Horan Brendan: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHoran Brendan: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 08 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9798. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRENDAN HORAN (Independent): Speaking to Part 1 of the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill I must say that I absolutely agree with all of the speakers on this side of the Chamber and—Iain Lees-Galloway: We’re the only ones who’ve spoken.BRENDAN HORAN: Absolutely but I think they would still be the only ones whom I agreed with. However as did the honourable Mr Faafoi I would like to speak about the change from an affordable integrated safe responsible and sustainable land transport system to—and this is where they just play on those words over on that side—“an effective efficient and safe transport system in the public interest.” What is the public interest? Well the public interest is certainly not the danger of having this collapsed funding for sustainable transport and sustainable transport programmes. In the city that I dwell in Tauranga that would wipe out walking school buses for children programmes kids on feet programmes kids on bikes bikeways and everything that is associated with getting rid of the congestion around schools and with making it safer around schools and making our children safer. This bill has the potential to completely collapse that funding.The Government does however talk about exhibiting a sense of social and environmental responsibility but again it is just talk and it is not in the objectives statement. The new Government policy statement also removes affordability which may enable the Government to justify building new roads that do not have a cost-benefit ratio factor outcome like the Auckland “Holiday Highway”.I think I will touch on some of the roads around Wellington because it is obvious that members on that side of the Chamber know very little about Wellington and I will say that the only thing dying in Wellington is support for the National Party. But let us talk about Transmission Gully and the Porirua bypass. When we talk about Transmission Gully the only way that fits into the cost-benefit ratio is when you extend it through Ōtaki and all the way to Taupō and then it fits and then you can have it. If welook at the Porirua bypass what about the people from Porirua and some of those areas who may not be able to afford the road toll that is inevitably going to be thrust upon unsuspecting motorists there? They are going to have to do this massive dog-leg to get into the city. I mean it is absolutely ridiculous.I would also just like to touch on the undemocratic way in which this Government seems to be operating. I would like to ask some of our Labour members who are far more experienced than me whether they have ever heard of a Minister preventing a local MP from getting a traffic briefing from the New Zealand Transport Agency on the future of roading in their area because that is what happened to me. The Minister of Transport stopped the officials from briefing me on the plans for roading in the Bay of Plenty and the Western Bay of Plenty. I think that is just another indication of what this Government is all about. It is just trying to railroad through bills with very little scrutiny. At the end of the day it is New Zealanders who pay the cost and it is a massive cost. I would say please do not play with the safety of our children and the future of New Zealand.