Genter Julie AnneJULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): I am feeling very ambitious. I am feeling very ambitious and excited about the future that we have—Hon Member: And inaudible.Mr SPEAKER: I will invite the member to start it again. By that stage we hope her mike is on.JULIE ANNE GENTER: I am feeling very ambitious for New Zealand and what we can achieve. I am extremely excited. We announced a project that is truly visionary today: getting airport rail finished by 2021 in time for Auckland to host the America's Cup and APEC. And that is something that is entirely technically achievable yet it will require an unprecedented level of cooperation between local and central government.Now Aucklanders have been waiting for decades. They have been waiting for decades for a decent public transport network. Ten years ago when I was working as a transport consultant in Auckland we were campaigning to get electrification of the rail line. And we won that thanks to the Green Party in large part under the last Labour Government. And since electrification has finally been rolled out we have seen unprecedented levels of people using trains in Auckland and they want more. They can see that it works. They can see that it is the only way to deal with record population growth record arrivals of visitors. Every city of its size in the world has a decent public transport network. And I as a young transport planner wanted to help make that happen.But we have had a decade of a Government under this National Government that has delayed progress on rail in Auckland. It dragged its heels on electrification. That should have happened by 2012 but it delayed it by well over 2 years and in the end we did not get it finished until 2015.When I came to Parliament in 2011 I was coming down and questioning the Minister of Transport about the City Rail Link saying that this has to be a big priority for Auckland. Finally after 6 years the National Government relented and realised that yes people want trains because it is the only way to fix our transport problems. So it is finally going ahead but we should not have to wait another 6 years. Things are at a breaking point.Between the transport crisis and the housing crisis Aucklanders have suffered for too long and frankly rail to Auckland Airport is a project of national significance. It is our largest city. It is where arrivals to New Zealand generally touch down and their first experience more often than not is an unreliable bus service or a traffic jam somewhere on the way to the airport.When I questioned the Minister about this state it was great that he did not deny outright the possibility of completing airport rail by 2021 but he had some odd answers like the Waterview Connection being open—suddenly it is going to take 20 minutes less to get to the airport so we do not need a train. I am not sure whether the Minister has been to Auckland Airport recently but the best the Waterview Connection could do is to help people get to the queues on the road heading into the airport 20 minutes faster and that is if it is completely off-peak and no one else is using the roads. It has been too long that we have had to have this debate. I mean people across the political spectrum in Auckland—and around the country I think—agree that it is time for forward thinking.We want to catch up with other cities in the world. We have had to wait too long and the Green Party is going to deliver it. We are delivering the vision and the ambition that Aucklanders have been waiting for and that New Zealanders have been waiting for because there is a whole host of practical solutions to some of the challenges we are facing. Whether it is transport whether it is the climate whether it is cleaning up our rivers or whether it is reducing inequality all of these are very worthy and ambitious goals and this National Government has proven in the last 8½ years that it will not even attempt to solve any of these problems unless it is dragged kicking and screaming.Well I think New Zealanders have had enough. I think they are ready for a change and I think they are ready for a fundamental change in direction rather than just flailing around with increasing pollution increasing congestion increasing house prices and increasing homelessness. That is not the New Zealand that most Kiwis identify with. Whether they were born here or whether they have emigrated here as I have they know that we can all work together to create the New Zealand that we want. That is a place where we have reducing pollution where no one—no one—is homeless where no child is growing up in poverty and where we have an integrated transport system that gives people real choices where they have the option to hop on a train or to let their kids walk and cycle safely to school. All of this is achievable but only if we change the Government.