7. Transport Infrastructure—Fuel Taxes and Funding PrioritiesJAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) to the Minister of TransportTransport Infrastructure—Fuel Taxes and Funding Priorities7. JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) to the Minister of Transport: Does the National Land Transport Programme announced last week give New Zealand road users good value for the road user charges and fuel taxes they are paying?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Transport): Yes. The National Land Transport Programme is a record investment in our transport system including a 37 percent increase in road safety spending to save lives; a $600 million increase in road funding to the regions; $5.7 billion for State highways including Pūhoi to Wellsford Mount Messenger the Manawatū Gorge replacement and Transmission Gully; and $4 billion to ease congestion in our major cities.Jami-Lee Ross: How is it good value for people in Tauranga to pay 12c more in fuel taxes but not receive the much-needed four-laning of State Highway 2—New Zealand's deadliest road?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well I'm sure the member knows that that road suffered from terrible neglect over nine years. This Government is undertaking through the New Zealand Transport Agency a re-evaluation of the plans for that highway but we recognise that it's not good enough that nothing was done to that road while suburbs were allowed to expand along that corridor towards Ōmokoroa. It needs investment in safety improvements and under this Government it'll get them.Jami-Lee Ross: How is it good value for the people of Ōtaki to pay 12c a litre more in fuel taxes when they're less likely to get the Ōtaki to Levin expressway completed as the Prime Minister actually promised in the media?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well the people of Ōtaki and Levin like communities all over this country are going to benefit from a more rational and measured transport policy that invests in safety improvements—passing lanes median barriers side barriers intersection upgrades—because we're concerned to improve safety and save lives across thousands of kilometres of the transport network and not just a few dozen kilometres which was the policy of the former Government.Jami-Lee Ross: Will the tram projects in Auckland that he's been championing be funded from revenue gained from fuel taxes?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well the light rail rapid transit project in Auckland will not be funded through the regional fuel tax as the member has consistently claimed through the media. But $1.8 billion has been set aside as part of the $28 billion 10-year transport investment plan that this Government put together in cooperation with Auckland Council—the first time there has ever been a fully funded 10-year transport plan for Auckland.Jami-Lee Ross: Why should people in Tauranga and Ōtaki pay 12c a litre more in fuel taxes to fund Auckland trams when his Government won't commit to funding the much-needed roads in those communities?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: No amount of baseless scaremongering from the member can change that fact that under our transport plan we're putting $600 million more into roading in the regions than is going into the six biggest metropolitan centres—a bigger increase than we ever saw under the former Government.