Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora  Mr Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise on behalf of the Green Party and I'm proud to support the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga Bill. You know infrastructure is the foundation of a prosperous country. It affects everything in our society. The choices we make in this House or in the Beehive affect the decisions that Kiwis can make in the real world. It affects the type of schools or hospitals that their kids or family members go to how expensive their electricity is whether their children can safely cycle to school or whether there is a fast train to take instead of avoiding congested streets or whether your water infrastructure is a hundred years old and creaking and leaking. The decisions we make affect the decisions people can make and that's why making sure that the foundation is strong is joined up is coordinated and takes a long-term approach is really important. That's exactly what this legislation is doing tonight and I'm proud to be supporting it at the third reading. Now I've heard different members criticise the Green Party for taking an anti-road approach. I want to set the record straight because what the Green Party stands for is a balanced transport system. What we saw under the previous Government was billions borrowed on just seven roads of National Party significance" which had many of the negative benefit-cost ratios which meant that the National Party was quite happy to put it on the national credit card and actually lose the country money. Every dollar spent was actually returning negative. It was costing the country money. It was absolutely foolish and it was simply because of ideology. Now what the Green Party has never said is we're against all roads. What we want to see is a balanced transport network. There are some roads we need to invest in particularly when it comes to road safety because instead of spending on these uneconomic mega-projects we could have actually saved lives faster by investing in road safety. So what we want to see is balanced transport spending and safe transport infrastructure and I'm not going to have a bar of these ideological arguments we're seeing from the National Party. What this legislation does is establish the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission. It's going be an autonomous Crown entity. The new body is going to be tasked with coordinating developing and promoting infrastructure strategies to improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders. Now here's a crucial word—"wellbeing"—and this is a word that people are hearing on the world stage. I'm incredibly proud to see my Prime Minister on the world stage talking about this concept because wellbeing is critical. For too long you know the wellbeing of the corporate mates of the National Party has been the main interest of previous Governments. What we need to have is the wellbeing of New Zealanders and this legislation enshrines it. I guess there are three main roles I want to pick up on. The first is advisory because it's going to do the 10-year capital infrastructure plan and then the 30-year strategy which is going to be refreshed every five years. For too long we've treated infrastructure as a short-term problem. I note Professor Jonathan Boston recently published a report criticising the three-year parliamentary term and the perverse impact that's actually had on short-term decision-making in New Zealand. I see this as a small step in the direction of encouraging long-term decisions. We're a small country. You know we're a country of only what 4.7 million according to the latest census. We aren't the richest country in the world. We can't afford to waste our resources. We can't afford to waste it with duplication with not integrating these projects together. We need to think smarter as a small country particularly in troubling economic times so that we use every dollar valuably so that we get as much out of it and actually so that we do get those outcomes for New Zealanders and our environment for wellbeing. So that's really important—getting this helicopter view over the infrastructure spend. Look the Government's going to be spending $42 billion over the next five years on capital spend for infrastructure. It's important we get it right and having this coordinated long-term strategic function of the commission is particularly valuable. The second role is around supporting those infrastructure projects. Now it comes to the best practice. It's going to advise on issues such as procurement. The third area is as the previous member mentioned the ability for the Minister to request a report being given. Now the Rt Hon David Carter was trying to infer that this is somehow political interference. I think this is simply smart pragmatic governance. It makes sense for your Minister for Infrastructure to be able to request a report on a specific area. Again we're a small country at the bottom of the world. We can't afford to wait for things to just appear out of the air. Actually if there are emerging technologies or changing global patterns—Kiwis are demanding different types of getting around our cities for example—it makes sense that the Minister can proactively instruct and get a report drafted. We want to make sure that our decision makers have the best advice at their fingertips and I guess this is an important point to reiterate. This is simply an advisory commission. It's still going to be the Government and the Ministers of the day making the actual decisions. You're still going to see that accountability. But it's important they do get the best access to information and this is where I'd like to acknowledge the select committee. I didn't have the privilege to serve on it but I understand the major change in the select committee phase was giving the commission the powers to get information from local government. Now given that local government is responsible for waste water and for much of our transport spend—huge infrastructure capital spend projections—it's important that the Infrastructure Commission is able to get information from local government. There's provisions to make sure it's not overly onerous and that commercial sensitivity is still protected consistent with the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. I really want to acknowledge the Finance and Expenditure Committee. They've improved the legislation and that's I think what the ambition of all select committees should be no matter what party you're in. So I'd like to thank those members and everyone who submitted. One clause in particular I'd really like to highlight in this third reading is clause 11 which relates to "Infrastructure needs and priorities for infrastructure". Now I've already talked about clause 11(a) which deals with the wellbeing of New Zealanders but I really want to stress clause 11(b)(iii) and I'll read it because it's only a short sentence: "matters relating to the mitigation of the effects of climate change (including through reducing emissions of greenhouse gases) and adapting to the effects of climate change;"—critically important. Right now world leaders are meeting at United Nations. We've seen Greta Thunberg's very emotional very powerful challenge to politicians that future generations are watching us and that the world's eyes are actually asking for action and not just words on the world stage when it comes to climate change. Here's yet another example where this Government is acting on our generation's nuclear-free moment. It's not just words of course. You got the zero carbon bill the 100 percent renewables target the courageous and right decision to transition away from polluting fossil fuels the doubling in spending for public transport the 100 percent increase in walking and cycling funding—I could rattle off an even longer list of actions where it comes to climate change—and here is yet another one in the legislation this Government is passing setting the 10- and 30-year infrastructure strategic overviews. Climate change is front and centre of this legislation and it's important right? Because that $42 billion save that the Government is going be spending over the next five years if we located it all next to the coast—sea-level rise is locked in. It's already baked in. The question for us is: how much are we prepared to see emissions increase to lose how much of our coastal regions not only in New Zealand but around the world? So it makes sense to make sure that where our infrastructure is located takes into account climate change. Sea-level rise is an important part of adapting to a climate-changing world. I'm really glad to see this in the legislation. But I think critically important is also the sentence regarding "(including through reducing emissions of greenhouse gases)" because I'd like to acknowledge the National Party. In the time of the great financial crisis they did actually increase spending in infrastructure. Look the ultra-fast broadband and Rural Broadband Initiative tranche one was a success story particularly compared to Australia. In times of economic crisis it's good to spend money on infrastructure but the problem was it wasn't all good infrastructure. They actually ploughed $237 million—I've got the figure exactly in my head—on fossil fuel subsidies. They were investing in last century's infrastructure for the infrastructure actually risking our planetary survival and risking our coastal regions. So it's important that we don't invest in infrastructure that's simply going to make climate change worse. It's actually not going to produce the economic returns we want it's not going to produce the society we want and it's definitely not contributing to the wellbeing of New Zealand or future generations. So when it comes to say electricity infrastructure we shouldn't be investing in new power stations based on fracked gas which we actually know the leaked emissions put it more on par with coal. We should be investing in modern smart infrastructure for the clean-energy economy and of course this is where the majority of international capital is going: investing in clean energy not fossil fuels. This is where I think the commission's going to provide such a leadership role because for the billions of investment we already have in our electricity grid we can actually deliver cheaper cleaner smarter energy for Kiwis. Actually tonight I'm hosting an event with the Green Building Council as they launch their sustainable road map. The panel topic is on peak electricity and by tackling peak we can actually save money for Kiwi consumers. We can actually reduce carbon emissions. But most importantly we can do it smart because in this small country of ours we should be investing massively in the infrastructure we need for a sustainable prosperous economy whilst not forgetting natural infrastructure as well. Kia ora koutou."