Bennett David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Bennett David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17497] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 This Minister in the chair the Hon Annette King will be known as the “Minister of No Planning in Transport”. That is a symptom of her managerial style in the transport portfolio. If we look at the estimates questions asked at the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee we find a perfect example of what this Minister and the Labour Government stand for in transport. They have no planning. 
There is a project in Auckland whereby the Government is building a four-lane road but two lanes of that road will be coned off because there has been no planning as to what the road is going to be once motorists go through the tunnel. The Albany to Puhoi realignment B2 (ALPURT B2) project at the Johnson’s Hill Tunnel will be coned off so that people have to travel through a four-lane tunnel with coning on two of those lanes because there is nothing at the other end. The road just reverts to the two-lane road that was previously there. That is the planning of this Government. It is spending millions of dollars building a tunnel through a hill and is then going to cone off two lanes of it. What is the point in doing that? Why would anyone build a road and then cone it off? 
That is the reality of this Government. It has had no idea about its planning processes. It has been reactive to any issue that has come up. It has put the New Zealand land transport sector into a state of flux. It has changed all of the organisations that are dealing with land transport in New Zealand. It has done a very quick process of change in the industry trying to find some solutions. It has not actually debated what the major problems are; it has not looked at what could be solutions to some of those problems. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Before the dinner break I was talking about the ALPURT B2 project and the need for the Government to block off two of the lanes of one of the bigger projects it has done this year. That is a symptom of the Government’s failure to understand transport planning and of its failure to provide a constructive approach to construction in the transport industry over the last 9 years. 
We hear many accolades from the Government that say how great it is at spending money in the transport sector but that is not shown in many of the regions. For example I would like to see the Minister of Transport come to the Waikato visit the regional council there and detail to that council why Land Transport New Zealand has decided that the Waikato Expressway is no longer a priority for this Government. That would be a challenge I think the Minister should take up. She should go to that region and tell people why Land Transport New Zealand has found that it cannot fund the Waikato Expressway a project that we are sitting there waiting for. We have been waiting for many years for this Government to assist in that project. 
Government members are all very good at cutting the ribbon on projects started when National was the Government but they are no good at setting up their own construction. They have taken the credit for what we set up over 9 years ago but what are they doing now? Are the bulldozers moving on that road? No they are not moving. We need a constructive approach to planning in transport and we are not getting that in our region. The Minister may come and talk about some projects on the western side of the seat of Hamilton West but the projects are there only to mitigate the loss of that seat in an election. The big project needs to be completed and I challenge the Minister to come to our region to take up the challenge to meet with the officials and to give them what they need and what they want to hear in our region. 
The regions have been sadly sadly let down by this Government. This Government does not care for the heartland of New Zealand; it cares only for votes. It does not care about what actually makes this country strong—the people who have built this country and the people who will build it in the future. We need that kind of structure in the Waikato and I challenge the Minister to come forward and to deliver that to us in the near future.