Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. This is an important topic for Aucklanders. I stated in my speech my concern of the Minister's decision today to ram this through in urgency. I believe that it does require consultation with Aucklanders over and beyond an election because the greater question in front of us is actually: how do we invest in a modern transport infrastructure for a global city that will have a population of 2 million people come 2030? So I suspect that this might be one of a number of questions that I have this evening.My first line of questioning is actually around our relationship with Auckland Council. So part of the original establishment of this was looking collectively with Auckland Council: how we are going to invest in transport infrastructure for Auckland Tāmaki-makau-rau? We of course have had two mayors over that time that expect different things from Government and our most recent mayor is very keen not to have Wellington involved in decision making of Auckland. Personally I believe there's an in-between there that this piece of legislation actually achieved which is some sense of partnership.So one of my questions for the Minister this evening is about what consultation did he have with Mayor Wayne Brown in regards to this piece of legislation and some of the decisions or decisions of those impacted projects? But particularly around moving forward what might be his intention or how he sees that partnership working moving forward where the impact of this legislation means that there is a significant shortfall for Auckland Council to fund for their future transport infrastructure?So from a relationship perspective what is the current relationship status with Mayor Wayne Brown and Auckland Council as a result? Has he had discussions with key councillors over this particular piece of legislation? What were their views that informed his decision both on repealing the regional fuel tax but also the impacted projects and how there became a priority list of the ones that were supported and the ones that weren't? Have there been recent conversations with the mayor up until today that help guide that particular way forward for the Minister? Because the projects as I understand still need to continue as well as a number of others across the city.Because I go back to quite a short and sharp media statement from Mayor Wayne Brown which was straight to the thick of the cut and thrust of this piece of legislation which is to put on hold 12 transport projects that were believed to be going ahead; that had tagged funding against them; that there was a means to an end to achieve a better transport system and infrastructure across walking and cycling across active transport across all modes of transport in Auckland; that created more options available for Aucklanders in that.So coming back to my original question I think it is important that there is a good working relationship between central and local government. I'm concerned in this discussion that that has impacted on this relationship when it comes to achieving the common goal. No matter which party that we're within we know that we need to achieve certainty in the infrastructure sector and start to build a pipeline of at least 10 years if not more.I have been with the Minister at many a conference and a panel where collectively we have talked about how we achieve politics aside the certainty for the sector. But uncertainty is created for Auckland Council as a result. It's Auckland Council that is impacted by what will be the dissatisfaction of Aucklanders. I'd like the Minister to explain how he will be supporting Auckland Council with that fallout as a result of the cancelled projects as per Mayor Wayne Brown's media statement.