4. Roading—Funding for State Highway ImprovementsJAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) to the Minister of TransportRoading—Funding for State Highway Improvements4. JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) to the Minister of Transport: Does he agree that the total funding for the State Highway Improvement activity class for the next ten years would be $13.75 billion if the midpoint level of funding proposed in the 2018/19 year continued at that level for ten years without reduction in the draft Government Policy Statement and what is the difference between that scenario and the total midpoint funding of $8.4 billion that has been proposed?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Transport): To the first part of the question I'm advised by the Ministry of Transport that the member's arithmetic is correct. The Ministry of Transport advises me that the member's suggestion would require either a substantial decrease in other activity classes or a substantial increase in fuel excise duty and road user charges. To the second part of the member's question the difference between the two scenarios is that the draft Government policy statement out for public consultation now rebalances spending towards safety and local and regional roads and adopts a smaller fuel excise duty and road-user charge increase than what was being considered by the previous Government up until the election.Jami-Lee Ross: Can he confirm that the advice he's received from the Ministry of Transport is that the reduction in State highway improvement activity class is $5.35 billion?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Yes.Jami-Lee Ross: How can he claim to be helping the regions when cutting $5 billion out of the State highways' funding will put at risk important regional roading projects across the country that he's now expecting people to pay more at the petrol pump for?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I reject the premise of the member's question that reducing State highway improvements is the same thing as taking money away from the regions. For the last nine years that Government spent 40 percent of the transport budget on a handful of State highway projects that carry 4 percent of vehicle journeys.Hon Nathan Guy: How will the reductions to State highway funding affect the construction of the Ōtaki to Levin regional expressway that was described recently as a—SPEAKER: Order! The member's finished his question.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) decides which transport projects proceed after an independent analysis of their costs and benefits. The purpose of this system is to ensure that such decisions are free from political interference—SPEAKER: Order! That's enough as well.Hon Dr Nick Smith: How will the significant reductions to State highway improvement funding affect Nelson's Southern Link highway that had a funding commitment of $135 million and other significant improvements to State Highway 6 and 60 with the region's very high population export and tourism growth?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Mr Speaker I'm happy to explain again how transport funding decisions are made if you would like me to. SPEAKER: No. If the member's not going to add anything to his previous supplementary answer no.Lawrence Yule: How will the significant reductions in the State highway improvement funding affect the four-laning of the Hawke's Bay Expressway that will support the expansion—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member's finished his question.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I encourage the member to listen more closely to my previous answers.Matt King: How will significant reductions to the State highway improvement funding affect the construction of the new Pūhoi to Whangarei regional road that has been identified in the Northland economic action plan as the single biggest driver of growth in the region?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I recommend that the member listen more closely to my answers.Jami-Lee Ross: Why isn't he willing to make any commitments to supporting the regional roads that he's just been asked about but when it came to the East-West Link he was happy to exercise the political interference that he now complains about?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Our Government's committed to spending more money on roads in the regions. We're going to spend money on road safety. The choice that the public have today is between a Government that will spend money on passing lanes on median strips on side barriers and on upgraded intersections or a Government of the past that ploughed 40 percent of the entire transport budget into a handful of expressway projects—gold-plated expressways that carried only 4 percent of vehicle journeys.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is it a fact that the East-West Link costing which is influencing this Government was $100000 per metre?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Yes it was. The East-West Link solution that was proposed by the former Government would have been the most expensive road project in the world at $327 million per kilometre.Jami-Lee Ross: Why did he exercise political interference over decisions around the East-West Link?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: When we took Government we informed the New Zealand Transport Agency that we expect to see value for money in road projects. The effect of that instruction was that NZTA decided to pull the plug on the gold-plated wasteful intervention on the East-West Link that that National Party Government was proposing to do.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just noticed that you were being quite tight on the questions—and fair enough. I hope you're going to be equally tight and I saw the same evidence with the answers. But in this case we had answers to this question—I'll just ask you to review it later—where the Minister said Well it's nothing to do with me. It's an outside body that's independent." but then has gone on to answer a number of questions explaining how much it was to do with him. I think some consistency from Ministers would be helpful.SPEAKER: Sure.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Even though it's a difficult one for him to answer.SPEAKER: I think the member would have noticed that when the House was relatively quiet and there weren't a lot of interjections for the Minister to respond to and he went on too long I stopped him. When he was invited to go on by multiple interjections from my left I left him to respond to them."