King Annette: Public Transport Management Bill — In Committee 
King Annette: Public Transport Management Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:650;Page:18633] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 I advise the member that we are not in urgency. The House is having a normal sitting. Maybe the member was not told because unfortunately he has been on leave—or absent—as National’s spokesperson on transport for at least 2 weeks. It is since he told the people of New Zealand that they would not mind paying $50 a week— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: I never said that. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Oh yes he said it. It is in the transcript from Radio New Zealand National. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Have a look. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I have read it and read it and read it. He said he does not know of one person who would not be prepared to pay $50 a week in tolls. He has been silenced by Bill English. He is furious with Bill English. He is very close to joining the ACT party because he is so furious about the way he has been treated as the spokesperson for transport. 
I thank the chair of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee Mark Gosche for his excellent chairing of that committee. I thank the members of the committee who participated in a constructive way. I point out to the people who are listening today that this bill is for the taxpayers the ratepayers and the passengers of passenger transport. If they listen to Maurice Williamson they will find that there is one person or one group of people he has ever cared about—the owners of the bus companies. He has never had a policy that has passenger transport at its forefront. He never talks of passenger transport. He talks roads roads and roads. He does not care what the public said in submissions. He goes back to what the bus companies say. 
Eighty percent of the money that pays for our passenger transport comes from taxpayers and ratepayers. They want to make sure that the money available for passenger transport is there for the benefit of the passengers to give them a decent journey and access to proper transport. All we hear from Maurice Williamson is about the process. We heard the explanation from the chair of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and he put on the record what the process was. I tell Mark Gosche that I believe that that was the proper process. He did his best to rectify a mistake not made by the committee but as Maurice Williamson himself said “made by the politicians.” Mr Gosche did his best to rectify that; he called a special meeting to go over it. But because Maurice Williamson was not there and could not be there he believes that somehow one should not count that meeting. Then when they got the opportunity the National members denied leave for the report. It is a word that starts with “h” that I am not allowed to use when we have an Opposition member stand up in this Committee who rants and raves about the process and then we hear the Opposition deny leave for a report to come back to this House. Well I have to tell Maurice Williamson that he will have to do a hang of a lot better than that if that is the only argument he has. 
Maurice Williamson has taken two calls on the process. Why does he not get to the substance of the bill? The public of New Zealand deserve decent passenger transport. We might argue about the level and the amount of money. I know the Green Party has always argued for more and we are balancing that with the needs in transport. But we have a common goal in that we want passengers to have a good journey a safe journey an affordable journey and an accessible journey and this bill enables that to happen. It enables there to be accountability for the money that taxpayers and ratepayers put into the passenger transport system and enables us to have integrated ticketing—something Bill English said would not work. I say to him that if he knows a bit about transport let us hear it because when he interjected on the second reading speech it was obvious he did not know anything about the bill. Having interjected he got out of his seat went and got the bill and read it for the first time. I tell the National members to put the public first for a change instead of their mates who they think might give them some money for their election campaign. I tell National to put the public first when it comes to passenger transport because they deserve good passenger transport in this country and that is what they will get from this Government.