9. Question No. 9—TransportCHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 9—Transport9. CHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South) to the Minister of Transport: Is it correct that he said there were a couple of reckless things said during the election" at the 2018 Informa New Zealand Rail conference; if so what were those reckless things?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Transport): Yes at the June 2018 Informa New Zealand Rail conference. An example is former transport Minister Simon Bridges when he said that National's 10 second-generation four-lane roads of national significance were expected to cost around $10.5 billion despite many of them having had no costings done by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and some of them not even being NZTA projects. A further example was when Simon Bridges said that NZTA was contracting a new route for the Manawatū Gorge replacement and that a decision would be made by the end of that year. After no such action under the last Government we're getting on with it and construction is expected to start early next year.Chris Bishop: Does he accept that when he said "there were a couple of reckless things said during the election" he was referring to the promise to roll out light rail to Mount Roskill by 2021?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: No it was a light-hearted quip at the expense of politicians during election campaigns such as the "ghost roads" that the National Party promised during the last election but had absolutely no way of funding.Chris Bishop: Why was the Auckland light rail ministerial oversight group asked only in July 2019—nearly two years after the Government took office—to confirm the Government's desired outcomes from the light rail project?SPEAKER: Order! Order! There's no link other than a passing one to the original question or the answers from the Minister.Chris Bishop: Are there any other promises in the transport portfolio that he would now like to describe as reckless; and if so what are they?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: No not under this Government but there is a long list under the former Government and I'm happy to provide that to the member.Chris Bishop: When will light rail begin to Mount Roskill?SPEAKER: Well the member can keep on wasting his supplementaries but that's no more in order than the previous one I ruled out.Hon Simon Bridges: Too hard.SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will stand withdraw and apologise.Hon Simon Bridges: I stand withdraw and apologise.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Why was that question ruled out? It seemed quite a reasonable question.SPEAKER: Because there's a very simple requirement for supplementaries and that is that they relate to the question or the answer and two of the supplementaries didn't.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Well if I may—SPEAKER: The member will resume his seat. I can probably explain it a bit more carefully. If the question had been more specific and had related to promises made in the election campaign by the Government then I might have ruled them in order. But as the member knows it was a non-specific question and it received an answer which did not relate to policy announcements or comments made during the election campaign by any of the parties that make up or support the Government. As a result of that the member did not have a hook on which to hang the supplementary. So if he wanted to ask those supplementaries he should have asked a primary question which was a direct question and not one of that sort. Can I make a suggestion? There are—well only one of them is in the House at the moment—a couple of members on the National Party front bench who have quite a lot of experience in asking questions from Opposition and can I suggest that they provide a tutorial to other members. [Interruption] Order!Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. So then are you saying that the last two supplementaries—just for everyone's understanding—were both out of order?SPEAKER: Not the last two; it was the last one and the third to last one.Hon Gerry Brownlee: The immediate supplementary prior to the last one asked the Minister whether any of his policies were as he has recently described "reckless"—or however that might be. He answered to that "No" and then offered a suggestion that there were numerous examples of the previous Government's policies that he could have used. The last question you ruled out was: "When will the light rail to New Lynn commence?" Now if he said that nothing he has previously said about his own policies was reckless or inappropriate why couldn't he answer that question?SPEAKER: Because I felt that the more general question about whether his policies came within the general ambit of the primary question was fair but that having had a "No" then at that point there's not a hook there. Grant Robertson will stand withdraw and apologise for the interjection that was made during Mr Brownlee—or if it was another member. I think it was Mr Robertson who interjected. Well who was it?Hon Chris Hipkins: It might have been me.SPEAKER: Was it Mr Hipkins? He will withdraw and apologise.Hon Chris Hipkins: I withdraw and apologise.SPEAKER: Thank you. We don't interject during points of order."