Sowry Roger: Land Transport Management Bill — In Committee 
Sowry Roger: Land Transport Management Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:9736] 
Hon ROGER SOWRY (National) 
: 
 I took another call because I was really hopeful that the Minister would take the chance to take a call. We are now in a situation where Ministers decide that they will just not bother answering questions or talking about their legislation—it is all far too much trouble. This Minister is far too important to be bothered by answering questions around the detail of Part 3. He was too important to come to the select committee to explain the policy decisions behind the bill so he did not do that. 
Hon Paul Swain 
: I wasn’t invited. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: That is because the Labour members voted not to invite him. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: It was a majority decision. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: It was a majority decision so all the Labour members voted not to have the Minister attend. I can understand that they know him better than we do. They know his performance and they probably felt it was better to have the officials explain. But now the Minister has an opportunity to stand up on his hind legs and tell members why he is allowing board members to be on both Transit and Transfund boards. I want him to explain that so that New Zealanders understand. Just as the Labour Party appoints its campaign chairman and president—who happen to be the same person—a person can also be on Transfund and Transit and we should know why. 
Jill Pettis 
: Write to him and he might respond. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: We know that that does not happen. I actually wrote to the Minister a few weeks ago and told him that if he wanted sensible land transport legislation National would work with him and vote with him and we would not have to be beholden to the sort of round-the-back-of-the-bikeshed deal that he has done with the Greens. The Minister has not even bothered to respond. I know from dealing with the Minister’s office on Land Transport Safety Authority and other issues that people bring to me that it takes somewhere between 4 and 5 months to get a response from the Minister’s office. It is not one of the quickest offices—but I have to say it is not the slowest. One always gets an acknowledgement within 4 or 5 days but no answer for 4 or 5 months. 
But now the Minister has an opportunity to explain to us exactly why he is so keen on Part 3 which enables people to sit on both boards. He can explain to us why he will not let one of the objectives of Transfund be an economic objective. The Minister has every other objective in there. Paragraph (b) of clause 70(2) states that Transfund has to take into account the views of affected communities. We are inclined to define that as being just about anyone anywhere in the country. It has to take into account the need for environmental responsibility and exhibit a sense of social responsibility. The board of Transfund is sitting down with a large amount of money—hundreds of millions of dollars—and has to show that the decision it makes is environmentally responsible socially responsible and— 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Shame! 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: The Greens say “shame”. OK that is fine. Let us have those provisions in there—we are not asking that they be taken out. But why not put in “economic”? Or do the Greens believe that one cannot be economically responsible and at the same time socially and environmentally responsible? That is the issue. The Greens have convinced the Minister that one cannot do things for the economy socially and for the environment at the same time so that is why “economic” decision-making has come out. 
Of course we do not have the clause that says that Transfund must not have regard to the political circumstances of the Government. I would like the Minister to stand up and assure the Committee that the Labour Party will not use Transfund as its marginal seat retention scheme because that is certainly the view in the community. It is the view in the industry that this is being restructured so that the Labour Party can put its snout in the trough and use it for that purpose.