Hughes Darren: Third Readings — 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hughes Darren: Third Readings — 
[Sitting date: 03 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:12945. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Labour) 
: 
 The speech made by the member who has just resumed his seat the Hon Bill English was full of passion and vigour. It was an exciting speech from the man in charge of managing New Zealand’s economy. Bill English is a man who is determined to see a step change in the New Zealand economy so he delivered that speech with a real rigour and vigour that I am sure had people absolutely on the edge of their seats as they listened to this Government talk about the importance it places on infrastructure. 
I want to pick up on what the Minister for Infrastructure said in that the Labour Opposition will be supporting the third readings of the Utilities Access Bill the Infrastructure (Amendments Relating to Utilities Access) Bill and the New Zealand Railways Corporation Amendment Bill. But we will be opposing the third reading of the Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Act Repeal Bill. We certainly give notice of that. We are in opposition to that fourth bill and we would like the division to be put separately so that we can give our support to the Government on the first three bills but vote against the fourth bill at the appropriate time when the question is put. 
This Government is a Government without a plan. We see the lack of commitment to actually doing things as compared with the slogans the rhetoric and the great uplifting speeches that took place before the election—before the more difficult work of running a country once the rubber hits the road. We were told that infrastructure was so critical to the future of the country—and Labour agrees with that—that National would have a real focus on it. That is why it is enormously surprising to me that 22 months after the last general election we finally have tonight the third readings of these infrastructure bills. 
Infrastructure was to be such a critical part of the Government’s step change for its economic programme. What did the Government make the Governor-General say in the Speech from the Throne? Oh yes—that it was going to “turbocharge” the New Zealand economy. That was before the eager new backbenchers found out that there was no plan to do that. There was only ever one plan. The one plan was to make John Key the Prime Minister. That involved saying anything. It involved saying things like: “We will close the wage gap with Australia.” and “We will have no cuts to front-line services.”—things that we see every day are not happening in New Zealand! 
Moana Mackey 
: “We won’t increase GST.” 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Oh yes: “We won’t increase GST.” None of those things were going to take place in our country and apparently no one had anything to fear from the nice Mr Key as he in the words of the Minister for Infrastructure bounced from cloud to cloud. Apparently we had nothing to fear from a National Government but it turns out there is no plan. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the fact that the Infrastructure Bill languished right through the term of this Parliament. 
Hon Sir Roger Douglas 
: What about your plan? 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: I am coming to that. I tell that member to stay tuned. He can send a text message to his nurse and tell his nurse not to come and collect him straight away. If he stays for a few minutes longer he will be able to hear what Labour’s plan is. I see that the mobile van is ready to take him back to the Malvina Major Retirement Village here in Wellington and we wish the honourable member well for the night as he goes off for his cocoa. 
I simply say that 22 months after the general election we see Mr English that great workhorse the man who thinks he is the Bill Birch of this National Government. I compare his ambitions for New Zealand today with what they were 20 years ago when he came to this place when he assumed that the Prime Ministership was his for the taking—hence the bitter speech in the third readings after question time today. It was a very incisive and revealing speech about what drives Mr English. Whenever he is asked to speak about the Government and about politics the things that come to his mind first and foremost were revealed in that particular speech. I enjoy his speeches because they are an open window into his heart on these matters. 
So 22 months after the election we get the third readings of these bills. It is a year since the first reading of the original bill—the Infrastructure Bill. The Government said that infrastructure was very important and that this legislation was necessary. In fact Mr English congratulated himself at the end of the speech he just gave by saying that National is not like the previous Government. It does not believe that legislation is the answer and he said it would run a tight ship on this: the bills it brought in would be absolutely necessary. 
We could be generous and accept National’s narrative on this but I certainly do not because even on that measure Mr English has failed with this legislation as he has taken so long to do it. I think that delay has been a re-emphasis of the fact that although National said it would deliver a brighter future for New Zealand and be ambitious for New Zealand the truth is that when the rubber hits the road this Government does not a plan to turn any of the rhetoric or slogans into daily reality in the lives of ordinary Kiwis in our country. 
There is no connection between the operationalising of Government policy and the soaring—well not really soaring because I realise that for the Prime Minister sometimes English seems like a second language. The slogans that have been tested so thoroughly by Cosby/Textor are not always the ones that turn up on the floor of the House as policy. 
I can trust the record of the previous Government. It did make a serious commitment to infrastructure. I know that this Government pays itself a huge amount of credit for its roading budget but it needs to recall 1999 when National left office. Does Mr Bennett know how much National was spending every year on the State highway programme? 
David Bennett 
: You didn’t actually spend it though did you? 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: I am talking about the 1999 Government—it was a National Government. I am sorry to shock the member but in our country in 1999 National led the Government. I am asking that member as a member of that party—although not of the Government at the time—what the annual expenditure on State highways was. 
David Bennett 
: I’ll tell you next up. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: He has no idea. That is all right. Every now and then I have hope that David Bennett will live up to the great promise he has in himself but I will wait until next year. I will try again next year. 
The former National Government spent $850 million a year on roading in 1999. By the time Labour left Government that figure had more than doubled to $1.9 billion a year. There was a massive increase in road spending from 1999 when David Carter first left the ministry exhausted after 12 months as the “Associate Minister of Food Fibre Biosecurity and Border Patrol” or whatever the Jenny Shipley PC portfolio name was. How embarrassing it would be to have that on one’s business card! But he did. Then he had 9 years’ sabbatical. What we see from David Carter now is the rested refreshed re-energised uplifted version. Imagine if he had not had those 9 years in Opposition to relax before the work effort that he puts in today! 
We saw a doubling of the road budget during the years of the previous Labour Government. We were very much committed to that. The truth is that New Zealand’s infrastructure was about to fall over back in those days. Auckland was totally gridlocked. I see Steven Joyce who has great tickets on himself get up in Parliament all the time and pay tribute to the National Government for some road opening 6 months ahead of time or something or other as if it is some miracle. 
Moana Mackey 
: For the fourth time. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Often we get the Kopu Bridge announced for the fifth or sixth time. Actually the length of paper associated with the press releases almost covers the entire bridge by now. The reality is that these are projects that were started by the previous Labour Government. That is a good thing because I tell members— 
Hon David Carter 
: Yeah right! 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: He says “Yeah right!”. I ask him when Victoria Park was started. 
Hon David Carter 
: Dunno. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: He does not know. 
Hon David Carter 
: What about the southern motorway? 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Oh the southern motorway. I am very happy to talk about the southern motorway. 
Hon David Carter 
: You put it off for 10 years. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: No the southern motorway is a great example of the fact that Labour had those roads in order and ready to go. 
Hon David Carter 
: Oh yeah! 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: Out of the seven roads of national significance that National members say they are so proud of six of them were Labour projects. The only one that was not a Labour project was the Puhoi to Wellsford “Holiday Highway” where they are having to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars looking after— 
Hon David Carter 
: All talk. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: I ask David Carter this: how many roads were opened in the early part of the previous Labour Government’s term where all the credit belonged to National? Zero none zip zilch not a single road—not one. 
I know that new National members are critical of Maurice Williamson. They ask what he really does. Maurice Williamson is hyperactive today compared with when he was the Minister of Transport in the 1990s. Nothing ever happened when Maurice Williamson was the Minister of Transport. 
Our criticisms relate to the Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Act Repeal Bill and Moana Mackey will go over that in great detail. I will close by saying that the big disappointment for Labour in this legislation is rail. This Government could not be any less committed to rail. We see many different examples of its lack of commitment to rail where it has really gone as my colleague the Hon David W Parker would say off the tracks. That was almost a David Letterman line which John Key could use during question time. I guess we will have to wait until he gets back from Vanuatu for that. 
In terms of rail this Government has limited vision. All around the world as countries confront moving passengers in metropolitan centres and moving freight across country they are using more and more rail. This Government is not committed to doing that. The next speaker will be David Bennett who when in Opposition was in favour of a passenger service from Hamilton to Auckland. Now that he is in Government he has 101 reasons why it should not happen. Let me give him a little hint: it ain’t going to take him to the Cabinet so he may as well stick up for his constituents and make sure that the promise he gave for rail happens. This legislation does not do enough for rail. It was 22 months in the making and it really is time that National got on with a plan.