Hughes Darren: Land Transport Management Bill — Second Reading 
Hughes Darren: Land Transport Management Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9333] 
DARREN HUGHES (Labour—Otaki) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure to follow “Johnny Cash” the real Opposition spokesperson on transport. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Order! 
DARREN HUGHES 
: Mr Key—sorry. We heard more during that speech about what the National Party stands for than we heard from the current temporary deputy leader of the National Party who happens to hold the shadow transport portfolio. We heard more from Mr Key than we heard from Mr Sowry at the beginning of the debate. I welcome his contribution. I say to Mr Key that before the House is legislation introduced by the Government of New Zealand that will try to do something about land transport in New Zealand and not just talk and whinge and whine about it. That is what National members are doing in this debate. They had 9 years in Government to try to bring together a policy for New Zealand to change the way land transport was designed and funded in New Zealand. They did absolutely nothing about it despite the crocodile tears we hear in here today about the Auckland roading situation and about other areas of New Zealand. They wax lyrical about it but they did not bring a single bill to Parliament to try to make a positive difference about it. National’s only solution was the same solution for every problem which is sell sell sell. That is the only thing they wanted to do. 
I congratulate the Minister of Transport Paul Swain on bringing this bill to the House. I think it will make a real difference. [ 
Interruption 
] The member interjects: “Will it make a difference in my electorate?”. I believe this bill will. 
John Key 
: How is the economy you inherited? 
DARREN HUGHES 
: The economy is doing very very well. It has looked after the member in particular quite well. In my electorate I am looking forward to being able to use this bill as a tool for some of the infrastructure developments that we want to see in the Greater Wellington region. Mention has been made of Transmission Gully. I believe absolutely that this bill brings us closer to Transmission Gully not further away. It gives us the chance now to get together with the Wellington region and to work out a proposal to try to get funding for the road. But it will be difficult. Greater Wellington will have to lead on that. But we have a problem: not all of the Wellington region agrees with the road but we have to try to make sure we build the support for it. 
So I invite other members of Parliament to be positive in the debate and try to make a difference on it so we can get the road built rather than just have the whingeing and the negativity which will not make a difference. We might even invite list members to be part of that. We might invite list members who live in the Wellington region to flick a switch and come up with an idea rather than the constant kind of criticism that we are getting. Wellington’s future will succeed only if we are all working together. I welcome the public-private partnerships that are part of the bill. It is a very good thing to have that in the law as a kind of innovative solution. 
When I talk about being positive it does mean that Winnie Laban in Mana Peter Dunne in Ohariu-Belmont the Kapiti Coast District Council and the Porirua City Council and Greater Wellington as a regional council have to build that support more broadly within our region to make sure we can build those roads. This is a good bill because it gives us a chance to get that done. I welcome it and I know that the Minister of Finance will be putting in the appropriate funding in that regard.