King Annette: General Debate 
King Annette: General Debate 
[Volume:654;Page:2931] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 I suggest that people who are listening to this debate today should get hold of the weekly media diary for Ministers if they want to know what Gerry Brownlee is up to. It will not take long to read; there is not much to read. In fact if we read the diary we will find a big empty gap beside Gerry’s name. That is because he is up to only page 10 of his briefing papers but when he gets through them all he does intend to appear in public somewhere. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That is a very nasty thing to say. The member knows full well that I am only up to page 10 because my crayons have run out. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: What an honest man! All I can say to Mr Brownlee is that I hope that when he is thrown out of Government in 2 years and 7 months’ time he will have made it to page 20. 
The balloon has gone up the starter gun has gone off and the candidates for the Mt Albert by-election have been selected so let the race begin. Now is the time for political parties to set out their policies for the by-election. It is now time to stop the shilly-shallying around the issues that the people of Mt Albert want to hear about. Now is the time for the candidates to tell the local people what policies they can expect from the parties and what they can expect from the candidate who gets to represent that very good electorate. We know that the people of Mt Albert want a local representative who will be a strong voice for them in Parliament and a strong voice locally. They want a person with integrity and experience a representative who is committed to their area and who undertakes to serve them in the long term. They do not want a fly-by-nighter who is in Wellington today Auckland tomorrow and Christchurch the next day. 
Mt Albert people want to have a clear look at the issues that concern them and the No. 1 issue for them has to be the Waterview Connection—the completion of State Highway 20 or the western ring route. That is the No. 1 issue for those people; they have waited a long time to see the completion of that route. When Labour became the Government in 1999 not one part of the western ring route had been started. There is now only one part left to complete that route and people want it completed. 
But it is not just about completing that route it is about how the route is completed. When we were in Government we undertook consultation with the people of Auckland on how we should finish the Waterview Connection. They said to us strongly that they wanted a deep tunnel to go under the Waterview Connection so that we did not disturb the people who lived in that area or the environment of that area and so that we provided a good route through that area. But what did the National Government say when the people of Auckland said that that was what they wanted? The Government said it was just Helen Clark’s tunnel. Government members made fun of it and they ridiculed the people of Mt Albert. But the truth is that it is not Helen Clark’s tunnel; it will be the tunnel for the people who live in Auckland. They know why they want that route completed and why they want it done in that way. 
They know it will reduce congestion on the road. They know the route carries more than 90000 vehicles a day and that those vehicles need to move smoothly and swiftly through the area. They know that the route will reduce congestion on local roads. It will reduce overall congestion improve opportunities for passenger transport in the area and be a good solution. It is time that parties in this House that have candidates standing in the Mt Albert seat— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Front up! 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: —front up to what they will do in terms of the Waterview Connection. What have we heard from the National Government? The Government will not tell the truth about what it is going to do with the Waterview Connection. I predict that it will not announce its decision before the by-election. It will procrastinate and make excuses. It will talk about reviews and the need for more information and more reviews but it will not tell the people of Mt Albert that it will commit to a deep tunnel. 
As for the ACT Party it is not too worried about a deep tunnel. ACT members say that we should bowl 500 houses. It says that we should not worry about the environment or the people of Mt Albert just as long as the project does not cost much. It is all about cost for the ACT Party. And the Green Party says we should not have a road at all.