Bridges Simon: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBridges Simon: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8932. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Energy and Resources): It is great to be back in Parliament and the Government and I think New Zealand is looking forward to a fantastic year in New Zealand. Can I just wish you every success this year Mr Speaker after I am sure a refreshing break. Can I also on a personal note offer my heartfelt congratulations to Simon O’Connor the National member of Parliament for Tāmaki. Can I actually offer him my thanks as well for his engagement to my sister Rachel. I can confirm there have been no promises of special transport deals for his electorate but I do wish him very well. As I think Stuff said yesterday it is good to keep it in the family and that is I think what we are doing here.Can I just say that what is very clear in the pre-Parliament posturing that we have seen this year in politics is the absolute contrast that there is between the parties in this House in the lead-up. On one side I think we have a Government that is very confident that is optimistic about New Zealand and about its place in the world and that accepts that there are risks and that good people competent people like Chris Finlayson and Gerry Brownlee—I just said competent by the way; I did not go too much further than that—are leading. We are fundamentally optimistic and confident about where we are going as a country in the world while the other parties—it seems to me it does not go too far to say—are fearful about our role in the world and want to retrench want to be inward-looking and want to in a sense hark back to those sort of Muldoonist days when the last one out was supposed to turn out the lights.Denis O’Rourke: That was National Party.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: That is not a vision that New Zealanders—Denis O’Rourke—want to buy into. They do not want to be defensive. They do not want to be fearful.I think actually the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) debate that we have seen is really a symbol albeit an incredibly important one for New Zealand of that. We think on this side of the House that the left fundamentally miscalculated that first because TPP is so good for New Zealand—the benefits for New Zealand and provincial New Zealand are so strong—but also in terms of the politics of it. We say on that bring it on. And can I say as a provincial member of Parliament representing Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty along with Anne Tolley; Todd McClay the trade Minister who of course will be working so hard on these matters; and Todd Muller an ex-agricultural executive who knows a lot about these things that we are absolutely firm in the feedback we are getting. I know from talking with Ms Tolley and with the others that feedback is so strong on this TPP. They are so supportive of it in the Bay of Plenty and I know as well that that is the message going out from provincial New Zealand all around the country. That is why we hold the seats and that is why the MP for Napier who is not here right now and the MP for West Coast - Tasman will be sheepish on this issue because I know the feedback they will be getting from their constituents.If you just take the Western Bay of Plenty where I reside it runs on an increasing number of things but a small number of things. Sue Moroney is laughing. I hope she stays for the speech because I have got a few things to say to her a little later on. But in the Western Bay of Plenty—kiwifruit going so strongly—they are at one in supporting TPP. They know that it is worth $6000 a grower—$1000 a hectare. And it is not just those areas. Nathan Guy talked about wine in the south in answer to questions just a little while ago. That is not something at least in terms of production that people think about when they think about the Western Bay of Plenty but there are wine labels in our area that have been trying for years to get into the US. They are very excited about the tariffs coming off in this area and the flow-on effects in a buoyant economy.Tomorrow in Tauranga I will be opening a new addition to a very substantial auto dealership—a new part of that. That is really a symptom of a buoyant economy where people are doing well and the effects of strong kiwifruit growth and property construction are flying through.Over and above all of that though can I just back everything the Prime Minister has said and reinforce what a busy programme and agenda this Government on this side of the House has this year. Certainly it is true in my portfolios. I am really excited about—Hon Christopher Finlayson: Mine too.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: And true in Chris Finlayson’s. That is just because he likes to be busy but enough of that. In transport in aviation in maritime in land transport and also in energy we will be putting bills before this House making very good progress.Denis O’Rourke: How about the other seven bridges?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: They are Mr O’Rourke great portfolios—Denis O’Rourke: Are they illusory bridges? Are they mirage bridges?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —because unlike Mr O’Rourke where it is all talk on that side of the House we are a Government that is doing significant infrastructure. We are the Government and the party—the National Party—of infrastructure. We are getting on with the job in an unprecedented fashion with quality investment all over the country Mr O’Rourke from the top of Northland right down to the bottom of the South Island. If you want some evidence of that I suggest that members look at the National Land Transport Fund programme and funding over the last several years. Actually it went from around $1 billion in the early 2000s—Denis O’Rourke: What about railways?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —I will come to that—to over $3 billion per annum last year. Consistently over $2.5 billion is going into land transport in this country. Recently actually in the last couple of years it has been over $3 billion.Whether that is rail—Denis O’Rourke: What about the ferries? What about the Cook Strait ferry?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well the member over there talks about rail. The City Rail Link—we are bringing forward the business case and getting on with that. The East-West Link is a $1.25 billion to $1.8 billion game-changer not just for Auckland but actually for industry and heavy industry in this country. We have got the Auckland alignment project going along—Bill English and I are working on that—to get alignment on transport projects to make a difference in that big city for the long term.And Mr O’Rourke where your party is constantly harping on about regional development we are doing the work in this. [Interruption] Shall I list the projects? Shall I list the projects we are doing with Crown funding? Kawarau—or as they say down there “Kawara”—Falls Bridge in the Queenstown area. They have been crying out for that for decades and that is true of all of these projects: Taramakau on the West Coast the Mingha Bluff to Rough Creek project in Canterbury the Akerama curves in Northland—Mr O’Rourke—and the State Highway 35 improvements that we have done and we have delivered in Gisborne and the East Coast—Hon Anne Tolley: Mōtū Bridge.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —where they were as Anne Tolley knows so grateful to this Government for getting on and doing that. Mōtū Bridge is coming; so is Normanby Overbridge realignment a very excellent project that has been advocated for strongly. Many others—I will not go through them all. There are too many to name. But in cycleways where the left says you know we are doing nothing they talked and we are delivering the most significant set of investments—Denis O’Rourke: Very slowly.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —in that area ever in New Zealand’s history. The member says “slowly”—over 3 years $333 million. And in rail again there was a lot of talk in the 2000s but it is this side of the House that has delivered billions and billions of dollars in infrastructure. So although the rhetoric on the other side is “We could have done it better.” that is what it descends to. Well Mr O’Rourke “would’ve could’ve should’ve”—we are the Government of infrastructure that is getting on with the job in this country and that is delivering projects that deliver better safety better resilience and much greater economic productivity so that New Zealand is backed in this area.Sue Moroney: The road toll is going up Simon.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Sue Moroney can I finish on you? I think it is absolutely disgraceful that this member does not back—indeed opposes—the Waikato Expressway around her electorate one of the most significant game-changers in the upper North Island which the people universally back. If the member wants to know why she has never been an electorate MP it is right there.Unlike on that side of the House we are backing infrastructure and making a massive difference to this country. The year 2016 will be a great year for New Zealand and for making progress on projects all over this great country.