Jones Shane: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJones Shane: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12062. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SHANE JONES (Labour):Kia oraanōtātou. I rise to make a contribution and to remind the New Zealand public and this Committee how gross the failure of the current Government and its partner theMāori Party is in relation to liftingwhānau andhapū out of the doldrums in terms of providing them with decent investment opportunities and employment relief. I only have to go to the area where my fellow Northlander Mike Sabin unwisely referred to transport as being the immediate elixir and the immediate solution toMāori unemployment and additional unemployment in the north etc. Sure no one actually wants to see substandard roads in my area but rest assured an improved roading infrastructure will not go one inch past Warkworth.The reason that it is not going to go past Warkworth is that the major contributors to the whole philosophy of extending thePūhoi road as some kind of economic remedy all happen to have their second third fourth or fifth house in and around Matakana or in and around Leigh. That is an area that we went to recently and we were assured by the localhapū there who were saying goodbye to their rangatiraLaly Haddon that a flash road is actually going to make no difference whatsoever. All it is going to do is shorten the visit for people in Auckland who spend very little money in the area and who are not investors in the Northland economy.What is actually needed is an immediate improvement to the most egregious aspects of that woeful road—which I had the misfortune of driving down this morning in order to catch a flight—not some long sort of pipe dream that the road from Auckland to Whangarei is somehow going to open up new economic vistas. If that is the truth start from Whangarei and go to Auckland. No they do not want to hear that.What actually also needs to happen in regional development in our rohe of Tai Tokerau is for the Government to work with the north and actually open up the potential of Marsden Point replicate what Dr Cullen sought to do and put in the spur fromOakleigh—the land has already been designated—and enable some of the pressure tomove out of Auckland and other parts of the port infrastructure around the country and capitalise on New Zealand’s premier deep-sea port. That would require a level of commitment to rail and a rational transport planning infrastructure which is absent in a very salient away from this particular Minister. I accept that he believes he does know best. I accept that he believes he has a monopoly on whereMāoridom for example should go. Well I suppose we should not be surprised at that because his partner on the other side Dr Sharples exercises no monopoly other than a larger than passing interest in the game. You have only to look at the man’s history in that regard. But he is soon to disappear. He is soon to disappear from this House because of the woeful record on development.I went recently to not only Hawke’s Bay but also Taranaki. I enjoyed going to Taranaki. I reminded all thewhānau up there that sure it is important that incomes and jobs associated with the mineral sector grow but we should observe the law of the land observe the ethic of sustainability and make our own investment decisions.And then I went to Hawke’s Bay to be reminded that there is no rational forestry policy in the country. Forestry is a key part of the regional endowment that New Zealanders rely upon and they look—unwisely in this case—to the Government to actually come forward with not only ideas but interventions. All the Government would need to do to improve some of the earning potential in the forestry and wood sectors would be to reinstate what Mr Anderton did—a fine regional development Minister—when he put an accent on wood first wood as a priority. I mean obviously we are going to do it when we build our 100000 houses—$1.5 billion over 10 years. We will ensure that the wood sector is a key beneficiary of that—a better carbon impact than an inordinate reliance on concrete and steel and an up for the wood industry.Why does the Government not start with all the Crown projects that are inŌtautahi/Christchurch? Why does it not make wood a priority in the rebuilding of that part of the infrastructure and grow the secondary and tertiary segments of the wood industry as more products are developed jobs increase and you are able to showcase actual projects that then grow into export potential? But that is not going to happen unless you have a Government that is willing to show not only leadership but actual interventions that are smart that generate jobs and that improve investment. There is no better place to start in my view than by improving the prospects of the wood industry as we spend $40 billion inŌtautahi and not quite as much in Auckland.