Locke Keith: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Locke Keith: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:9698] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the Green Party to support Part 3 which provides objectives and functions for Transfund and Transit. The objective for instance that Transfund allocate resources to achieve an integrated and a safe responsive and sustainable land transport system is very laudable. Clause 70(2) outlines some of the aspects of creating such a system which dovetails into the objectives in the land transport strategy. For instance in that clause Transit and Transfund have to minimise any adverse effects on the environment. 
I want to give as an example the eastern highway in Auckland because I think that if one applied the objectives set out in that clause and dovetailed them into the objectives in the land transport strategy one could not go ahead with that eastern highway. Clause 70(2)(c) states that there has to be a full consideration of land transport options before any project is entered into. If one fully considers what should be done about that corridor from the east of Auckland in through Remuera and into the city then one would not go for an eastern highway. Instead one would go for upgrading the railway because that option would reduce the impact on the environment and provide many other benefits. 
For example one of the objectives in the land transport strategy is assisting economic development. We know that to push a highway into central Auckland will just clog up central Auckland by putting more cars into that area. It will encourage more people out in Howick Panmure and places like that to hop into their cars to come into town. It will have a worsening effect on Auckland’s economy and cause more gridlock. Also encouraging more people to get into their cars and use petrol will subtract from the resources available for the Auckland economy because there is a huge burden on the Auckland economy from the overuse of cars and the petrol costs and maintenance costs involved. Adding an extra highway will actually make that burden worse for the Auckland economy whereas a railway would allow people to go from the eastern area much more smoothly and efficiently in economic terms. 
Another objective in the land transport strategy is assisting personal security and safety. We know that building another motorway—the eastern highway—will only put more cars on the road with more accidents. Travelling by rail is clearly much safer than travelling by road so a railway would fit that objective if Transfund were to consider the range of land transport options for that particular corridor. 
The third objective in the land transport strategy is to take into account access and mobility. There are a lot of elderly people children and beneficiaries who either cannot drive cars or do not have the money to run a car long distances. Under this legislation they would be better served by a railway that went through that eastern corridor rather than by a motorway. 
The fourth objective is to protect and promote public health. It is much healthier to have more trains running. Particularly if the rail system was electrified it would not put the same degree of fumes into the air as motor vehicles do. Fumes from transport are killing 300 or 400 people in Auckland each year and are reducing the health status of us all. Also it is much less stressful for a person to hop on a train in Panmure and go in by rail than to hop into a motorcar with the stress of going along a clogged roadway—either the highway itself or once one gets to Auckland if the new highway is built along streets with traffic jams everywhere. 
The fifth objective in the land transport strategy is to ensure environmental sustainability. If one looks at that eastern highway one sees it will have a number of detrimental effects in that respect. One of those is in terms of the green space that such a highway will destroy. If one looks at any of the options that have been proposed for the eastern highway one sees they all go through parks and green space and have a detrimental effect on the environment.