Gilmore Aaron: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Gilmore Aaron: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:9499] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 I will touch on a few things. This review is looking at the Ministry of Transport and we have just heard from the Minister of Transport some of the wonderful things he has done in the last 12 months. 
I will touch on one thing in particular. We heard from Darien Fenton who talked about what I would call the cents but we are interested in the dollars and in particular the $1 billion that has been put into funding for new State highways over the next few years. I will talk about one special project: the new Christchurch Southern Motorway. It is a $730 million project—$730 million. It is the single biggest roading project that has been built in the South Island since anyone can remember. It is a wonderful project. I had the absolute pleasure of sitting there on the first sod-turning day with the Minister of Transport and with a large number of the community who were ecstatic that they would have the ability to get to their homes businesses and schools just that little bit faster because of the roads of national significance. The Christchurch Southern Motorway is one of the lynchpin projects of the roads of national significance. 
On that opening day with that first sod-turning ceremony a large group of people were there. There were National MPs and a few National Ministers but I ask members how many Labour MPs were there to celebrate the most significant roading project in the South Island’s history. 
Colin King 
: I don’t know. You tell me. 
AARON GILMORE 
: Zero. There were zero Labour MPs were there to celebrate. That just shows us what little they see of the importance of roading to unclog the clogged arteries we have in New Zealand. 
You see we have a problem in Christchurch. People think that the only roading projects to solve a problem are in Auckland but I can tell them that if they drive down either of the major current entries into Christchurch from the north or from the south they will wonder what they have run into in terms of congestion. We have that in Christchurch. This is not just about the Christchurch Southern Motorway; it is the first project in a collection of roading projects. We will have an upgrade of the western bypass which will go around the outskirts of the city to the west. In time we will have the new northern motorway which will come through to my community in northern Christchurch. Our people are screaming out for those projects and they will be possible only with the extra billion dollars that we have put into the State highway network for the next 3 years. What a wonderful thing that is. The important thing is getting mums and dads and people to work and school faster. 
We should not be worrying about some small issues around a $10 million SuperGold card; this is a billion dollars that the Minister has here. I tell members to put it into context. I have touched on my favourite pet project the Christchurch Southern Motorway but I know that my colleagues have others like the Waikato Expressway and the Caversham Bypass. There is a collection of projects up and down the country. People want the arteries unclogged and to have the ability to get to home work and school much faster. These are wonderful projects but what do Labour members want to talk about? They do not want to talk about those. They could talk about public transport but they do not want to talk about that either. They want to talk about the SuperGold Card and that is remarkable. 
We can talk for hours on this whole issue of the roads of national significance and the importance of it for the Christchurch community the Dunedin community and the Hamilton and wider Waikato community. But what do we hear from Opposition members? This is the typical thing about Opposition members. They do not care about the big dollars they do not care about the big picture and they do not care about the economy. 
Michael Woodhouse 
: They can’t count that high basically. 
AARON GILMORE 
: That may be the case but I would not possibly want to comment. I could not possibly stand up here and not talk about the other major project in our roads of national significance. It is the great big project that has occurred of bringing forward the Victoria Park roading project by 1 year—that is a year sooner for people in Auckland to have the ability to access that roading and be able to get to where they want to go better faster and sooner. 
Hon Member 
: More conveniently. 
AARON GILMORE 
: More conveniently. 
But the jewel in the crown is the announcement for the long-suffering people in Wellington of the $2.2 billion strategic upgrade of State Highway 1 into Wellington Airport including Transmission Gully. When I was a long-suffering public servant this project was on the books 15 years ago. However this Minister has brought forward the Transmission Gully project. He has taken it from the ether in the distance and brought it on to the paperwork of progress. What a wonderful thing that is. There is $2.2 billion so that people from Wellington can get to Porirua and others can come into Wellington in a much faster way. What a wonderful thing that is. Thank you. 
Report noted.