support the tenant into their own permanent home.