Ward Mike: Transport Legislation Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Ward Mike: Transport Legislation Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16918] 
MIKE WARD (Green) 
: 
 I was not going to bother to speak because I think the good sense of this legislation is very evident. However I rise to speak to Part 2. 
The Land Transport Safety Authority and Transfund New Zealand will be dissolved. Those organisations have been primarily concerned with providing a land transport system that caters very well to those who drive cars. It is very clear that the future of the car will be different from its past. Peak oil is a reality. I have heard the Minister speak about it. It is likely to hit us; it probably has already hit us. The prices we are paying for oil right now may go up and down a little but they are trending upwards. The demand is likely to exceed supply—if it has not already done so—sometime this decade. 
Transport policy needs to be concerned about health safety and sustainability—they are all linked. Probably the most threatened groups in the community are children cyclists and the elderly who have been poorly catered for by our transport system. Those who cannot drive those who choose not to drive those who are too young to drive and those who cannot afford to drive have been poorly served. Those people’s transport methods are probably the most sustainable. They travel shorter distances they travel only when they need to they do not climb into their motorcars at the drop of a hat and they tend to be healthier as well—except when it comes to the safety angle. When it comes to safety they are the most vulnerable. 
The Minister of Transport mentioned respiratory diseases. He might also have mentioned type 2 diabetes which is a disease the cost of which is likely to blow out to something like a billion dollars per year in this decade and in the next decade from a figure of about $20 million. That disease is largely brought about by a sedentary lifestyle which is the consequence of people spending much too much time in motorcars. 
The Minister could perhaps set my mind at rest however that the new organisation that will replace the Land Transport Safety Authority and Transfund New Zealand will in fact have the expertise to make sure that the regional land transport strategies documents that set out the roading and transport needs of communities up and down this country do provide for the transport disadvantaged and do ensure that those who drive are aware that they have legs and those legs can be used—that they can catch buses they can walk they can cycle and they can choose other methods to get around. Perhaps the new organisation could look at some land-use measures that would avoid the need to move people around by persuading them to live closer to where they need to be and by persuading town planners to site industries in locations where people can get to them without travelling from one side of their communities to the other at great cost. 
We will be supporting the legislation. It is good legislation. It will ensure that we have a healthier New Zealand that we have a sustainable transport system and that the most vulnerable and most transport disadvantaged can actually get around when they want to. Those who use motorcars will be able to use them efficiently and effectively if this bill goes ahead. We will support it.