Fenton Darien: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 September 2012. Volume:683;Page:5114. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a call on the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill. It is not the first one I have taken a call on in my time in Parliament. I think this is No. 2. There was the Public Transport Management Act as well which the Labour Government implemented and which this bill actually repeals as I understand it. 
Phil Twyford 
: I think this is the worst one. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Well I am sure it is the worst one. I am going to talk about how good the other ones are. 
As always we had a fantastic speech from David Bennett. One of the things I really like about David Bennett—you know he has got a lot of flaws but one of the things I do like about him is he does try to promote his own area. He does like to talk about the Hamilton expressway an awful lot—an awful lot—but I was really interested because what he does not talk about is the problems with public transport in his own city. I was really interested to see a press release from the Waikato Regional Council today saying that passenger transport bus fares are going to rise by 5 percent for children and adults on the council’s rural services which include Te Awamutu Cambridge Huntly Raglan Paeroa Morrinsville and Taupo. I know this goes into the areas of some other members. There are other National MPs who are electorate members— 
Andrew Little 
: What does the member for Taupo think of that? 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Yes well the member for Taupo is involved in that. But anyway the reason I was saying this is that throughout New Zealand public transport is operating in an extremely constrained funding environment and as a region we are being asked to do more with less because the Government has capped funding for the next 3 years and has told the council that it expects the amount of money recovered from fares to increase to 40 percent by 2017. So you know I would really like to hear from the National members the electorate MPs for those areas. They should stand up and justify this bill on the basis that in their areas poor people who live in rural communities—the rural communities that they say they represent—are going to be having to pay more for public transport. 
What this bill does of course is repeal the Public Transport Management Act which had a lot to do with public transport and a lot to do with making sure that we had better public transport through councils. As I said I would like to rehearse the history of the Labour Government because we had the first Land Transport Management Act in 2003. That was the biggest change in land transport funding and management since the 1980s. Prior to that the framework of land transport management and funding was incredibly flawed. There was no strategic direction. It did not allow an integrated approach to be taken to land transport because it focused on roading and—hello—here we are back at the beginning again. What was happening before that Act was we had no long-term planning and the rules regarding the funding of public transport were constraining and inflexible. So that Act along with the Public Transport Management Act and also an amendment to the Land Transport Management Act in 2008 made significant strides in our land transport systems including public transport. 
One of the significant things about the Land Transport Management Act was hypothecation. 
Hon Member 
: Hypothecation? 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Hypothecation—that is right. That changed the way that fuel excise is used to provide more certainty for future investment. It was a Labour Government that brought about hypothecation. It augmented central government transport funding through regional fuel taxes which allowed regions to fund more projects which of course this bill does away with. We increased investment in public transport tenfold and funding for passenger transport services. 
In case anyone forgets it was Labour that initiated double tracking in Auckland electrification the extension of passenger transport to other parts of Auckland the reopening of railway links and the North Shore busway which has been such a success. I know my colleague Phil Twyford is keen to see that success replicated in his electorate of Te Atatu. Going down the western motorway it would be a wonderful thing but I fear we may have to wait for a Labour Government for that to happen. But he will campaign. He will have— 
Maggie Barry 
: Long time away then. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Well that is very nice of Maggie Barry given that her— 
Phil Twyford 
: Maggie you got one; we want one too. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is right. That member’s electorate has one so why can west Auckland not have one? If this was not such an ungenerous Government it would consider that. 
So this bill undoes much of that really good work that was done over several years under a Labour Government under some fantastic transport Ministers including the Hon Annette King and others. Instead it is being framed as being about streamlining and increasing value for money but all it does is open the door for borrowing for more State highways tolling and public-private partnerships. It is also about increasing central government control over the transport system and making sure that local people have almost no say. It is also about sharpening the focus on economic efficiency by removing social and environmental criteria. 
All you have to do is have a look at the difference in the purpose statement in this proposed bill. Under the previous bill there were a number of things and my colleagues have gone through them. Under the previous purpose statement the legislation had to give effect to the Government policy statement; it had to be affordable integrated safe responsive and sustainable; it had to assist economic development safety and personal security access and mobility—I have not heard the words “mobility” and “access” mentioned at all tonight; it does not matter does it—it had to protect and promote public health ensure economic sustainability and it talked about social responsibility. Public transport is a public good and transport and access to transport is also a public good. 
In respect of environmental responsibility I would have thought that in this time of 2012 even a National Government could bring itself to say the words “environmental responsibility”. Instead what we have is a purpose statement that is reduced to so-called streamlined project level decision-making criteria. Three things: give effect to the Government policy statement be effective and be efficient. What a disgrace! 
Phil Twyford 
: That just means: “Does Gerry want it?”. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: What? 
Phil Twyford 
: It just means: does Gerry want it? 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Oh does Gerry want it? Well that seems to be the only criterion that we have had for all of the roads of national significance. Of course the Government has realised that those roads are far too expensive and it is going to have to borrow to pay for them. It just will not accept that some of the decisions it has made around those are just ridiculous. 
I suppose you could almost call this bill the “Gerry Brownlee - Steven Joyce Justification for Roads of National Significance— 
Dr David Clark 
: “Gerry-mandering”. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: A “Gerry-mandering Bill”. It is a “Gerry-mandering Bill” that is all about sort of post—what is it? Post facto—post— 
Dr David Clark 
: Ex post facto. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is the one. It is a justification for a real disaster of a policy—a disaster of a policy—which is seeing gold-plated roads being built up and down the country. There is that smell of bitumen in the Minister’s nostrils. 
 What this bill is about doing is justifying the policy of roads of national significance doing away with the very balanced approach that we had under the previous Land Transport Management Act and the Public Transport Management Act doing away with a balanced approach to transport and doing away with important things like reference to integrated transport coastal shipping and rail. The only thing that seems to matter to this Government is that everything has to go by road. It is so short-sighted— 
Phil Twyford 
: So 1950s. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: So 1950s that is right. It is so last century. It is so last century as one of the Ministers said once and I think that is a disgrace. 
I am part of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. I am looking forward to having a debate with David Bennett about why the people in his electorate are having to pay more for their buses and why he keeps justifying the roads of national significance when the poor people in his area the people in rural areas whom he says he represents will not be able to afford to go on buses and will not be able to afford public transport.