Coddington Deborah: Transport Legislation Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Coddington Deborah: Transport Legislation Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16927] 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON (ACT) 
: 
 I thank the Committee for giving me the opportunity to respond to that absolute nonsense from the Green Party. The title of this legislation—the Transport Legislation Bill—is very misleading. This legislation will do nothing to improve transport in New Zealand. In fact it will set transport back two decades. The Green Party says that it increases choices. How can the Greens say it increases choices and at the same time be so opposed to cars? Cars give New Zealanders freedom of choice. They give old people mothers and families freedom of choice. Why does the Green Party think that bus transport is more sustainable environmentally than car transport? The Green Party members have obviously never been stuck behind a diesel bus that is grinding its way up a hill and belching out black diesel smoke. Cars have become more efficient and more environmentally pure than buses have in the last two decades.  
The main objection that we heard from all the submitters to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee was that this legislation codifies for the first time the Government’s specific land transport strategy. We heard from Business New Zealand the Automobile Association the Road Transport Forum the Cycling Advocates Network Federated Farmers Queenstown Lakes District Council and numerous other submitters whose concerns were ignored. They said that legislation should be flexible and robust enough to actually just accommodate a Government’s range of policies rather than spell out in word for word detail the four objectives of the New Zealand Transport Strategy which was written by Roland Sapsford from the Greens office in conjunction with Heather Simpson in the Prime Minister’s office. A deal was done whereby that strategy would be allowed to go through in return for the Greens’ support on the Supreme Court Bill. That was MMP at its worst.  
Even though we are talking about land transport which includes all the motorists in New Zealand who use the roads let us not forget that this bill actually defines coastal shipping barges and ferries as land transport as well. So this bill includes the users of all those services. New Zealand’s future economic viability is put at stake by this legislation. 
Darren Hughes 
: Nagger nagger! 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: When that member’s voice breaks he may be able to get up take a call and contribute something sensible to the debate. Meanwhile he just sits there chirping away—[ 
Interruption 
] 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Would the member please continue. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: Overwhelmingly the submissions on the bill requested that the sustainability filter which has now taken the place of safety at a reasonable cost be changed. It has not really been changed; it has been tweaked and tinkered with. We now have more weasel words such as “maintain” and “improve” but the only thing that is to be ensured under this legislation is environmental sustainability. How can one have transport legislation for which the main objective— 
Darren Hughes 
: What a nagger. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: That member obviously does not care about safety. He does not care that airlines and the helicopter industry will have to be more concerned about how they pollute the atmosphere than about the safety of their passengers. That is what this bill does in stating that environmental sustainability will be ensured but safety will be assisted. [ 
Interruption 
]  
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I think the Minister of Fisheries is under the influence. I think he was calling out “A party of crooks.” or something similar to that. He is nodding his head. The Minister Mr Benson-Pope is completely out of order and he should be required to withdraw and apologise for those remarks. He should sober up. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Thank you Mr Prebble. I actually thought that I had heard that myself. If that was the case I ask the member to stand withdraw and apologise. 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: I would have thought that it was a case of pots and kettles. To get back to the title this bill amends already the legislation that we passed just last year. The Government could not get the legislation right last year. How do we know whether next year its transport policy may not change again? The Government itself may change. If that happens we will have to go through this whole process again because this Government will have specifically written into the book its transport strategy.