Court Simon; Genter Julie Anne; Doocey Matt; Brown Simeon; Parker DavidSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. Minister I'd just like to set the scene for those people watching or listening at home. There is a huge infrastructure deficit when it comes to transport infrastructure whether it's four-laning within our regions or between regions so that people who want to do business—truckies who want to get around can plan deliveries and can actually meet their customers' needs. And for cities that are growing by another half to a million people in the next 30 years like Auckland is or only a few hundred thousand like Wellington is projected to people who live there need to know that their Government understands what level of investment is needed in transport infrastructure—whether it suits people to travel by public transport which ACT is a supporter of if the investment case stacks up or by private motor vehicle or by truck no matter whether it's an electric or hydrogen truck. So Minister I put to you that the budget proposed this year in these Estimates is completely inadequate. Only a billion dollars for CAPEX into the State highway improvements only $497 million—less than half a billion—on maintenance. And that in Estimates that have been published recently there's a billion-dollar shortfall in road maintenance that has accrued over the past decade. Minister that's just not enough money. And then we look at investment management. Well clearly Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has a huge job on its hands to plan future works to do the designation get the consents in place acquire the land before they start building. Minister this doesn't appear to be enough money.Would the Minister consider tolling and actually putting a user price on roads immediately in accordance with ACT's plan to supercharge investment in the highway network tolling for maintenance and CAPEX and allowing the private sector to compete with the Government for delivery funding and financing of roads? I'm sure there's people at Waka Kotahi perhaps even some of those sitting here in the House right now who would love to offload some of those difficult projects and make them the private sector's problem. And I can guarantee you Minister the private sector people who build roads here and around the world they're up for it. Minister specific questions—let's just come to Auckland. I'm an Aucklander; Minister. I know you're an Aucklander and we love our city. So has any provision been made by this Government in the Estimates for an integrated transport plan for Auckland? And if the Mayor of Auckland and Auckland Council propose a transport plan and programme that differs from the Government's in the way that it proposes to stage time fund and deliver say an Auckland Harbour Crossing or an Auckland light rail will the Minister accept the plan that bubbles up from the region and from the city—a city deal that might be proposed by a mayor like His Worship Mayor Wayne Brown?Minister question one: if the Mayor of Auckland doesn't agree to the Government proposing to spend $30 or $40 billion on a harbour crossing and the Mayor of Auckland and Auckland Council have a better proposal that's more cost effective will the Minister accept Auckland Council's counteroffer? The same thing applies for Auckland light rail. If the Mayor of Auckland and Auckland Council have a proposal or prefer an option that's say above ground at much lower cost or can be delivered much more quickly as part of an integrated transport management plan will the Minister and will this Labour Government accept a counteroffer from the city and from the region that's eventually going to have to pay for it and going to have to live with the consequences?So Minister there doesn't appear to be enough money. Where's the money coming from? Will you take up or recommend ACT's supercharge road maintenance and investment tolling plan? And the three specific questions about Auckland Minister—Aucklanders would love the answers so does everyone else around New Zealand including people like farmers in Southland who do not expect to be asked to pay for a $30-billion light rail or a $40-billion harbour crossing for Auckland. Minister there you go.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Thank you Mr Chair. I was wondering if the Minister could comment on a couple of things. One on the record if the Minister has it available could he let us know or confirm that in fact roads are not entirely paid for by road users particularly since there's significant Crown investment in the New Zealand Upgrade Programme and other roading projects—not to mention the 50 percent at least contribution from ratepayers to most local roads. And I also wonder if the Minister could comment on the impact on the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) on two things: one is the public-private partnerships that were signed up by the previous National Government Pūhoi to Warkworth and Transmission Gully. What is the annual cost of that ongoing? And what impact is that having on the NLTF and the ability of future Governments to maintain and rebuild roads around the country in places like the East Coast which has been severely affected by severe weather events and the impact of the cut to road user charges and petrol tax that was partially in place during the previous financial year.MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): Thank you very much Mr Chair. I want to thank the Minister for being in the House tonight to answer our questions on Vote Transport and the Estimates from the Budget that we've just had. I must say being the Transport Minister at the moment in the dying throes of this Labour Government must feel like a hospital pass.The Minister spoke of the focus of this Budget—if I understood him right—around responding to flooding resilience and bridges. I want to get an update from the Minister for the good people of Ashburton after the devastating Ashburton floods just recently that took down that bridge that ended up cutting the South Island in half. So if there was a resilience project that was much needed in New Zealand I'd advocate for the Ashburton Bridge. So I'd be very interested to ensure that that vital transport corridor remains open. What is his commitment to the Ashburton Bridge within this Budget for the good people of Ashburton?SIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Chair. I would like to ask a couple of questions regarding the New Zealand Upgrade Programme which was discussed at the committee regarding the Estimates. The New Zealand Transport Agency had previously told us that Ministers were reviewing the scope of several New Zealand Upgrade projects. The Minister had no further update regarding the projects that were being reassessed—that's what the Minister stated at the time of the hearing. I'd like the Minister to please outline to the House what the status of those projects are including the South Auckland package Ōtaki to north of Levin and Whangārei to Port Marsden. Helen White: It's going ahead. Don't worry about it.SIMEON BROWN: Well the member over there says it's going ahead but it says here in the committee report that they're being re-scoped. So it'd be great to hear directly from the Minister to know what is happening with those particular projects because I'm sure there'll be significant local interest in relation to the New Zealand Upgrade Programme. Of course this is the programme of projects which at the beginning of 2020 the Labour Party said Oh we need to build some roads because we can't build light rail; that's taking too long and we cancelled all those roads back in 2017. So we better find some roads." So of course they picked out a whole lot of roads and one of those was Mill Road in Auckland but they cancelled that one again after they announced it. Andrew Bayly: That's right. One of the worst things they've done.SIMEON BROWN: That's right. And then there was the Whangārei to Port Marsden run which they're now just doing safety upgrades on. And then the Tauranga Northern Link which they've decided they're only doing half of it—they're only doing half of it. And then they're only going to give half the lanes to general traffic anyway. So I'd like an update Minister on the status of those projects.Hon MEKA WHAITIRI (Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Thank you Mr Chair. Just thank you to the Minister of Transport for his response around State Highway 35. I'm picking up on one of the priorities in this year's Estimates which is around reducing emissions. Again off my earlier question where's the Government's thinking around the blue highway strategy Minister particularly again for areas that only have one road and no airport? So specifically again where's the Government's thinking around blue highways particularly for our rural communities? And tagged onto that question is the introduction of sea gliders. I'm aware that previous Ministers have received a presentation on the evolutionary use of sea gliders from a company here in New Zealand actually—Air Napier—that have put their own capital in to explore the use of sea gliders—not just for the coast but actually for the whole country; fully electrical. Discussions have been had with ports. There's not a huge amount of infrastructure required to set up sea gliders. But I'm interested to know from the Minister and this Government in the context of reducing emissions whether blue highways are being thought about and in the context of blue highways are facilities like sea gliders which are fully electric being considered in this Government's plan to reduce emissions?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Transport): Responding to a number of the questions asked—Simon Court referred to what he said was a $1 billion shortfall in road maintenance that had accrued over the last decade and he's right that there was an underinvestment in road maintenance for most of the period of the ACT-National Government when maintenance was frozen. As a consequence the extra funding that went into the system was spent on roads and the amount of road surfacing halved or just about halved. Instead of 9 percent of roads been resurfaced every year it dropped to about 5 percent—Hon Damien O'Connor: Plus heavier trucks.Hon DAVID PARKER: —made worse by heavier trucks. And as a consequence the road surface both cracked up and wasn't repaired. We've now in every full year—in every full year—that we have been in Government since been repairing roads—Simeon Brown: And it's got worse—and it's got worse.Hon DAVID PARKER: —and resurfacing at the rate of 9 percent. The ignorant National Party spokesperson ignores those realities.In respect of cost overruns Julie Anne Genter is correct that there were cost overruns on Transmission Gully and some other projects we inherited from the last Government. Sadly we've also had cost overruns on big public transport programmes including the City Rail Link where cost overruns for us and the council have totalled about a billion dollars. In respect of the question as to whether roads are not paid for by road users that is correct that there is insufficient money in road-user charges and petrol excise duty to cover the cost of road maintenance and construction. For some time now there have been top-ups required from general taxation in the form of both grants and loans.In respect of Simon Court's question about if there's money in this year's Budget for preparation of an integrated transport plan yes there is including for Auckland and that has been the case.In respect of the question about the loss of the Ashburton Bridge which freed the lower half of the South Island from Ashburton those issues do need to be addressed."