Little Andrew: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10367. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Labour): It is a pleasure to take a call. I have been struggling throughout to get a call on this bill the Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill.Louise Upston: Diddums!ANDREW LITTLE: Well wait until you hear what I have got to say because I think you will find it very interesting.We know what this bill does. It artificially inflates the duties now collected off petrol and that is in the context of a Government that is spending billions upon billions upon billions of dollars on a small number of roads. It has chosen the roads of National Party significance—the roads of national significance—and the problem with that is of course that provincial roads roads in the regions are being absolutely starved of any attention at all. So when it comes to the title of this bill it might more accurately be called the “Customs and Excise (Deprivation of Regional Roads) Bill”.I want to relay one particularly important example and that is State Highway 3 in Taranaki. You do not hear much of it in Parliament these days but I think it is very important to raise it. State Highway 3 in Taranaki is in an increasingly parlous state. In the mid almost south Taranaki area is a stretch of State Highway 3 encompassing a bridge called the Normanby Bridge. It is arguably one of the most dangerous stretches of road—it is only a 50 metre or so stretch—in the country. It has had four fatalities in about 2 years. There have been repeated accidents on that stretch of road and the local regional council is struggling to get the New Zealand Transport Agency interested in it. It cannot get funding to operate that piece of road and make it safer. The best the New Zealand Transport Agency can do is put up a couple of signs either side of the bridge saying “Slow down”. But it is a dog-leg of a bridge it is a dog-leg piece of road and it needs to be realigned.Then comes the real kicker and that is the road north out of New Plymouth. The New Zealand Transport Agency at the behest of this Government to save its political skin in the last election allocated $15 million to fix a bridge—yet another bridge—just north of New Plymouth. It is another stretch of road of about 50 metres. There is another 100 kilometres of road that is highly problematic dangerous and the bane of truck drivers in and out of north Taranaki and has been for a long time. It is at the point now where all that the New Zealand Transport Agency will do is fund resealing the bits of the road between the fog lines. It does not fund the upgrading and the repair andmaintenance of the shoulders of the road and it is becoming more and more dangerous. Two particular stretches—the Awakino Gorge and Mount Messenger—have both had report after report after report prepared on them and we cannot get any money spent on them.You do not hear anything about it from any other member who comes to this House who represents or has a connection with that area. There is only one member in this House who comes and talks about that stretch of road and those issues—the issues affecting Taranaki—and that is me. This bill and raising the excise on petrol yet again without any commitment to fixing this very important piece of road just demonstrates the short-sighted nature of this Government and its so-called traffic and transport plan. It is a very sensitive issue—a growingly sensitive issue you might say—in Taranaki and this bill will do nothing for it. The title of the bill should properly reflect the negligence and the abdication of responsibility that this bill along with this Government’s total traffic and transport plan actually represents. It is a denial of attention proper attention to regional roads and to the provinces which are screaming out for attention.The last major piece of road upgrading that was done in Taranaki was the famed Bell Block Bypass known as “Harry’s diversion” promoted and encouraged by Harry Duynhoven a former member for New Plymouth now the current mayor. It is a highly successful stretch of road but it was only ever one part of a long-term jigsaw that had to be put together and this Government has abandoned the jigsaw. The people of Taranaki are crying out for it. They are crying out even louder than the people of Wairarapa who feel that $45 a year $90 a year and $135 a year are a major pinch in their pocket but their local member does not recognise and respect that. The people of Taranaki are crying out for attention and for action. This bill will not even help them and the title of the bill should properly reflect the failures in it—the failure to give due care and due attention to the real needs of people in the provinces and the regions the good people of Taranaki foremost amongst them.