Bennett David: Infrastructure Bill — In Committee 
Bennett David: Infrastructure Bill — In Committee 
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DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 I echo the thoughts of other members of the Committee in welcoming back Tau. It is good to see him; he made a great speech. The way that Tau outlined the analogy between his physical being and the need for the New Zealand economy to have its arteries unclogged so that it can achieve its full potential—and in the case of Tau Henare he can live his life—is something that this Committee should put great store by. We congratulate the Labour and National members of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee on their work on the Infrastructure Bill. 
The Labour members are voting for this bill apart from the last part I presume. After listening to the previous speech one would not necessarily have picked that Labour members will actually vote for the bill. I thank the officials as well for their work at the select committee. 
There are three basic things in the bill: a change to the access to corridors which is in Parts 1 and 2; changes to the Railways Corporation which are in Part 3; and some amendments relating to affordable housing in Part 4. We are on Part 1 now which relates to utility access to transport corridors. Essentially for a layperson that means that if we look at the links between our major cities throughout New Zealand we see that they tend to be large infrastructure corridors. If we drive along the southern motorway going into Auckland for example we can see it is a wide road. There are power lines beside us. It is an infrastructure corridor; it covers a lot of infrastructure. Rail power and roading are normally all in very close proximity and follow a very similar line in the important infrastructure corridors of a country. We are trying to make sure that in future those infrastructure corridors are managed in a way that enables the best development of this country and that infrastructure going forward. 
What can happen is that areas companies or infrastructure providers provide their own infrastructure to the detriment of the provision of other infrastructure or potentially new infrastructure. The Government has made a commitment to the roll-out of broadband around New Zealand. That is a huge infrastructural connection that we need to make through New Zealand so we want our core infrastructure—for example around broadband—to be able to travel along those main arterial routes. We do not want that to necessarily be constrained by the existing infrastructure. 
Basically this bill enables the providers and those who are involved in the infrastructure to formulate codes of practice. Those codes of practice will then be taken to the Minister for approval. The Minister will approve them subject to whatever the conditions are and they will become regulations that guide conduct in those transport and infrastructure corridors. This is a very important role. It is safeguarding New Zealand’s future economic efficiency by providing those pathways where we can structure and transfer our major infrastructure whether it is utilities such as electricity or transport in the sense of roading rail and suchlike. That is the general concept of what is being achieved in this bill. 
This has been lacking for a long time. As we look at growing a country and taking advantage of potential technology and investment we need to secure our infrastructure. This bill rectifies an issue that had not been dealt with in the past and that should have been dealt with. It also safeguards and provides for the future of New Zealand’s growth in infrastructure—those vital pathways. This is a forward-looking bill just as much as it is a bill that deals with the case in point at the moment. That is why it is so crucial and shows the Government’s long-term direction in wanting to build a stronger economy. We are providing the building blocks so that infrastructure can take advantage of structures that enable investment and delivery of key infrastructure to New Zealanders so that we can grow our economy and achieve our purposes. 
That is what this bill is about. That is why the Labour Party will support it. Labour members know it is in the best interests of New Zealand and that is why this bill will pass through the Committee tonight.