Henare Tau: Infrastructure Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Henare Tau: Infrastructure Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:9813. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to be able to follow my cousin Darien Fenton. The development of infrastructure is central to New Zealand’s productivity and improving its future economic growth. Improving the consistency of the regulatory arrangements for infrastructure development streamlining governance and removing regulatory barriers all contribute to improving the time lines for providing infrastructure and to reducing the cost of infrastructure development. The Infrastructure Bill removes the unnecessary barriers to infrastructure development and improves the consistency of regulatory arrangements. 
I want to quote a very very fine British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who is oft heard to say “not the few but the many”. I think this bill is about the many. This bill is about how we get after 9 long years of— 
Allan Peachey 
: Socialism. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: No I certainly would not say socialism but I would say inactivity. I would say the tape around businesses— 
Hon John Carter 
: The misadministration. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —the misadministration; call it what we will. This bill is about trying to get New Zealand pumping again. This bill strips away the barriers and the red tape that has been put in front of business developers—the people who want to invest in a go-ahead country. That is what this bill does. It also reflects the National Government’s commitment to building a stronger economy that will provide growth for every New Zealander—not just the few but the many. It also provides the social infrastructure that New Zealanders so dearly desire and that has been so sorely lacking under the previous administration. 
This bill is part of a raft of Government initiatives to improve infrastructure which is vital to our economic recovery. It is also part of our commitment to review regulation and remove red tape. 
Finally I think there is an opportunity here in New Zealand. We went through a time where local Maori in Waikato were concerned about the State highway running over the top of their taniwha. We saw a leap of opinion with people saying we should not be concerned with that sort of thing. I have been wondering for a long time how to get over that—how to get around it. I suggest that it would have been easier to build a viewing platform and therefore to be nice to all parties. However silly that might sound I turn Mr Assistant Speaker Roy to your lovely ancestral home. Scotland has a taniwha too. People have built a culture and tourism venture around it. They have built roads and they have buses going there. It is called the Loch Ness monster. 
Whether or not we believe in taniwha this was an opportunity that New Zealand missed. Perhaps the taniwha might not have been as big as the Loch Ness Monster; I do not know. But to the home folk they were as big as each other and we should have revered the taniwha rather than ridiculing it. We should have incorporated it into New Zealand’s history—into our lexicon. 
Darien Fenton 
: What’s this got to do with the Infrastructure Bill? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: That is simple. We must take every opportunity to ensure that we have roads and the ability for local iwi not to be faced with all the red tape and everything but to be able to go ahead and maybe venture into tourism and other areas. That is just a small example of what good legislation and forward-thinking can achieve. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Give us another one. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I could give the member lots of examples. 
I finish by reiterating that the goal is to achieve an increase in productivity and we cannot have that when the heart of our economy is restricted. We have to take those restrictions off and let things flow just like everybody’s blood pressure. The heart has to be pumping not too fast and not too slow but at a rate where it will get one to the end. Thank you very much.