Jones ShaneHon SHANE JONES (Minister for Infrastructure): I take a short call and correct some of the misapprehensions that have been flung around the House. Of course I am referring to the annual review period and your admonition to speakers in this debate has been taken on board although I would remind you there is some latitude if issues related to the current time scream out for attention. But I want to talk about KiwiRail which has been a recipient of some of the funding from the Provincial Growth Fund and just outline and respond to some of the rather apocryphal things that are being said about our transport approach.We do not agree with a lot of the sentiments and a lot of the philosophies that were espoused during this period of time by the other side of the House that has fed a cult-like philosophy. Indeed today I had to caution and tell off yet again a man who lives in the North by the name of Mr Bayly. Stop being a mouthpiece and channelling historic discredited views of a transport nature from the National Party. I have advised him that his time to have made professional contributions has come and gone. That is why we are backing substantially the growth of KiwiRail as a credible alternative to a road-centric approach. That doesn't mean that we don't believe in improving the safety of roads or that we're not going to continue to invest in the egregious cases where roading failure is leading to fatality.But KiwiRail has at long last as is reflected in this report in the annual statements received the overdue attention. Now I won't steal the thunder of the current Treasurer or anyone else further up the tree than my good self and talk about upcoming announcements—that lies for the future—but remind the House and remind our friends on the other side of the House that they have had an enormous amount of opportunity to grow KiwiRail to move heavy freight off the roads on to rail. They chose not to do it. They made a strategic decision that the golden triangle would occupy enormous amounts of energy capital and time and the North where we hail from has been starved. The roads of the North have not been remedied. They have not been supported. Consequently we're seeing an ongoing degradation of the roads and that's why KiwiRail is going to continue to enjoy support.This particular coverage does specifically isolate the wisdom of putting the spur off the main trunk out to Marsden Point. It's actually here page 79. That will be happening and of course they are taking a very judicious approach and the engineers are doing drilling and costing and various other things. But it's good to see that KiwiRail—of course they have a new CEO now and they have Brian Corbin a redoubtable identity from west Auckland extremely experienced in matters of governance grossly overlooked by the last regime. We don't have that petty approach just because people aren't necessarily fellow travellers of an ideological nature. We see virtue in retaining—mercifully low numbers—some of the people that were appointed by the last regime. So not only are we going to see tracks upgraded do we have a new level of leadership at an executive level and we also have a higher quality of personnel at the governance level but the most important thing: all of these rhetorical statements that were heard from the other side of the House—we're actually funding what we're talking about and therein lies a tremendous level of difference. Now there's been some rather scathing remarks directed in my direction at the criteria that's employed to allocate the funds out of the Provincial Growth Fund to such areas as this—that it's something akin to having a cup of tea or a beer with Shane Jones at the Māngere fish shop and you get a cheque. No no—were it so true. It's quite the opposite. There is a rigorous process. The fact that the Waipapa roundabout in this period of time enjoyed some of the fiscal love of the Provincial Growth Fund was interesting because it was actually brought forward to the Government by New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and we expect great changes from NZTA given that we're going to improve its governance. Thank you very much.