Hughes Darren: Urgent Debates — Transport Funding—Replacement of Regional Fuel Tax with Increased Fuel Excise Duty and Road-user Charges 
Hughes Darren: Urgent Debates — Transport Funding—Replacement of Regional Fuel Tax with Increased Fuel Excise Duty and Road-user Charges 
[Volume:653;Page:1974] 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Labour) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance 
. What a shambolic announcement we heard from the Government last week. Last week we saw the National Government in its full and absolutely transparent form. It was a Government determined to be unfair to everybody—unfair to the people of Auckland who got half a plan and unfair to the people of New Zealand who are dumped with the responsibility of paying 6c a litre to fund half a plan for Auckland. 
It was staggering today in the House to watch the Minister of Transport Mr Joyce who was so proud of the announcement he had made. He wandered into office at the end of last year as a new MP as a man of free enterprise and private enterprise but he decided pretty quickly that the big Government of Wellington knew all the answers. That was the approach he took as he went up to Auckland and upset what had been put together in order to ensure that that fine city could have its transport questions met. 
But he was completely unaware of the three miracles that had occurred in Auckland. No. 1 was that everybody had agreed on something; all the regional councils all the city councils and even the district councils that surround the city of Auckland had agreed on what needed to be done to settle Auckland’s transport issues once and for all. They knew that the previous Labour Government had finally changed transport funding so that a percentage of what they got from the National Land Transport Fund would match the size of their populations. But they also knew that some of those projects could not be achieved in just one funding period and that to put it all together in one big plan would require some extra funding. And that is where the second miracle of this story comes in because Auckland had agreed on how to pay for it. So we had two good things going that all the Ministers of Transport in New Zealand’s history would have been happy to have handed to them on a plate: No. 1 was a regional agreement in our largest city and No. 2 was an agreement on how it should be funded. 
The third miracle was that the councils had then consulted with the people of the Auckland region. And guess what? They agreed to it. I cannot think of another tax where a regional government has gone out to the people of its community and said: “We’d like to levy you this amount of money in addition to what you are paying now.” and people have come back and said: “Yes it makes sense because this is the total package of what we are going to be getting.” 
So Auckland had these three miracles lined up in a row; it was a once-in-a generation chance for any political leader in terms of the transport portfolio to walk into office pick it up and run with it. In fact in fairness to Mr Joyce he could have come into office with all the radio-marketing charms he so helpfully informs his colleagues about when he is telling them off in the lobbies—but that is a story for another day—and he could have said: “The evil terrible left-wing Labour Government put in place this regional fuel tax; we in National are against it. But look so much water has gone under the bridge so much work has been done and you are so close with your rail electrification your Penlink road your ferry wharves and your integrated ticketing—you are so close with all the work you are going to do that we reluctant though we are to agree are going to let it sail through.” Then the Minister could have turned up every 6 months for the next 2 years 7 months 3 weeks and 3 days that he will be a Minister and cut ribbons all over the place to celebrate what had happened while nailing Labour as the Government that had allowed the funding regime in Auckland. But he even gave up that chance and in doing so he has left Auckland with half a plan that does not meet the needs of our biggest city and he has socked it to every provincial and rural area in New Zealand which is now forced to pay 6c a litre extra in order to pay for just half a plan. 
I asked the Minister of Transport during question time where it was in National’s pre-election commitment that we would all be paying 6c a litre extra. His big answer was: “Oh well Labour was going to make you pay 3c a litre extra.” The difference was that we had said that before the election and we had gone out and campaigned on a plan for Auckland we were proud of because it would have made a difference. But all the Minister could say was: “It’s a little bit more than what Labour had planned even though we didn’t front up before the election.” So the low-tax party in its first genuine policy decision has put taxes up—so much for the Minister being a right-winger! We have read all about the way he mixes messages in a certain book of a certain name but the approach he is trying to make here takes the cake. 
Let us go through the plan that Steven Joyce has left the people of Auckland. First of all we know that this Government is not committed to public transport one iota. In fact Steven Joyce and the National Party oppose public transport so much that they cannot even mention the words. Do you know what they call it? They call it “non - State highway classes”. We call them trains buses and ferries but over there on the other side of the House they say “non - State highway classes”. I would have thought it was political correctness gone mad not to refer to trains by their name. Labour stood in favour of trying to make sure there was more public transport for Auckland because every city in the world knows that people can be moved efficiently affordably and with environmental sensitivity only if it has a proper public transport plan in place. In fact there is a fourth layer to that now as we find ourselves in the midst of a global financial crisis which is that countries all around the world are using public transport as an economic measure to try to kick start their economies and get things moving. But National members have come out and said that they are not in favour of that at all. 
National has chosen to electrify the Auckland railway line. The whole country is going to pay for that—mind you the whole country is going to pay for a lot of things. I have watched National backbenchers get up and crow about roads in their area but one day the bills will arrive on the Minister’s table and he will find out that it is not possible to keep on saying to everybody: “I’m going to fund this. Don’t worry; we’ll close off revenue streams left right and centre because I will just make sure everything can happen.” We are going to have electrified railway lines; that is a good thing. And there will be trains on them. Of course there is a tender out at the moment from the Auckland Regional Council for those trains but the Minister has cut up right in the middle of that as a member of the so-called business-friendly party that does not care about all the work that is going on there. 
There is one problem: there is no guarantee of providing stations. I am not sure of the last time that man took a train but the last time I was on a train—last week—I had to go to a station and get on a platform in order to get on the train. He must do that unless of course he is going to run after the train and jump on it at the point it comes in like some sort of superhero. He will be looking for trains into Wellington Station that have “CR” on the front of them as if they were some sort of VIP service with a Crown carriage for National Ministers who are used to things waiting for them. But of course working people cannot do that; they have to get on at a railway station. We know that right across the Auckland region National has put railway lines into jeopardy—right left and centre. My colleague the member for New Lynn the Hon David Caygill—the Hon David Cunliffe I am sorry—[ 
Interruption 
] There are so many fine Davids in this party as there are in another book. But the member for New Lynn has pointed out that in relation to the railway station in his electorate funding for an extraordinary trench already built through it for a new station is now up in the air. What does the Minister of Transport say about that? He says: “Oh well we cannot fund everything and we will get around to that. I’ll send a letter to the New Zealand Transport Agency about it because I don’t make the decisions. By the way if you”—the agency—”are still listening here are seven roads I’d like funded.” So on some things he can tell the transport agency what to do but on other things of course these decisions are well outside his scope. 
There are other railway stations too. I know that Carol Beaumont is worried about the Onehunga railway station in that area and Darien Fenton has raised questions about the Helensville railway station as well. We know that if we are going to move more people there is no point in electrifying a railway line if people cannot get on a train at a station. 
 What other options in terms of rail does this close off? Well thanks to the extraordinary work of the Rt Hon Helen Clark we are going to host the Rugby World Cup in 2011 which is a very good thing indeed. There was a prospect—I admit that it would have taken some work—that we could have achieved the use of electric trains on that railway line by 2011. But the Minister said that because it was only a chance there was no point at all in shooting for it. I remember a time when the National Party was ambitious for New Zealand—oh yes. That was during the election campaign. But the Minister regards that now as a marketing campaign that is over. It went off the air in November. He is on to 2009 now and National is more—what is the phrase—ambiguous for New Zealand rather than ambitious for New Zealand in that respect. The Minister said we are not going even to bother to try to meet that target. That means that Aucklanders who are trying to get around their city or other New Zealanders who are going to watch a game—if of course they can win a raffle and afford a ticket—will not be able to use a public transport system that could move thousands and thousands of people and tourists around our country. 
I thought that the Minister of Tourism might have had a view about that but he would rather people cycled than took trains. Actually that is another interesting aspect of this package. It is an economic miracle for this country to defy the global financial crisis to build a cycleway from Cape Reinga to Bluff. That is a miracle but there is no money for cycleways across Auckland. So if people want to come as tourists to New Zealand they can save our entire economy by cycling around as tourists but if people want to go to work and save a bit of money by going on bikes then that is ridiculous and PC nonsense and Steven Joyce has come along and cut it out of the programme. Going to work or school on a bike is another thing called a “non - State Highway class” and it is one of the things that have gone as well. But it is OK to have a national cycleway for New Zealand although as Mr Goff was able to expose during question time there are more questions than answers with regard to the cycleway. Yet when it comes to working people trying to use alternatives to road there is no such opportunity for them whatsoever. 
What are some of the other parts of the package that the Minister has in effect been able to set out to ruin? One of the local body leaders who has done a lot of work on this is the Mayor of North Shore. He has regarded the Waitemata Harbour as being a possibility for an untapped motorway for New Zealanders trying to get across the harbour in Auckland. Local bodies have gone and put a lot of work into wanting to build new wharves for ferries and into trying to encourage that mode of transport for people. But all that has gone under the plans that Steven Joyce is talking about. Every single proposal there has gone. Ferry development is another proposal that is now at the whim of the New Zealand Transport Agency apparently and there is no funding in sight or planning for where it will come from. So if people are interested only in roading if they think that roading is the only answer to every solution and if they have tunnel vision for just one form of transport in New Zealand then maybe—possibly—they might welcome what the Government announced last week unless they do not want their petrol to go up. 
There are some areas of New Zealand—the Minister is actually correct on this—where people can rely only on roading because there are no public transport facilities. The member for Ikaroa-Rawhiti the Hon Parekura Horomia pointed this out to me in one of our usually enlightening conversations. He said to me that in Tolaga Bay where he is from they already pay $1.84 a litre just to get gas. The Minister an Aucklander pays $1.59 a litre when he wants to put gas into his car so there is already a 25c difference between living in Tolaga Bay or in the regions in New Zealand and living in Auckland. And now the Minister is going to go and put another 6c on top of that so that people in Tolaga Bay will pay 31c more than what Aucklanders pay today. Where is the public transport for Tolaga Bay? Where is the extra roading for Tolaga Bay? 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: Railway stations. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Where are the railway stations? Where are the ferry wharves? Where are all the things that the people of Tolaga Bay should be entitled to? Where is that transport going to be? It is nowhere for them. They will pay 31c a litre more than what Aucklanders are paying today and Government members laugh about it. They think it is hilarious because they are not interested in rural or regional New Zealand—not one bit not at all. 
We know one thing though. We know that the Minister is very susceptible to fixing up areas where people go for holidays. If people go for holidays at these places their roading gets fixed up. So the Kopu Bridge project is going to be done because the Minister’s friends go and have holidays there. No one believes that that is due to the advocacy of the member for Coromandel. Nobody believes that Sandra Goudie’s advocacy has got the Kopu Bridge project brought forward—nobody does. We know that the Minister would have had his mates over the summer saying: “I was hanging out in the Jag and tried to get across the Kopu Bridge. You’ve got to do something about that; you’re a Minister now.” and the Minister would have said “Oh yes. I will fix that one straight away.” He has left the Waterview project in Auckland hanging. He has left the Transmission Gully scheme in Wellington hanging. He has left hanging the things that working people want to use all the time but he is bringing forward the Kopu Bridge project. So we know that holiday areas count with the Minister which is why I want to know from him when he speaks next why the people of Hahei have to pay $1.89 for their gas right now and why he will put another 6c on top of that. That is what he is going to do to the people who are living in the Coromandel. Their gas prices are all going up at a time when people are finding it tough. 
The previous Labour Government got crucified by the then National Opposition about fuel costs but those members could not wait to get on to the Treasury benches and hike up taxes for New Zealanders without actually making sure they were delivering a proper plan and that is what is wrong with this announcement. The announcement that was made last week is unfair because it hits people doubly. People living in Auckland will not be getting the joined-up transport that city needs. Nor will they have integrated ticketing. The Minister acts as though the single ticketing that people could use on a ferry train or bus is some sort of miraculous science that requires more work more effort more reviews more inquiry— 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: More bureaucrats. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: —and more bureaucrats as Dr Cullen points out. When visiting any city around the world anyone can see that one of the features of a decent public transport system is integrated ticketing which is why that was so important as part of the plan for Auckland. But that project is going as well. 
But it was not just a public transport plan that got whacked last week; it was also roading. That is why I would like to know what the leader of the ACT Party wants to say about the plan announced last week because he must be very disappointed. With Penny Webster—who is a very fine former member of Parliament from the ACT Party and who is now the Mayor of Rodney—he had negotiated for their peninsula to be included in the package with the Penlink road. The Minister had said they would call that by a new phrase: “a strategically local road”. No one knows what that means—it has no criteria—but somehow the ACT Party was pleased that it was going to be labelled in that way. Yet it was thrown out as part of the package. I know that the ACT Party had voted for that legislation last year because they could see that the plan was comprehensive. I know they do not all have to vote together any more as part of a sort of highly regulated system they have of casting party votes—lots of rules and things like that. They do not have to have five votes all the same. So I want to know from ACT which of its members actually supports what the Government did last week because the Mayor of Rodney does not support what happened. People there know they were treated unfairly. 
So we have this new Minister from Wellington coming in and knowing best and thinking that big Government has all the answers. He waltzed into Auckland last week and upset the apple cart but in doing so he slugged the people of New Zealand who will be ripped off to the extent of 6c a litre and he ripped off the people of Auckland who for once had the chance to get their transport needs sorted out. I think that that is a matter of urgent public importance the Minister ought to explain to the House.