Williamson Maurice: Road Traffic Reduction Bill — Second Reading 
Williamson Maurice: Road Traffic Reduction Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:615;Page:11139] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 What a golden opportunity Mr Gosche presents to us in the National Party with a speech like that! First of all the celebration of the most minute trivia on the back of the latest Transfund New Zealand newsletter was the centrepiece of his speech. The fact that there are now three people in Cornwall Park on bikes who were not there before is something that Mr Gosche has to grab at and come to this House to celebrate. I want him to know that the people of Auckland will be delighted to hear that speech as they sit in their cars locked blocked and stopped tomorrow morning and going nowhere. 
To hear that speech from Mr Gosche one would think Auckland’s transport problem was all fixed. One would think it was all OK. He is even holding up a picture of something. Mr Gosche has clearly not been back to Auckland for a while. One would think that the Labour Government had fixed it all and that one could cruise into the city whenever one liked and back again. Well I have news for members. Congestion is actually much worse than it has ever been and it is getting worse by the day. I will tell this House right now that with the lame limp-wristed wimpish package that has been announced so far congestion in Auckland will be worse 5 years from now—I am happy to put a bet on it. I am happy to put a bet with any member from the Government side who wants to from my own money and of whatever sum the member likes that congestion will be worse in Auckland then. 
A bill like the one we are debating tonight does nothing but make me laugh when it states its purpose is to reduce road usage by getting people out of their cars and on to walking tracks and bicycles. Now that is a very nice thought. In theory I would love to be able to bike to work. Unfortunately I work in Wellington. I have to go to the airport and I do not think cycling or walking from Pakuranga each day is even a slight option. The same applies to the vast majority of people in Auckland who have to cover big distances to go to work and who have to go to two or three different locations during the course of the day to pick up kids go to supermarkets and so on. What an insult it is for Mr Gosche to tell Aucklanders he is putting a bill in to the House to fix their problem and that he wants them all to get out of their cars and start using cycles. 
I think the greatest irony of all the stuff about that from the Greens was what happened during nearly every election campaign that occurred while I was transport Minister. I used to love it— 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: How long was that for? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Six glorious years when the south-eastern arterial— 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: And you did nothing. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: The member does not even know about the south-eastern arterial route that was built during my time as the Minister. It is in the member’s own electorate and—[ 
Interruption 
] No but we funded it. He says the Auckland City Council built it. He does not even know that Transfund funded it—and it is in his own electorate. That is tragic; it is sad. I will leave the member alone because it is not fair to badger a man who does not even know who funded roading in his own electorate. That is just not fair. [ 
Interruption 
] This may not be a point of order. 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The member is misleading the House by indicating that the Government built that road while he was the Minister. It was a local road built by Manukau City Council ratepayers. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No please be seated. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I quite properly pointed out that it would not be a point of order. However I will return to the election campaign meetings because I used to love them. I used to love them as transport Minister. 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: What year? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I can tell the member—1996 1993 and 1999. I will tell members what happened. I would go to a number of public meetings and there would be the Greens. One could spot them; there was something about them. I do not know whether it was because they had been sprayed or whatever it was but one could spot them in their kaftans sandals and so on. They would be into me saying that we must have people using public transport bikes and walkways. I think that concept has some merit provided it is a viable alternative and I do hope people think about it. But no the Greens wanted that to be mandated. They wanted it to be mandated and they wanted legislation that would drive people to do that—just as this bill does. 
Before the meetings I would get somebody who was with me to have a watch around the car-park to check who had arrived and how they had come to the meetings. Then at the end of a meeting after I had already had some verification of it I would ask how many of all the people there had come to that night’s meeting using public transport Shanks’s pony or a pushbike. And we never had one! Do members know what the Greens used to say at those meetings? They would say they could not do so because they had another meeting to go to. So it was always other people who should be doing that—not the Greens—because they had a good reason for bringing gas-guzzling smoke-belching old cars into the car-park. Some of the cars they drove were an absolute disgrace but no no—they had to do that. 
I say to the Greens that if this Government is serious about congestion problems in Auckland then I want them to listen to what I am about to read to them. This is a story about a man who would be the most left-wing politician to be found in Britain. 
Darren Hughes 
: John Banks? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Mr Hughes should just listen to this. It is not often that he will learn something—tonight he may. The man’s name is Mayor Ken Livingstone—“Red Ken” the Labour Party - endorsed candidate for the mayoralty of London again—and he is the arch left-winger. The story states: “A year after congestion charging zones were established in London Mayor Ken Livingstone is to kick-start a process aimed at doubling the areas now covered. Despite indications that he was harbouring doubts over expanding the scheme into Kensington and Chelsea he will this week begin a consultation exercise on the issue right throughout London.” Now I ask members to listen to this stuff: “Transport for London is surveying 3.3 million households and 250 businesses canvassing opinion expansion of the project which will cost about £100 million. It is thought that Livingstone’s enthusiasm for the initiative has been rekindled by the predictions that he will win decisively a victory and a lot of his coming victory in the mayoralty is based on what he has achieved.” Here it goes: “His political stock has rarely been higher than now at a time when the volume of traffic entering the capital has reached its lowest level for around four decades. Cities all over the world which have been watching the experiment with scepticism are now taking an active interest and even beginning to copy it. The success of the £5 congestion charge at relieving traffic jams in central London is generally and in some cases grudgingly accepted as being very successful. Cars entering the zone have dropped by around 50000 a day—about a 38 percent drop in cars into the centre. Average speeds on five key routes inside the area have risen by more than threefold.” 
So if this Labour Government wants any indication about how to fix Auckland’s problems I ask Labour members to please stop getting up in the House and telling members about the three cyclists who are now going through Cornwall Park or about the two people who are using the Bucklands Beach walkway—all of which I really welcome. But if one talks about celebrating the minutiae that has to be the best example of doing so. What Auckland has to have—and have sooner not later—is the completion of its arterial roading network. Nothing else will do for the public of Auckland. The Government tells motorists that in 10 or 15 years’ time they will get something yet Auckland will still be congested. 
I want to finish the last couple of minutes of my speech with a question for the Labour Party. Labour needs to be a bit careful. It will need to have its research unit really working overtime now because what it will have to do is to go back and check some of the speeches—and I have kept some of them—and some of the statements that some Labour members used to make about the evils of tolling. They said the roads were free and have always been free. They said the Queen’s highways were free and that dreadful Tory Government of Williamson and so on wanted— 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: And you are going to sell it. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: No this has nothing to do with selling roads and there was never a proposal to sell any roads—never. What we were proposing—[ 
Interruption 
] There was never a proposal to sell roads. We proposed tolling and that was described as very evil. [ 
Interruption 
] It is all right Mr Speaker. I do not mind those members having a crack because it shows that they are vulnerable. The Labour members just thought tolling was evil and said they would not have a bar of it. They went to the battlements at the 1999 election and told people that if they voted for Labour it would never allow the travesty—the evil—of tolling that Williamson wanted. I want to hear from the next Labour speaker tonight whether he or she still thinks that. Do Labour members still think tolling is evil? Do they still think it is a disgrace and that the roads should be free? 
What about the private sector? Harry Duynhoven has just interjected that we were going to sell the roads. Actually we were not. We were talking about getting the private sector involved in participation. What about the private sector now? Will we allow it to participate now? Let us hear from the next Labour speaker about private sector participation in roading because if we do not have such participation Auckland will have a $3 billion shortfall in fixing its problems over the next 10 years. There is about $3 billion missing when one adds up Infrastructure Auckland’s money Transit New Zealand’s debt funding the current Transfund regime and the new December package. When one adds all that up it is about $3.5 billion short of the total cost of Auckland’s roading projects on the best estimates. So what will have to happen? The private sector will have to be involved. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: And he nodded. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I am never sure whether in the member’s case that means he is just nodding off. That member often just nods off. I want one of the Labour members to tell us whether that is what will happen. Will we see the private sector involved? Will we see tolling? I will be fascinated to hear the answer to that.