Swain Paul: Urgent Debates — Tranz Rail 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Swain Paul: Urgent Debates — Tranz Rail 
[Sitting date: 10 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6079. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PAUL SWAIN (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 Poor old Roger Sowry! He is always on the wrong horse. His speech demonstrated that fact. First of all he supports Bill English—wrong horse to be on. Secondly he supported the war in Iraq notwithstanding that the majority of New Zealanders were opposed to it. So wrong horse to be on. Thirdly he was opposed to the New Zealand Government engaging itself again with Air New Zealand notwithstanding that the vast majority of New Zealanders supported that. So wrong horse again. Now he is opposed to the Government becoming involved again in New Zealand track—that is sorting out the mess that the National Government left. But the vast majority of people support that move. So wrong horse again. When we put our finger on the National Party pulse we see there is none. 
Bill English is just reiterating the line taken by Ruth Richardson and the National Party about the sale of rail in 1993. This is what Ruth Richardson said on 21 July 1993: “I welcome the opportunity to promote the merits of the sale of the rail company. I welcome the substance of the sale. It is good for our railways. It is good for growth. It is good for the export sector. It is good for the workforce and it is good for New Zealand.” That was Ruth Richardson. She said and here was the coup de grâce—with the orchestra playing behind her in the pink tracksuit she used to run around Evans Bay in—“I predict a very successful contribution from Wisconsin Central Transportation to the New Zealand economy.” But what an absolute dog we have been left with. So the National Party has not changed its spots at all. 
I have not heard one word about what the National Party would do. I ask Roger Sowry whether a National Government would then flog rail again? 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: Yes. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Right OK. So it would flog the tracks again? 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: We’ll see. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Would Mr Sowry sell the tracks? 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: Wait and see. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Wait and see! That is National’s policy—stick a finger in the air and wait and see. Then it wonders why it is about 20 percent in the polls. National cannot make up its mind. It wants to wait and see. That attitude summarises the entire National Party policy programme at the moment. 
National members should hang their heads in shame with regard to rail. They turned it into a fiasco and a mess not only for this Government but for New Zealanders in general. If those members had a modicum of decency they would personally apologise to New Zealand for what they did. But I know they will not do that because they do not have a modicum of decency in their bones. 
Speaking as Minister of Transport I am very pleased with the deal. We did get the tracks back for a dollar and we have committed ourselves to $100 million of investment in the tracks over the next 5 years. What it means finally is that we can implement a national transport strategy.We have not been able to do that with one hand tied behind our backs and without the rail infrastructure. We want a multimodel transport strategy where we can look at shifting freight in different modes. 
Mr Brown raised the issue of sea transport and that is an important part of our transport strategy. New Zealand needs a robust New Zealand shipping industry. There was a review and I think it is fair to say that we have ruled out the taxation issue even though that member thinks it is a good idea. This is the question we have to answer: if we want to do it for shipping why not for every other industry? The review was divided on cabotage. The exporters did not want it. The shipping industry wanted it. So all I can say to that member is that I am currently working on all the policy options here and I will be making announcements about that in due course. 
I say again that this is a good deal not only for New Zealand but for New Zealanders. Finally we get the tracks back. We can start to remove more freight and more cars off our roads and on to rail. It is a good deal for New Zealand but this is a sad sad day for the National Party.