Smith Lockwood: Rodney District Council (PENLINK Toll Road) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
Smith Lockwood: Rodney District Council (PENLINK Toll Road) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:614;Page:10409] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I move  
That the Rodney District Council (PENLINK Toll Road) Empowering Bill be now read a second time 
. In considering this bill and reporting it back to the House the majority of the members on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee have recommended that the bill not be passed. I think that is most unfortunate and I want to explain why to this Parliament. 
I will briefly remind colleagues of what this bill was all about. It was simply a piece of legislation to enable the Rodney District Council to facilitate the design financing construction operation and maintenance of a road to be known as the Weiti Toll Road to be constructed across the Weiti Estuary from Whangaparaoa to meet up with State Highway 1 at a place called Redvale. The whole idea of the legislation was to deal with major congestion on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Traffic coming out of that long peninsula has to travel away from Auckland for a number of kilometres go round the end of the peninsula then travel back to Auckland through highly congested conditions. It takes at peak traffic times a long period of time to travel that distance and that is costing the people of the region huge amounts of money. It has been estimated that if this legislation had gone through and the toll road had been built then between $7.5 million and $10 million could have been saved each year. 
It is fascinating to reflect back on what happened when I introduced this legislation into Parliament. I would like to quote from the Hon Judith Tizard an Associate Minister of Transport and the Minister advising the Prime Minister on Auckland issues. Do members know what she said when I introduced this bill into Parliament? She said: “I rise to support the passage of this bill to the Local Government and Environment Committee. This bill has been the subject of a great deal of consultation. I thank the Rodney District Council for the great lengths it went to in informing Auckland members of Parliament across all parties.” She supported the comments I had made on introducing the legislation and she went on to say that she supported it. She said: “This is a project that has a great deal of local support. I have seen surveys of the Whangaparaoa community that indicate that the vast majority of residents support it.” There we have an Associate Minister of Transport the Minister advising the Prime Minister on Auckland issues saying this is good legislation yet the Government is actually stopping its passage. 
What happened? The answer is dead simple. The Greens got at it. The Greens got at the Labour Government and the Labour Government buckled. After one of the Government’s own Ministers said that this was good legislation that this toll road should be built the Greens got at it and this oh so strong Labour Government led by this oh so competent Prime Minister Helen Clark just buckled. This legislation was introduced in August 2001 and here we are at the end of 2003 and nothing has happened. The traffic out of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula still sits there in a gridlock. People cannot get in and out. Millions of dollars are lost every year and the Labour Government has done nothing. 
Labour members will say that their land transport amendment bill their generic legislation will solve all the problems and that the Penlink toll road will be able to go ahead. I invite Government members to reflect on this. This legislation was introduced in 2001 to enable the road to be built but nothing has happened and the people have suffered the ongoing congestion and gridlock for a further 2 years. But in that time the people of the region have also been advised that whereas they had expected another piece of roading in Rodney to be a free public piece of motorway—and I am referring to the sector of motorway called the Albany to Puhoi realignment B2 (ALPURT B2) from Orewa to Puhoi—that piece of motorway extending State Highway 1 north from Auckland is not going to be a free public motorway; it is also going to be a toll road. One of the most rapidly growing areas of New Zealand is being treated by this Government totally unfairly. The Government is now saying that not only will the Penlink road have to be a toll road but also ALPURT B2 will have to be a toll road if it is to be constructed in the next decade. 
I ask Government members this: if the ALPURT B2 motorway the motorway from Orewa to Puhoi which affects the same people in the same region has to be a toll road is it not reasonable for the Government to pick up the Penlink toll road deal with it and build it? It is unfair to lumber the people of Rodney with two toll roads to try to solve those traffic woes. The Rodney District Council area which is only a small area of New Zealand has massive traffic flow from the Auckland region yet the people of Rodney are being hit with two toll roads. At the moment Transit has not picked up that project. It is not in its 10-year plan. That means that if the Penlink legislation which the Labour Government is blocking today does not go ahead the Penlink toll road will not be commenced until 2013. It is not in the 10-year plan it is now 2003 so it will not be commenced until 2013. That is ridiculous. 
I want a Labour member to get to his or her feet and tell this Parliament when construction of the Penlink toll road will commence. If it is not in the current 10-year plan when will it commence? How long do the people of Rodney have to suffer before the construction of that toll road which the Government has blocked for the last 2 years can commence? The Rodney District Council has gone through all the costs. It has purchased the land; the land is sitting there. The road is ready to be built. It has called for tenders. None of it can go ahead because Labour is blocking this legislation. This Government having done that it is incumbent on it to sort out the mess. 
At present in the Auckland region only three major projects are ready for construction. Of all the roading in the Auckland region all the motorway requirements only three projects are ready for construction. They are the motorway from Orewa to Puhoi which is ALPURT B2—and at the moment the Government is saying it has to be a toll road—the Penlink road and the Greenhithe Bridge. They are the only three projects ready to be constructed right now. I want a Labour member to get to his or her feet and tell the people of Rodney and the people of Whangaparaoa what the Government is going to do about the Penlink toll road. Labour members have blocked the legislation for 2 years. The Rodney District Council has had the huge expense of getting ready for the construction of that road but it is being blocked. What is Labour going to do about it now? Are Labour members going to tell the people of Rodney that they do not give a damn and they are going to do nothing or is someone going to get to his or her feet and tell the people of Rodney that that road will be constructed starting immediately? 
That is what the people of Rodney deserve as Labour has blocked this legislation for more than 2 years. The people of Rodney deserve to hear from a Labour member tonight what the Government proposes to do about this major roading project. I think Labour owes it to the people of Rodney to put this right. Labour has stuffed it up because it has kowtowed to the Greens. It has buckled to the Greens. Labour has screwed up this roading project and it should now make clear to the people of Rodney its plan to fix it. The people of Whangaparaoa cannot get out of that peninsula because of a major traffic gridlock. 
Labour having blocked this legislation having buckled and kowtowed to the Greens owes it to the people of that region to explain clearly why the Penlink road is not in Transit’s 10-year plan and when construction of the road will commence. It is incumbent on the Government to accept that responsibility and explain to the people of the region what will happen.