Catchpole Brent: Transport Legislation Bill — Second Reading 
Catchpole Brent: Transport Legislation Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:621;Page:16735] 
BRENT CATCHPOLE (NZ First) 
: 
 I just listened to David Parker make a comment about unlocking Auckland’s roads. Really Mr Parker ought to go up to Auckland some time and just see how difficult it is and how difficult it will be to unlock Auckland’s roads as he says. This legislation will not unlock them. One of the problems with this legislation is that it has too many flaws in it. Unfortunately the flaws do not overcome all the benefits. The main benefit of this legislation is that it will provide safety mechanisms and that is one of the areas that New Zealand First has to support in this legislation. It is safety first. Unfortunately the Minister has allowed this bill to be worded in such a way that it removes safety at a reasonable cost. Why on earth would one want to remove that part of the legislation and allow safety to be put into a numbers and cost basis? 
What will happen with this legislation is that it will provide competition and one of the disadvantages of competition is that something has to give. The thing that gives under competition is safety and safety mechanisms. Sadly the Minister has allowed safety at reasonable cost to be removed from this legislation. 
 New Zealand First hopes that the Government’s new Land Transport New Zealand will be more of a business model and business operation that it will be progressive in its thinking and certainly progressive in the way that it approaches New Zealand roads to bring it into a satisfactory area for the 21st century. Without decent roads in Auckland in particular and throughout the country land transport in this country will grind to a halt. 
The legislation also covers maritime transport. It is an area that we find rather strange when we consider what the difference is between land transport and transport by land. They are quite different when we consider that in this bill “transport by land” includes coastal shipping and also includes transport by means of harbour ferries. I wonder at what stage the harbour will dry up so that we will be on the land. It is one of those sad anomalies that the Minister allowed such legislation to include the wording as it is. That takes away from the whole— 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: If it is a bridge between the two islands it is OK but if it isn’t it is not—is that what the member is saying? 
BRENT CATCHPOLE 
: The real transport Minister Harry Duynhoven has made the comment that if we fill in the gap between the North Island and the South Island then we will not need the ships across there—it will just be land. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: You have just answered your own question because you are not very bright on this. 
BRENT CATCHPOLE 
: Mr Harry Duynhoven has made comments on filling in the strait. 
New Zealand First has major concerns about this bill. The concerns are such that we hope we can work through them. We consider that safety is paramount and we are sad that the phrase “safety at reasonable cost” was removed therefore allowing for competition. I will go back to the matter of competition because where it endangers the lives of New Zealanders it is I think a dangerous line to take. We hope the Minister will reconsider this and look a little bit closer at the potential for competition and the fact that he has removed “safety at reasonable cost”. 
I conclude by just saying that New Zealand First will have to support this legislation because of the safety mechanisms but we are disappointed that “safety at reasonable cost” has been removed.