5. Question No. 5—TransportHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 5—Transport5. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Transport: Does he agree with New Zealand Transport Agency chairman Michael Stiassny who told the Transport and Infrastructure Committee that There is no doubt that the way the GPS has been written is more about safety and the time spent between A to B is no longer a priority for us. The outcome of that will be I think we could all agree that it will take longer to get from A to B in a lot of places and there will be more congestion"?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Transport): Yes to the first part and no to the second.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Well how does he account for the chair of his key transport agency having the wrong end of the stick?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well Mr Stiassny's quite right to say that our policy has prioritised safety and as the other top line objective in the Government policy statement ensuring that New Zealanders have more options that give them access to the things they need.Hon Paul Goldsmith: So how can he say that reducing congestion is still a priority when it is nowhere stated and when the priority of improving access which he points to is fundamentally about getting people out of their cars?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Because actually improving Kiwis' access to the things they need is fundamentally about improving congestion. Our approach—which is about giving people options including much better public transport in our cities and walking and cycling—is about reducing the car dependency and congestion that got worse every year under the former Government when they spent 40 percent of the transport budget on a handful of motorway projects that carried 4 percent of vehicle journeys.Hon Paul Goldsmith: So does he accept that having a priority to get people out of their cars is not the same thing as reducing congestion especially given that some transport planners think that increasing congestion on the roads is the best way to get people out of their cars?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well I can't speak for "some transport planners" but I'll say this to the member: providing people with modern public transport and rapid transit and walking and cycling is the best way to encourage some people to leave their cars at home. That allows the roads and the motorways to move more freely and that is our policy.Hon Paul Goldsmith: So does he think Kiwis stuck in traffic—say on Auckland's Southern Motorway or crawling into Tauranga from Ōmokoroa or many other places—would agree that reducing congestion should no longer be a priority as the chair of his New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) thinks?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Reducing congestion is a priority but it's a subset of improving access. We had a nine-year experiment in the kind of policy that the member is promoting and congestion and gridlock in our cities got worse every single year and we saw a blowout in deaths and serious injuries on our roads.Hon Paul Goldsmith: So what does he say to the people of Tauranga whose council has instructed the chief executive of Tauranga City Council to cease awarding any new contracts for transportation upgrade and safety projects because they no longer have agreement with NZTA to part-fund them because they don't fit within the Government's new transport priorities?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well that's not at all what the mayor and chief executive of Tauranga City Council have said. They actually have raised with me that they are having trouble getting some decisions made as speedily to see projects rolled out. I've asked them for detail on that because holding up any road projects or transport projects is the last thing that I want to see and I've said I will chase that up for them."