Court Simon; O'Connor Greg; Parker DavidSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. Minister thank you for responding to questions about the problems this bill's trying to solve.Minister it's true that many New Zealand roads are unsafe. They're unsafe at any speed not just the posted speed limit. Minister the Government Policy Statement—the GPS—for land transport recognises more money needs to be invested in maintenance potholes vehicles swerving to avoid a pothole entering oncoming traffic or drivers being distracted because they're trying to work out what it is on the road they need to avoid. Clearly that's a hazard.Minister many of New Zealand's older roads their speed environment—the speed limit—is based on designs from decades past last century. You can drive all over New Zealand on rural State highways where they were essentially designed to allow bullock carts and then maybe the Model T Ford to follow the contours of the land on a road hand-cut with picks and shovels. Even though those roads are now tarmacked they're marked with paint they've got speed limit warning signs all over them Minister many of those roads are completely unsuited for the 21st century and for the needs of people in communities who just need to get places—whether it's dropping kids off at school or taking them to footy practice on a weekend—Dr James McDowall: Rowing practice.SIMON COURT: —getting to the shops. Rowing practice as Dr James McDowall points out. Even at 5 a.m. in the morning there are Kiwis trying to get their kids to sports practices. Dr McDowall that's right.Angela Roberts: Forestry trucks.SIMON COURT: Oh and as Angela Roberts points out forestry trucks on the road all the time. Assuming that cutting trees is economically viable even with all of the restrictions and red tape this Government wants to put on them.So Minister when it comes to safe speeds safer roads a lot of our roads are designed and built essentially for bullock carts and built with picks and shovels. It's perfectly justified they have lower speed limits. But Minister many of our new roads are designed to 110-kilometre-an-hour speed environments and some people—including the radio announcer Mike Hosking—suggest that the Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway could be driven at 140 or 150 kilometres an hour.Now while that's not allowed many roads around New Zealand are designed for 110kilometrean-hour speed limits. The Transmission Gully highway Minister—27 kilometres of some of the best infrastructure ever built in New Zealand—currently has a speed limit of 100 kilometres an hour even though it's designed for 110. So Minister will this Government commit to increasing the speed limit to the designed speed limit on roads which are designed to run at a safer speed like Transmission Gully to at least 110 which is of course safe given that modern vehicles have airbags—they have all kinds of detection systems to tell you when you're leaving your lane or when you're over-speeding?Minister will this Government commit to raising the speed limit on Transmission Gully to 110 kilometres an hour? Or will this Government insist that speed cameras are deployed on Transmission Gully—over 27 kilometres of Transmission Gully from start to finish—to identify if someone's doing 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 kilometres an hour even though the road's designed for 110? Because a lot of Kiwis are like All we want to do is get around at a decent clip." Our motors are designed for it. We're driving the latest kit even used cars imported from Japan and Europe—10 years old—have airbags and all kinds of detection systems. Minister will we be allowed to drive at 110 on Transmission Gully or will these speed cameras be deployed on Transmission Gully first to catch people doing 101?CHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): Just before I call the Minister—OK I've been quite lenient here. We've gone a long way and I let you go. We are hearing the bill as all parts. However now we've all had our fun we're all going to talk about the bill from now on—including you Minister. So the floor is yours.Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Transport): Thank you Mr Speaker. I can confirm that the bill doesn't increase or alter speed limits. All it provides for is the use of point-to-point average speed for traffic cameras. In respect of the Transmission Gully question funnily enough I signed out a paper on that this week authorising consultation on raising the limit."