Joyce Steven: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Joyce Steven: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5642] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 I thank the previous speaker David Bennett. He is a fine select committee chair. He holds the Government to account on a regular basis. Thank goodness he does because nobody else does. He asks fine questions of the Government. 
Where is “Dazza”? Where is Darren this evening? It is his big chance to talk about transport— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Order! 
H V Ross Robertson 
: Point of order Mr Chairman— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: I have got it. The member cannot refer to the absence of a member from the Chamber and he will desist from doing that immediately. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: My apologies Mr Chairman. Can I just say what a fine chair of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee we have and that he does hold the Government to account on an ongoing basis. 
We are very busy in the transport portfolio. Transport is a very important portfolio for this Government because it has a major role in developing the economic prosperity of New Zealand. I think it is fair to say that the Government has been working very hard over the last 9 months to make progress in the transport sector after a period of time when its progress was reasonably slow—slow-train progress. 
I will highlight briefly some of the initiatives the Government is working on as part of our development of the transport space. The first one is the recently released Government policy statement on land transport funding. It is a very important document. It makes economic growth and productivity the primary objective for investment in land transport. I think that is incredibly important and it will be more important in the coming years to have an efficient funding allocation and to invest in transport infrastructure that reflects the modal options that are realistically available to New Zealanders. I know that that attracts criticism but it is the only sensible way to develop the transport system in these tighter economic times. 
We are investing significantly more in the State highway network over the next 3 years—$1 billion - plus more than was planned by the previous Government. This will lift investment in State highways to 35 percent of the National Land Transport Fund. 
We also did not proceed with regional fuel taxes. I think that is very important. It is easy to forget it. We can imagine what would be happening now if we were facing higher and higher regional fuel taxes. As a result of our decisions we are now facing a smaller increase in national fuel taxes which go straight back into the National Land Transport Fund. That happens on 1 October. We will see some real benefits coming out of that in terms of improvements in our land transport system. 
We have recently passed the Road User Charges Amendment Bill which will achieve a couple of very important things. It gives notice periods for road-user charge increases to help operators recover their costs and gives electric cars a rebate on road-user charges. That is also an important part of what the Government is doing. It is adopting and encouraging other forms of fuel as it addresses the emissions issues and environmental issues that it is facing. 
Back in February we announced a half-billion-dollar stimulus package across a number of portfolios of which about $143 million was for the State highway area. Five specific projects were advanced. I am very proud to have had the opportunity to join the people of the Coromandel as we did the sod-turning for the long-overdue Kopu Bridge which has such huge potential for improving the economies of both Coromandel and the Hauraki Plains. That is really the enabling benefit of these transport infrastructure projects. 
The previous speaker David Bennett also mentioned roads of national significance and these are very important. Last month the New Zealand Transport Agency announced the winning contractor to build the Victoria Park project which is a hugely important project for the whole country. It happens to be in Auckland City but it is a very important project across the whole country. About 165000 vehicles pass through that bottleneck every day at normally very low speeds and the potential productivity benefits are hugely positive. And the great news is that the contractor involved is saying that it will be able to complete that project in just a couple of years. It is a very exciting project that would not have happened in anything like the time it will and possibly might not have happened at all if the previous Government’s land transport policy statement had continued. 
I would like to address the Waterview Connection which is another road of national significance. The Transport Agency is working through a process that will enable that project to be completed at a much more economical cost to the country. The western ring route in Auckland is a hugely important project and this Government is committed to seeing it completed. 
I would also like to speak briefly about the Tauranga Eastern Link which is a project that is hugely important in the Bay of Plenty. Two weeks ago we launched a process to look at tolling that route in order to bring it forward. 
There are a whole lot of other things that we could address but in this small period of time we cannot address them. 
Vote agreed to.