Brown Simeon; Rurawhe AdrianSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): If you were listening to that speech from the Minister you would expect that the problems were all from the prior Government. But this is a Minister who's created the problems in our public transport sector. The reason why the bus won't turn up is because there aren't enough drivers because he as the Minister of Immigration didn't change the settings in time to allow drivers to come into the country. The reason why the ferries aren't operating is because there aren't enough people to be able to drive the ferries. He as the Minister of Immigration hasn't changed the immigration settings to be able to let people into the country to be able to drive the ferries. The reason why the trains aren't operating in Auckland is because he's the Minister of Transport and he didn't tell Aucklanders that he was going to shut the entire train network down for two years for the trains to operate. So that is a bit rich coming from the Minister of Immigration and the Minister of Transport to try to blame all the problems on a prior Government when the reliability and the issues have been happening under his watch as Minister of Transport. Let's put some facts on to the table. In 2019 1.26 percent of bus trips in Auckland were cancelled. In 2020 0.67 percent. In 2021 0.57 percent. Last year—2022—10 percent; 270000 bus trips in the first nine months of last year were cancelled and those cancellation numbers have continued under this Government's watch all because they have not looked at what's required. I was at a public meeting on Monday night in the North Shore of Auckland where bus after bus after bus is being cancelled. Auckland Transport were there and they said the number one reason we are having to cancel is because we wrote to the Minister of Immigration at the beginning of last year saying if we don't update these immigration settings all of the bus drivers who used to drive for us who left the country who weren't allowed in during COVID we can't access them—and by the way it's going to take six months from when you change that setting to when we'll be able to get them actually driving buses again. It took the Minister till the end of last year to actually sign that form. He still hasn't done it for the ferry operators or train drivers. It's unacceptable. The Minister of Transport should be talking to the Minister of Immigration. And the good news is that under this Government he could be doing it in the mirror every morning but the problem is he isn't—the problem is that he isn't. So we get to what this bill is actually doing and what this bill is doing is creating a whole lot more bureaucracy when it comes to creating public transport plans and doesn't deal with the actual fundamentals that are required to make it work. At the core of it it changes the principles based upon which public transport provision should be. It changes it from the principles of market delivering public transport contracting with councils getting good value for money and making sure that the services are reliable to a Government now wanting to make sure that the public transport system achieves a whole range of other outcomes such as reducing environmental and health impacts by reducing reliance on single-occupant vehicles and using zero-emission technology public transport services support mode shifts fair and equitable employment or engagement—all of these are issues which can be dealt with and by the way are being dealt with through other mechanisms. If the Minister was actually going to read the regulatory impact statement it states very clearly that issues such as making sure that our bus fleet is electrified is already being dealt with by the New Zealand Transport Agency putting in place requirements for these contracts issues in relation to making sure that bus drivers are paid a fairer wage. That is being dealt with. The Government allocated $61 million in last year's Budget to make sure that bus drivers were getting standardised bus wages across New Zealand. These are issues that are being dealt with already and now we have a Government which comes along and says No now we're going to change the legislation. And by the way the issue the fifth primary principle for delivery of public transport services will now be providing public transport services"—and this is the last principle—"assist public transport investment to be efficient and public transport investment to give value for money." And then (f) but by the way you can ignore that. So after all of this legislation change and all of these new principles that have been put in the key component when it comes to public transport services which should be efficiency reliability making sure the bus turns up by the way and value for money for the taxpayers and ratepayers who end up subsidising public transport as well by the way—all of that can be ignored; all of that can be ignored as long as those other principles are being addressed. So the National Party will be opposing this piece of legislation because it is not going to deal with the actual issue. The real issue is making sure that we have enough bus drivers train drivers ferry operators to be able to actually do the job rather than simply creating a whole new bureaucratic process. And by the way the evidence is clear that the Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) has worked. It has meant that the service reliability has increased except for when the Minister of Immigration got involved and made it impossible for bus ferry and train operators to be able to operate. It has meant better value for money for ratepayers and taxpayers which is a good thing and it has meant that more people are actually using public transport. Prior to COVID the number of bus trips and ferry trips and train trips was exploding. People were using public transport because it was reliable it was efficient it worked; now it doesn't. That's the story up and down the country—now it doesn't. So what people are doing is the opposite of what this legislation says. They're getting back into their cars. That was the message again at this public meeting on the North Shore in Auckland: the system is not working because Michael Wood the Minister of Immigration is not letting it work. He's creating the problem that he says he's trying to solve. People are getting back into their cars rather than using public transport which means our roading network is becoming more congested and is not working efficiently. That means that more people are spending longer travelling not less time. And overall what should transport policy be about? It should be meaning that you spend less time travelling so you spend more time doing what you want to do with your day. Isn't that such a radical idea? Where's that in the principles? What about the idea of people spending less time travelling so they can spend more time at work at home with their children doing the things they love? What a radical idea! I don't see that in the principles anywhere. It's simply not even a consideration because under this Government when you're travelling your time doesn't matter. But of course there's other things which this bill covers as well. It undermines good contractual processes. The Minister went against the advice of his officials who told him "No you have to go to market when you're tendering and you're contracting." That market principle was taken away by the Minister. The Minister ignored the advice and the ministry said any move from a contractual approach may reduce transparency over cost and performance. So not only are they going to make public transport worse—well it's already bad enough—it's not going to be as transparent in terms of those on-time performance data points and actually making sure that the transparency around the cost is actually transparent. That is critical to a good public transport service and this is being taken away under this piece of legislation. The other point: in-house operation. Auckland Transport is not exactly the most trusted organisation in Auckland for those who are from outside of Auckland. But now this Government is saying "Well OK. Well we're actually going to let Auckland Council run a bus company as well as have Auckland Transport who will manage it." I mean how well is that going to work for Aucklanders? That's what this legislation is saying that Auckland Council will now be able to have a bus company within it which won't have to compete with the private sector won't have to go through a market tender process and apparently that's going to work better for everybody. I doubt it. This is going to cause more issues than it's going to solve. There are of course questions around exempt services and how that's going to impact those services the certainty required to operators who run exempt services. That is important because obviously they make investment they buy buses they buy boats—whatever they do to run those exempt services. They make big investments. This does not do anything to improve the certainty that those operators need. Then of course we have the issue around wages and conditions. No one in this House would say that we don't want bus drivers to be paid more. Of course we do. Of course we want everyone's wages to be lifted but we're dealing with a cost of living crisis that this Government created because they printed money because they've let inflation run rampant under this Government. That's why this is an issue. So of course we need to deal with this issue. But this Government and operators and councils and regional councils across New Zealand are already addressing this issue by striking deals with operators. We're seeing that in Auckland. Auckland Council has lifted wages under the PTOM model. We've seen the Government put $61 million towards improving wages running through the PTOM model. It doesn't require the Government coming in and undoing the entire model to solve it. So there are a number of problems. We look forward to hearing submissions because this Government ultimately has the numbers but we will oppose this piece of legislation as it doesn't fix the fundamental problems.SPEAKER: Members this debate is interrupted and is set down for resumption following oral questions this afternoon. The House will resume at 2 p.m. for oral questions.Debate interrupted.Sitting suspended from 1.03 p.m. to 2 p.m."