O'Rourke Denis: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionO'Rourke Denis: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 29 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2977. Text is subject to correction.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First):The dust has not yet settled on the Canterbury earthquakes recovery process and there is a long way to go as far as infrastructure and homes are concerned. What is needed now is a shake-up but a shake-up of the political kind not of course of the physical kind—we have had enough of those. Some of the fixes are obvious and one of those is to fix the position concerning the Quake Outcasts group. Those people were inexplicably offered 50 percent of the 2007 valuation of their bare land or self-insured homes. They have spent years going through the courts and appeals and they have won every one of them. The Supreme Court has finally confirmed that the insurance status of those properties cannot be taken into account by the Government in deciding on an offer. They must surely now get the same 100 percent of the 2007 value that other red zone homeowners got but the Government wants to delay the situation even more with a consultation process that is utterly futile and meaningless. The Minister now needs to accept that Government policy on this was wrong and give full compensation immediately without any further delay.The Government should also direct the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority to take another look at the priorities for the rebuild generally. For example spending hundreds of millions of dollars on showpiece projects when the Christchurch City Council cannot meet the massive costs of its infrastructure repair programme needs review right now. Otherwise huge rate increases can be expected by Christchurch City ratepayers and the council will be forced to sell strategic assets that provide an excellent return for the council and that the people in Christchurch do not want to be sold. The council would also have to borrow—borrow too close to potential limits. So that whole area needs a good review. When Lancaster Park is repairable at a fraction of the cost of a new stadium that sports stadium is a prime example of why such a review is needed. The need is for spending on the basic infrastructure especially in the east of the city and elsewhere. That is the top priority. So much still needs to be done there and it is taking far far too long.The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority - led rebuild of the central business district has also stalled. We see some new buildings going up but they tend to go up outside the central business district zone so that they can avoid having to deal with the authority’s bureaucracy and some of the silly decisions it has made too. Those plans and processes need serious review as well. Some of the silliest proposals need urgent reversal such as the plan to destroy Victoria Square which is not broken and which people want retained as it is.I turn to transport infrastructure. This Government and its agencies seem determined to run down the country’s railway system instead of doing what it should do to invest much more in it. Just a few minutes ago the Minister Simon Bridges talked about how much was being invested but actually that is a tiny fraction of the amount that needs to be invested over the next decade or so in New Zealand. The roading system of course does also need continuing investment but there is a need for a strategy to better integrate transport systems to make better use of the railways in particular. We know that there are plans to de-electrify parts of the North Island electric rail system in favour of inefficient imported diesel locomotives. That is utterly ridiculous. When we have already got an efficient electrified system we could make electric locomotives in New Zealand and yet what are we doing? We are going entirely in the wrong direction under this Government. Within 10 years the amount of freight that must be moved around New Zealand is going to at least double—just think about that for a moment.What we really need is a strategic funding model with more emphasis on long-term strategic planning and the integration of transport systems—all of the transport systems not just Auckland motorways. There are many rail routes needing improvement so that they can compete effectively for freight such as for example Auckland Whangarei Ōpua Wellington and Gisborne. Northland also needs a good rail connection to Whangarei’s deep water harbour. That is a harbour that does not require dredging and where there is plenty of land for expansion unlike Auckland which has problems that are virtually insurmountable in the long term. I see today in the newspapers that half of Aucklanders do not want to see the port in Auckland expanded. So let us look at the port at Whangarei and let us get a good railway system between Whangarei and the rest of the country. That is something that needs to be looked at with great urgency.There needs to be a rolling electrification programme for railways throughout New Zealand. That is necessary not just because of the increasing cost of fossil fuels and the fact that we need to do that for climate change and emissions purposes but also because actually it is the most effective and efficient system of moving heavy freight within the country and New Zealand is made for it. A long narrow country should be ideal for an efficient railway system. For example we could start with electrification from Papakura to Pukekohe and also extend electrification north from Waikanae and from Upper Hutt to Masterton amongst a lot of other very good opportunities that there are.There is so much that we should be doing in transport that we did not hear from the Minister in his recent speeches that really it is a huge disappointment. Railways in particular need much more attention but so do the Cook Strait ferries for example. There is not enough investment in them. So we do need a more strategic approach and that is what New Zealand First wants to see. We do also need to see much more progress and much more intelligent progress in the infrastructure in Christchurch as a result of those earthquakes. New Zealand First wants to see the Government take a more considered and strategic approach and to actually get things done and it is not doing that so far.