Court Simon; Rurawhe AdrianSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. And thank you Minister the Hon Michael Wood for coming here tonight to answer some questions about this really important portfolio. I've been a civil engineer and I've worked in construction and project delivery for over 20 years. One of the reasons why I've come to Parliament is because I want to see things get built faster. I want to see infrastructure delivered with a more sustainable funding model. And while the Minister and I might disagree on the particular mode where that investment is made or on a particular project actually it should not be for politicians to decide on the mode and to decide on the project. The ACT Party believes that we should take the political influence out of decisions around infrastructure and transportation spending.One of the risks of having a political influence over decision making is that while this Government has chosen to invest heavily in rail the previous Government had established a direction of travel with major roading projects that had engaged designers planning consultants environmental specialists and of course the physical works contractors themselves to build a sequence of roading projects to use their resources in a sequential manner. And unfortunately under the 2017 Labour-led Government and this current Government there's been a loss of confidence because there is no certainty about which projects will get delivered. And we've seen that with the New Zealand Upgrade—initially $13 billion worth of projects scoped and announced and then a radical cut with very little notice to $6.5 billion. And we know that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on scoping on investigation on planning and potentially on consenting some of these projects including the Auckland Harbour Bridge cycle path the Northern Pathway—$51 million spent to date. The meter is still running on that terribly expensive project as the design continues for a project that will never be delivered Minister.But I want to come back to this aspect of this Government's programme. The Auckland light rail project has been promoted as solving a problem city centre to Māngere to provide part of a transportation network and to open up land for housing development between the city centre to Māngere. So I would like the Minister to answer: when will the Minister approve the project to start? And when can Aucklanders expect shovels to be in the ground?A further question Minister if you could consider these together: how will the Auckland light rail project be paid for? Will it be paid for out of the National Land Transport Fund or from other Government funding? Will it be paid for largely by fares? And over what time frame could it be paid for? What is sustainable in terms of recovering the costs for that project? Who will pay—will it be Auckland ratepayers? Will it be a targeted rate for those living along the corridor? Or would the Minister consider a public-private partnership or a special purpose vehicle to fund and deliver the project separate from Government and separate from Government interference? Because we've seen quite clearly that a project like City Rail Link which is a Government project initially costed at a billion dollars has suffered from enormous scope creep at the hands of both Ministers and mayors and has now blown out to in excess of $5 billion.So in the ACT Party we're very concerned not with decisions that a group of professionals like the New Zealand Transport Agency or other project delivery specialists might make—whether they choose a particular mode or project—but that the governance is established and working and remote from political interference and that the funding and financing is sustainable and that all of those costs are not lumped on current or potentially future generations or a group of people who don't necessarily have the ability to pay and also that all the benefits if it's an increase in land values around a transport corridor don't accrue simply to the people who own land there now when the Government project starts and they get to gather all of the benefits in terms of the uplift in land prices while the Government the taxpayer the ratepayer pays all the costs for the infrastructure.So Minister look I've sketched out ACT's concerns with the current direction of travel of this Government with the fact there's an Auckland light rail project which has been announced—it was announced four years ago—and it has not been delivered.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I call Penny Simmonds.SIMON COURT (ACT): Point of order Mr Chair. Thank you. I would appreciate it just in terms of the Standing Orders that you described before given that I have asked a series of questions that could have been asked one at a time I think they've set the scene for a Minister who's very well versed in his portfolio always a master of the detail—if he could just respond to my question first I would appreciate that. Thank you.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Yeah that might be a reasonable expectation but unless members stand to take a call I can't allocate it to them.