Bennett David: Road User Charges Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Bennett David: Road User Charges Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:656;Page:5347] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 The previous speaker is a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee which did such a fine job under such fine leadership in progressing this bill to this stage. I am sure the previous speaker would like to thank her committee for its hard work and the officials for their support and the chair as well for the leadership and direction provided in that committee. We need to give special praise to the Minister of Transport. 
I was offended in that speech where the speaker tried to say the Government of the day was moving too quickly on environmental issues. Labour feels that the Government of the day should not be advancing the take-up of electric cars in this country. Labour obviously does not believe in having a clean green New Zealand. It does not believe in environmental issues. It does not believe in taking advantage of technology which would advantage New Zealanders. The Labour Party is a party of the past. What more would we want to see of a previous century no less? The last time Labour was elected was in a previous century. That is the reality of the Labour Party. Labour members want to create a “classless society”. Those are the two words that came out of the last speech. They have a problem with people having money and being able to afford clean green technology. If we think about that what does it mean for New Zealand? Labour members have a problem with New Zealand being rich enough to have clean green technology to look after our environment. 
Dr Cam Calder 
: That can’t be true! 
DAVID BENNETT 
: That is what Labour members think. They want to take New Zealand back to some communist State where everything is controlled by the Government where they know best; where no technology is involved everybody lives on some great land-based system that does not deliver any technological advances does not take advantage of a modern economy and does not deliver the clean green solutions that this Government wishes to deliver for our people. 
Let us just think about a classless society. Did Labour members represent a classless society when they were in Government? I am thinking about Labour initiatives like KiwiSaver. Were initiatives such as that designed for people who could not afford to pay for them? No they were designed only for those people who could put some of their wages into it. Labour members did not look after the classless society when they had a chance. Labour did not look at creating a level playing field where everybody was the same. Labour members say one thing but do another thing. This bill is a perfect example of when Labour will not acknowledge what is good for this country and good for transport. 
Darien Fenton 
: Tell us about the trains in Waikato! 
DAVID BENNETT 
: That is a great example. It is great to see that we have some Labour members here from the Waikato region. They have been going on about trains in the Waikato. I will give those members one little piece of advice about the trains in Waikato. Labour members want to have a passenger train that goes from Hamilton to Auckland. They want the trains to run in the morning and in the afternoon so that work people can use it. They say that is the best thing we could do for the Waikato. 
Let me ask those members one question: where on the main trunk line is there no electrification? It is between Hamilton and Auckland. So if they want to have a train between Hamilton and Auckland what kind of train will it be? It will be a diesel train and if it is a diesel train it is a dirty train. Yet in Hamilton East at the last election Labour fought against our expressway and for a train to Auckland—a train based on diesel technology. I challenge Labour members to go to the people of Hamilton and tell them that they would put a train on that track and make it clean and green. Would they do that? Would Labour members put a clean green electric train on that track? 
I would like to see Sue Moroney say that because it would mean that David Cunliffe would have to find another couple of billion bucks to pay for it. That is the reality of what Labour members are dealing with. If they want to have clean green technology in the Waikato then they should go out there and say it. They will not do that because they know they are dealing with the only bit of track that is not electrified and that they would have to put a dirty train on that track to be able to deliver that. That is the farce that the Labour Party is. Labour members do not go out there and tell people the true story. They just go out there and say: “Let’s have a train. The trains are clean and green.” What kind of emotional detachment is that from the reality that it would be a dirty diesel train? 
National members have a much better plan. Firstly we have a plan that the people of Hamilton actually voted for. That is the first thing. And it is a plan that will actually work. We will build the expressway that Labour was not going to build— 
Sue Moroney 
: Oh what rubbish! 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Labour was going to build it. It had 9 years in which to put it in the 10-year plan. In fact it took it out of the 10-year plan; it took out the Te Rapa Bypass. We will make sure that that road is built. That road will allow electric cars to drive from Hamilton to the outskirts of Auckland to hop on to a good public transport network that will be electrified and will take people into and out of Auckland at a fast rate using electric clean green technology. It will be clean green transport from Hamilton to Auckland. 
What is Labour’s alternative? It is to tell people to hop on to a dirty old train that cannot even get into central Auckland because the Auckland Regional Transport Authority says that it is full now. So the train would not even get into downtown Auckland but Labour members do not tell the good people of Hamilton that. They do not tell the good people of Hamilton that the report that came out from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority said that this train could not get into Britomart transport centre because it is full. 
Dr Cam Calder 
: You’re joking! 
DAVID BENNETT 
: No it will not be allowed into Newmarket either. So that train would not get into central Auckland. So where does Labour expect it to go? The train could get into Papakura—that is where it can go. You might as well drive there in an electric car on our new motorway— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Two things: first the member keeps bringing me into the debate; second this bill is about road-user charges and we are on a second reading speech not a first reading speech. The member has 2 minutes 40 seconds left and I would actually like to hear about road-user charges. I ask the member to continue. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. One of the big parts of this bill is to bring in electric cars. We are reducing the cost of electric cars. Electric cars will be the main things running on the Waikato Expressway in 30 or 40 years’ time. That is the nature of this bill. This bill is very relevant to the people of Waikato because it shows vision it shows direction and it shows leadership. More important than that and more important than all of those things it shows one thing that Labour members did not show to the good people of the Waikato—it shows action. We will build a road. We will not just campaign and say we are advocating for a rail network; we will build the road which is more than the Opposition has done. 
Carol Beaumont 
: Mr Speaker— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member still has 2 minutes. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Labour members are trying to break up this fine speech. 
If we look at electric vehicles they are very important. We are not looking at having a classless society which is what Labour wants to create. We are looking at a society where we want to take advantage of the technology of the world. We want to be a country where people can go out and buy the technology. We are not looking at a pre-industrial State which is something Labour wants to see the rebirth of. We want a country where there is nothing wrong with people succeeding and achieving and there is nothing wrong with people wanting to spend their money on electric cars. That is an important avenue for New Zealand to go down if we want to have a clean green economy. 
This bill is very important in that respect. It is the first step in recognising that we can have a clean green transport environment on our roads. That flies in the face of the rhetoric we have heard about rail as an alternative to roading. Roads will be the clean green alternative in the future. The big economies of the world are investing in that technology. They have a reason to want to have that technology and they will make that technology economically available not only to those who can afford it now but to the masses. People will find in time that everybody will be driving electric cars because that is the future of transport. It is just of matter of time and it will happen.