Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker for giving me the opportunity to speak in this debate on local issues. I am based in Pakuranga which is east of Auckland and there is this issue that is causing a huge amount of concern not only local people but people who go through that electorate or that suburb as well. I want to talk about the issue of speed limit reductions. Speed limit reductions were imposed by the previous Labour Government. Since those speed limit reductions people are feeling really frustrated and this is for several reasons.I want to the start acknowledge that nobody wants to see any kind of harm or injury or fatal accidents happening on our roads. But speed is just one contributing factor. One would sit and think Well how do we reduce those incidents happening on our roads? Well reduce speeds."—yep one might think that is a logical thing to do. But it is not a logical thing to do if we do not consider other factors that contribute to these incidents that happen on our roads. So that is a very lazy approach I would say to just reduce speed and not look at the condition of the road. We also need to keep in mind that other contributing factors—as I said condition of the road weather conditions condition of people's cars that they are driving and also drivers' behaviourscontribute to accidents that happen on our roads. So we need a comprehensive solution when we are trying to target incidents that happen on our roads.We want to do things which actually improve efficiency. To improve efficiency of course we need to look at our systems structures and infrastructure—but can I say that this line applies only to this side of the House because we are keen to improve efficiency not that side. What they did—they slowed everybody down and obviously there is a flowon effect on the economy of not just local area but Auckland and the whole of our country.Time is precious. What happened because of the change by the previous Labour Government? People are stuck in traffic. They're just looking at their clock ticking ticking ticking—15 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes added to one-way traffic. That is hurting people at so many levels—people's personal lives people''s work lives are being hurt.I'm really glad that we campaigned to reverse those speed limit reductions and the coalition Government has already announced that those speed limit reductions will be reversed. Because of that the main roads—which are Pakuranga Road which has been dropped from 60 kilometres per hour to 50 kilometres per hour; part of Ti Rakau Drive dropped from 60 kilometres per hour to 50 kilometres per hour; Botany Road parts of that have been dropped from 60 kilometres per hour to 50 kilometres; and Te Irirangi Drive which is again a very busy and important road there are three speed limits now from 60 kilometres per hour to 50 kilometres per hour 80 kilometres per hour to 50 kilometres per hour and one part is from 80 kilometres per hour to 60 kilometres per hour.So with these roads becoming slow what is happening is obviously during peak time there is more traffic and people follow GPS so there is more traffic going on to small roads the residential roads creating a lot of anxiety for these people who live locally because of the traffic congestion that they are seeing—and off-peak. What this is leading to is inefficient use of road capacity because people see there is so much space but they cannot use those roads to its efficient capacity. We need to see that the speed is optimal—optimal according to road conditions. But instead of looking at what other conditions can be improved they just decided to slow everybody down. We know that in East Auckland we have had this issue of street races. When people do those kind of things—and yes there was media coverage as well and my heart goes out to those victims and the families of that victim. But when people adopt this kind of behaviour they are not going to change that behaviour just because the speed limit has been reduced. So if somebody is racing at 160 kilometres per hour when the speed limit is 80 kilometres per hour it's not like if you reduce the speed limit to 50 kilometres per hour somehow those people will start speeding at 120 kilometres per hour because that is not how they are thinking.So on this side we want to see that things are done in efficient manner. We want to see that things are done in a speedy and also safe manner. We want to see progress not like them slow everything down. And that is why I''m really glad that this coalition Government has announced that we will reverse those speed limit reductions that were imposed by the previous Labour Government. Thank you."