Joyce Steven: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Joyce Steven: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2462] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 There are a few things we cannot let pass completely there. Firstly the previous Labour Government’s commitment to the Waterview Connection project did not involve any money. That is the unfortunate part of it. There was no money involved in it at all. It was a commitment to the extent that those members liked the idea and they also called for a report on the business case for that particular road. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: So did you. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: No that was the report of members opposite. I actually quoted from the previous Government’s report prior to Christmas. The one with the funding in it was the previous Minister of Transport’s report which was ordered before I arrived. So all I did was to dutifully roll up and say: “Here is the report that was asked for before I turned up.” Any references to the funding costs are there because the previous Government asked for the report. 
The $2.77 billion—which I think we can all agree is a lot of money—that includes the element of funding was in the report that was asked for by the previous Government. The opportunity cost if you like to go to three lanes in each direction is $3.2 billion and I think it is fair enough. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: That was never the plan. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: If members have travelled on that road in that part of Auckland—and I take it from that comment that the Hon Darren Hughes has not—they will know that if we were to open that road within a very short period of time we would have what is known as gridlock in Auckland. A lot of people have experienced that because Wellington politicians think they know what is best but they do not actually go to Auckland to find out what the situation is. The situation in Auckland is that if we do not plan for that road to go three lanes in each direction then truly we have no understanding of the way that that part of the city is developing. 
The likely cost is around $3.2 billion. 
Nathan Guy 
: How much? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: It is $3.2 billion if we go to two three-lane tunnels. The cost goes up from $2.77 billion to $3.2 billion. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: What rot! 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: The member opposite is critical because the new Government might wonder whether there is another way as that figure just happens to be somewhere between 1.6 percent and 1.8 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. 
This is a small matter but it is an important matter. I understand completely the issues that we have with community problems when we do roads—I absolutely understand that—but we also have to have an understanding of the opportunity costs of such large investments particularly in this case when there was no budget for it. 
Another project that did not really have a budget was one that is—or was—very dear to the Hon Darren Hughes’ heart which is the Transmission Gully project. The previous Government notionally provided $400 million towards that project on the ground that the other $600 million be provided in some way shape or form by the Wellington Regional Council doing raffles and things and by a regional fuel tax that would not have even come close. That was Labour’s funding of Transmission Gully. 
Then there were a lot of other projects that the previous Government did not fund. It did not think of the Puhoi to Wellsford project. There are some Christchurch motorway projects which my colleague the Hon David Carter would know about. Those took years and were not happening. 
Hon David Carter 
: They kept promising. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: They kept promising. There was the Tauranga eastern corridor; the Waikato Expressway which I am sure Labour announced would be completed quite quickly a number of times; and the Auckland Victoria Park bottleneck which I was informed by the New Zealand Transport Agency only a week ago might have had to go back further if we were to have stayed with the previous Government’s funding plan. We have had to bring it forward by 10 months and if Labour had stayed in office it would have been put back further. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: That’s wrong. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Well that is what the New Zealand Transport Agency told me. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: We announced that in our election policy. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: The member can announce it all he likes but if he does not fund it then nothing happens. That is the reality of it. I think we need to get that point across: the member can announce whatever he likes but if the Government does not put up the money it does not happen. That is the reality unless we put up some decent funding. 
What we will do over the next 10 years is go from spending $6.6 billion to spending $10.7 billion on State highway infrastructure. That will make a difference. That will see some of those projects completed and some others significantly advanced and that is the deal. If one is to talk about doing things then one has to be prepared to step up and do them on behalf of taxpayers. That absolutely has to be done alongside public transport projects in Auckland Wellington and Christchurch. I completely understand that in particular because there is no way that there is a single modal solution in those cities. Once the Waterview Connection and Victoria Park projects in Auckland have been done there are some arterial roads to do but after that the focus is public transport. We all have to understand that and we accept that. That is why the new Government has committed to the $1.6 billion that is involved in public transport. Thank you. 
Report noted.