SpeechHon RON MARK (Minister of Defence): Thank you Mr Speaker. I do rise on behalf of New Zealand First to say this is a great day. This is a great day. This is a great day to finally see a piece of legislation—we're having lots of great days over this side of the House. In fact I thoroughly enjoyed my time in select committee this morning talking about a multitude of great days for the Defence Force just rolling one after the other. But this is a great day and it's going to be a great day tomorrow as well. If anyone's in Whenuapai just come along.I've got to say the reason it's a great day is because finally we're seeing a Government that's taking a pragmatic approach to communications and networking throughout the land—basic communications infrastructure because that is what rail is. It's part of that wider communications network whether we're talking road and rail or whether we're talking the information highway—which I do find interesting. I'm listening to some of the arguments right now and I'm looking at my ol' mate across the road the former president of Local Government New Zealand. We used to be actually on the same team local government trying to knock sense into the last National Government because they would not listen to provincial New Zealand and the concerns about the communications network. We would talk about the lack of funding. There's Mr—what's his name; King is it from Northland. Labour put him in that seat. That man should get down on his knee and thank Labour every day of every week of every month because without Labour pulling the votes off Winston Peters that man wouldn't be there. But I digress a tad. That man wouldn't be there. He's what we call in New Zealand First the beneficiary MP. He doesn't do any work. He just hoovers up gimmies" and freebies courtesy of Labour.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! Back to the bill.Hon RON MARK: Thank you Mr Speaker. I couldn't resist a clip at him because he's so used to it.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Or even start talking about the bill.Hon RON MARK: Thank you. I do recall the days when we talked about communications. We talked about the difficulty of local government funding roading networks with an ever-growing number of trucks on the roads. We would come along to—in those days it was—the Hon Nick Smith who was the Minister of Local Government and try to help him understand the pressure that local government was under. Our diminishing number of rural ratepayers could not fund the repairs and maintenance let alone the growth of those rural networks of roads. One of the solutions we always talked about was getting trucks off the road getting product on to rail and getting it through to the port. Now whether that meant going up to Napier up through Mr Yule's part of the woods to the port at Napier or getting it down through the Wairarapa into Wellington into CentrePort we always said: why don't you put more money Mr National Government person into rail so we can one alleviate the pressure on our ratepayers and two alleviate the pressure on the roading network to commuters who were driving over the Remutaka hills stuck behind logging trucks—truck after truck after truck? But the answer was always well we're not putting money into rail and rail's a State-owned entity and it's got to make its own way and it's not the Government's responsibility to be putting money into rail. I heard Mr Bishop just a moment ago—the fundamental objection that today's National Party in Opposition has to this bill is because of cross-subsidy. Get it? I've got that. I understand it. But that totally belies what that Government stood for a few years back when they went into coalition with New Zealand First and they flip-flopped—they flip-flopped. See we used to have cross-subsidy where road-user charges all that transport funding went into the consolidated fund and it was used for education—cross-subsidy—under Robbie Muldoon and Jim Bolger. Mr Bishop the reason your party changed it is because New Zealand First and Peter Brown made you—in coalition negotiations made you.So quite happy to accept cross-subsidy on one day and argue against it on another day. In those days it was essential. In those days you couldn't put 100 percent of the money gathered off of roads into roading because that was just appalling. How would we pay for education they said. How would we pay for health they said. We can't put all the money into roading. Now they're saying "Oh my gosh. We can't take the road-user charges and put them into rail."Hon Member: You're lost in the past.Hon RON MARK: "Lost in the past." Well for that new member freshly promoted—congratulations—if one doesn't learn from history one is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past and that in one flippant little chip across the House sums up the problem on that bench—sums it right up. Denial denial denial. Here's the other point: over the hill and far away in a beautiful valley called the Wairarapa people are applauding the fact that we will have more trains running commuters in and out of Wellington to the Wairarapa. The local mayors—Chris Bishop: We did that. That was us.Hon RON MARK: No. Minister Twyford has made that announcement—about $200 million into double-tracking in the Hutt area.Chris Bishop: That was us.Hon RON MARK: Mr Bishop there was never any funding or any appropriation or any commitment when I was the Mayor of Carterton from that Government to double-tracking to improving the lines to more rolling stock to $98 million in one hit. About $200 million from this Government into the Wairarapa line—that's new. In fact Mr Bishop weren't you there in Upper Hutt when we made the announcement? Well the former National Party man who is now the Mayor of South Wairarapa is applauding this decision.In fact it was Adrienne Staples—Her Worship the Mayor Adrienne Staples from South Wairarapa former National Party president—who got tired of banging her head on the desk trying to say why doesn't the Government use money from the Land Transport Fund to support rail. Guess what! Her former Worship the Mayor of South Wairarapa was saying "Well done coalition Government. Nice one. Thank you very much." Stuck in the past Nicola Willis I understand you are. You are stuck in your past rhetoric in your past ideology of all that little "The money has to be in this jam jar and only spent on Weet-Bix and the money in this little jam jar is for the rent and nothing can shift between the two of them." That's why families get into trouble because there's no pragmatism there's no balance and there's no looking at the wider holistic policy.This decision is a brave decision. New Zealand First has been adamant that we must rebuild rail. We need to get trucks off. The comment that 99 percent of freight in Auckland goes on the roads is absolutely correct Mr Bishop—absolutely correct. I've got family in the logistics distribution network. I know how important those trucks are. We've got Palmerston North just across the hills from us right—a centre a hub a logistics hub. We know what's going in and out of there. The question is given all the money that was poured into the roads of national significance and what the last Government was going to do—Mr Yule's smiling I know. Don't smile; you'll get in trouble. All the money that we know was going to be put into the one-road network by the last Minister of Transport who was going to lose? Rural New Zealand. And what was that doing? That was propping up unbridled immigration more and more cars on the roads more and more trucks billions of dollars going into Auckland Mr Bishop—Auckland—at the expense of the Wairarapa Hawke's Bay and Manawatū. The question is: is that sustainable? Can we continue to promote that sort of greenhouse gas emission? Can we continue to have that many trucks on the road? Can we continue to build so many roads? Why wouldn't we expand our rail network? Why wouldn't we find alternate ways of funding it? And of course it may only be one train on the Wairoa line up until right now but build it—and if what you've said is true then kei te pai. But I'm one of those optimists; I'm a pragmatist. New Zealand First believes build it and it will come. Build it. With the population growth in this country exploding we have tripped over the 5 million mark at lightning speed and that has got to be a concern. And the future will not be in building more six-lane highways at the huge cost that the last Government poured into those roading networks—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! The member's time has expired."