Foster-Bell Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoster-Bell Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 03 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15123. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National) to theMinister of Transport: What progress is the Government making on the Wellington Northern Corridor Road of National Significance?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Transport): Very good progress. Yesterday it was my privilege to turn the first digger bucket of soil to mark the start of the construction of the MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway an important milestone on the Wellington Northern Corridor. Yesterday also marked an important milestone for Transmission Gully a section of the corridor with the New Zealand Transport Agency announcing the preferred bidder and final details of that being made available in February. Beginning the construction of the MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway and the announcement of the preferred bidder for Transmission Gully are significant steps forward in the Government’s long-term strategy to improve transport infrastructure nationally and locally.Paul Foster-Bell: What are some of the many benefits of the Wellington Northern Corridor?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway is expected to be open to traffic in 2017—Hon Annette King: How about putting that kilt on.Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member has a right to ask a question and to at least have a chance to hear the answer. Could I ask for a little less interjection from my left-hand side of the House.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: I am slightly intimidated by Miss King’s excitement over my recent customary dress but—Grant Robertson: It wasn’t the dress we were worried about.Mr SPEAKER: Would the Minister now continue with the essence of the answer.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: She might not have been worried about the dress but she was excited by what she saw. The MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway is expected to be open for traffic in 2017—[Interruption]—and Transmission Gully—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! Can we just have an end to the comedy show and a completion of the answer would be helpful.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: It is very difficult for me. I accept that the Te Reo that is required here Peka Peka in the context of their laughter is probably causing a degree of excitement but I do have to get this information out for the public.Mr SPEAKER: Well the Minister had better hurry up because he is running out of chances.Grant Robertson: There’s only one pecker.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well it has got worse; it has gone from Annette King to Grant Robertson. I am terribly intimidated now.Mr SPEAKER: And I invite the Minister this time to finish his answer or I am moving elsewhere.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: I will hear the point of order. It might be helpful.Grant Robertson: I just want to reassure the member that I have no interest in his “Peka Peka”.Mr SPEAKER: And that is certainly not a point of order. Does the Minister wish to finish or shall we—supplementary question?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: I do. The question was about the benefits. I would like to get the answer out there. It is important for the people of the Wellington region.Mr SPEAKER: Well the Minister had better hurry up and do it.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway is expected to be open for traffic in 2017 and Transmission Gully is aiming for completion by 2020. The full 110 kilometres of the Wellington Northern Corridor is expected to be completed by 2024. This work is expected to provide up to 8000 new construction jobs and once completed about a thousand jobs will be the effect on a permanent basis throughout the community. I would like to thank the mayors of the region who turned up yesterday Fran Wilde Ross Church Nick Leggett Wayne Guppy and Celia Wade-Brown all of whom have been extremely supportive of this important piece of infrastructure. The only thing that could stop this road now is a Labour-Greens Government.Hon Peter Dunne: Has the Minister received any advice from the New Zealand Transport Agency about the level of progress to be expected in reasonable circumstances next year with regard to both the construction of the expressway and Transmission Gully?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: I would like to begin my answer by acknowledging the hard work that the Hon Peter Dunne as MP for Ōhariu has done over a long number of years to promote this project. We would expect to have the preferred bidder in contract in February with work perhaps beginning by the middle of next year. On the MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway we are following a similar process and would expect that work to commence perhaps in the third quarter of next year.