Hughes Darren: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Hughes Darren: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2461] 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Labour) 
: 
 It is a great privilege to follow the Minister of Transport Steven Joyce. I appreciated his flattery. The problem at the moment is not that I have had a haircut but that I need one and I have also completely run out of hair product; the Minister has probably never found himself in that scenario. 
We cannot quite see eye to eye on that issue nor can we see eye to eye on his commitment to public transport. Steven Joyce just stood in the Chamber and said that he was increasing the amount of money available for public transport service; he said that he was increasing it to $633 million. But according to the previous Labour Government’s policy statement for the 3 years we are heading into the funding was meant to be $666 million which is probably quite a good figure for the Minister’s more sinister political motivations. That is a cut of $33 million out of public transport at a time when Governments all over the world are looking to public transport not only to try to make a difference in their economies but also to move more people by public transport. This Government will spend less on public transport and on alternatives to roads than the previous Labour Government had projected funded and budgeted for. What other country in the world is doing that? 
Hon David Parker 
: Zimbabwe. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Zimbabwe is doing that apparently. Well that could be the kind of political intrigue we would be expected to believe. 
We can see in the figures that this Minister is presiding over a cut in public transport services—that is certain. I also point out that the road policing allocation which the Minister waxed eloquent about falls from $949 million to $900 million. That is a $49 million cut in road policing in our country. The previous Government had committed to reducing fatalities on our roads to 200 per year. I asked the Minister whether he would address road safety but he said nothing. 
The point I am most surprised about with regard to Steven Joyce is that he did not mention the Waterview Connection whatsoever in his speech to the Committee. We know that the Government is not committed whatsoever to the Waterview Connection in Auckland. 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: You could run for Mt Albert. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: If the Minister does not stop squawking I might come and run against her in Waitakere. That would wipe the smile off her face. I tell members that if ever someone got lucky in that respect it is the Hon Paula Bennett. I invite her not to take me on too seriously in that particular respect. 
We need to know what the Minister is planning to do with the tunnels in the Waterview Connection. We know that that road was fully consulted on with the people of Auckland but it is not as if he pays much attention to that consultation. He rode roughshod over what the people of Auckland had planned for their transport. He will be taxing the whole country an extra 6c a litre more than they are paying for petrol today in order to fund half of the transport projects that Auckland requires. When it comes to Auckland’s western ring route the Minister through his plans for the Waterview Connection will be cutting out 400 homes. We know that he is not committed to the tunnels despite the fact that the public was committed to them. 
What is he doing to try to complete the project? Well first of all he is blowing out the costs himself. One of the things that we have learnt about the star of John Key’s Cabinet—mind you that is not much praise really when we consider what the alternatives are; it is only the fact that we do not know much about him that makes him a star—is that he has completely turned all the funding for that project on its ear. For example he has said that he would like to add additional traffic lanes to those that people were consulted on. He said that he wants to include the north-western motorway at a cost of $240 million in the cost of the Waterview Connection. He then threw in $500 million worth of financing costings for that project which no other project is subjected to. He said that he would put that extra half a billion dollars in and then he went on television and said that the cost of the Waterview Connection had exploded from $1.8 billion to $2.27 billion. 
Well it is just not credible. It is not credible for the Minister because he wants to try to mow down people’s homes—hundreds of homes—in Auckland to play skulduggery with the figures in order to change the facts that the community has been consulted on. He may be a marketing genius—we know that—but he has to start playing on a level playing field with the figures with regard to transport. Whether it is public transport in rail water services buses or an alternative to roading like coastal shipping this Minister is not being up front about the costings he is putting into the transport proposals that he is riding roughshod over. 
The Waterview Connection is critical for Auckland as it completes the western ring route yet this Minister is not showing any commitment to it whatsoever. He did not even mention it tonight. He tried to get out of the fact that he is cutting $49 million out of road policing. He said that he was spending more money on roading but he did not tell the country that he had redirected $420 million away from what he calls non - State highway classes. Most of us call that public transport—buses trains ferries cycleways and walkways. Most of us common people call it that. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh I keep forgetting the helicopters that the National Government is so proud of.