Carter Chris: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Carter Chris: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12459] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 I move  
That the Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be referred to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee for consideration that the committee report by 14 June 2004 and that the committee have the authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions and during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House and outside the Wellington area on a day the House is sitting despite Standing Orders 191 193(a) and 194(1)(b) and (c). 
As anyone who lives in Auckland will tell us the rapid growth in the region in recent years has led to escalating problems with transport. Auckland is beset by severe congestion resulting in rising travel times excessive pollution and additional costs to business individuals and communities. Because of Auckland’s size and its importance to the economy these problems are having an impact on the whole country. It is an impact that is only likely to worsen unless action is taken. This bill takes action. The roots of Auckland’s transport woes lie in two key issues: firstly a history of underinvestment in transport which has lagged well behind the growing demand for it; and secondly confused decision making which has resulted from an inefficient and cumbersome governance structure with too many bodies involved in it. 
In the Investing for Growth package announced before Christmas last year this Government laid out comprehensive plans for tackling both these issues. This bill deals primarily with the second issue: governance. The Auckland region contains four city councils and three district councils in close proximity all of which have local priorities for land transport. In addition to Auckland’s territorial authorities there is a regional council with its own transport priorities and all these organisations sit alongside national agencies with national priorities. The challenge in the governance of Auckland transport is how to achieve a regional approach to transport problems while preserving the need for Auckland’s territorial authorities to have input into it. Our solution is laid out in this bill. 
The Government has decided that the Auckland Regional Council should have overall responsibility for land transport in the Auckland region with the exception of State highways and rail tracks which will remain the responsibility of Transit New Zealand and the soon-to-be TrackCo respectively. The Auckland Regional Council will continue to be responsible for the regional land transport strategy through its regional land transport committee. However in future the role of delivering land transport services in Auckland will pass to two new subsidiaries: the Auckland Regional Transport Authority and Auckland Regional Holdings. 
The Auckland Regional Transport Authority will be the body responsible for delivering the land transport services that give effect to the Auckland Regional Council’s regional land transport strategy. It will make the decisions on the projects that best comply with that strategy and when and in what order they should occur. The Auckland Regional Transport Authority will prepare a land transport programme detailing its planned activities and including statements of all regional priorities in respect of particular projects and activities. It will then seek funding for these projects from either the Auckland Regional Council Transfund the Land Transport Safety Authority the Auckland territorial authorities or other sources as appropriate. The bill provides for the Auckland Regional Council to determine the level of funding it will provide to the Auckland Regional Transport Authority each year while the authority will determine the prioritisation of individual activities within its regional land transport programme. The creation of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority will address the fragmentation of land transport governance by concentrating in a single body the roles of planning funding and the development of regional land transport in a way that contributes to an integrated safe responsive and sustainable land transport system. 
While the Auckland Regional Transport Authority will be a subsidiary of the Auckland Regional Council a business-like board appointed by an appointments panel will run it. The appointments panel will include a representative from each of the region’s seven territorial authorities and eight Auckland Regional Council members including the chair of the Auckland Regional Council who will be the chair of the panel. A candidate will require a minimum of 10 votes from the panel to be appointed to the board. The success of these changes will depend on getting the right people into the right positions. Therefore the appointments panel will be required to select candidates with the right mix of expertise and knowledge. To avoid any potential for conflicts of interest elected members and employees of Auckland local authorities will not be eligible to sit on the board of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority. 
The roles of Transfund the Land Transport Safety Authority Transit and TrackCo will not change as result of this bill. The relationships between Transfund and Auckland local authorities will however change in future. Transfund will deal primarily with the Auckland Regional Transport Authority rather than with eight different local authorities. The bill also provides for the disestablishment of Infrastructure Auckland and the transfer of its assets and liabilities to a new entity Auckland Regional Holdings. Auckland Regional Holdings will be a subsidiary of the Auckland Regional Council and will be a vehicle for owning and managing land transport and other assets in the interests of the Auckland region. In doing so it will make available any land transport assets that it holds for use in the delivery of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority’s land transport programme. 
The bill requires that at least 85 percent of the revenue from the Infrastructure Auckland funds provided by Auckland Regional Holdings to the Auckland Regional Council are spent on transport and stormwater purposes. In allocating those funds the Auckland Regional Council will have regard to its long-term council community plan as well as to the notional allocations that have been developed by Infrastructure Auckland for transport and stormwater. That percentage will be able to be reviewed from 2008. 
The bill also requires changes to be made to the  
Auckland Regional Policy Statement 
 and Auckland’s regional and district plans. This is to provide for integrated transport and land use policies that are consistent with the Auckland regional growth strategy and the Auckland regional land transport strategy. The bill directs the eight Auckland councils to prepare changes to their planning documents and to notify the proposed changes for public submission by 26 February 2005. The bill also provides for a coordinated process by requiring that councils appoint a joint hearings panel to hear submissions and make recommendations on the proposed changes to councils. Councils will however retain full autonomy over the planning and decision-making process. 
Stronger policy direction will mean that proposals for land use intensification or transport projects that are consistent with that direction are more likely to be approved under the Resource Management Act or declined where they are inconsistent. The integration of transport and land use policies will shape the growth of metropolitan Auckland and support a competitive and efficient economy. The changes will pave the way for implementing the Government’s increased funding package for improved roading public transport walking and cycling. In the long term the changes will contribute to a greater quality of life for Aucklanders. 
As I indicated earlier this bill delivers part of the Government’s Investing for Growth package. It does not cover the other critical issue in the transport package—that of funding. Officials are undertaking ongoing work to develop the details in respect of increases in fuel tax and road-user charges and a Crown contribution to that will deliver an additional $1.62 billion to fund Auckland transport over the next 10 years. It is the Government’s intention that the additional revenue raised by higher fuel taxes and road-user charges should be allocated across all the regions of New Zealand on the basis of population. 
It is desirable that the bill be enacted in time for the establishment of the new entities on 1 July this year. I acknowledge that that is a tight timetable. It is a result of the time required to address the complex issues that have had to be addressed in developing the bill and of the urgent need to implement the changes.