Dunne Peter: Urgent Debates — Transport Funding—Replacement of Regional Fuel Tax with Increased Fuel Excise Duty and Road-user Charges 
Dunne Peter: Urgent Debates — Transport Funding—Replacement of Regional Fuel Tax with Increased Fuel Excise Duty and Road-user Charges 
[Volume:653;Page:1989] 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I have been campaigning for Transmission Gully here in Wellington since the early 1990s. For much of that time it has been a lonely campaign. I have to say that since 2006 considerable progress has been made. The previous speaker Annette King referred to that and I acknowledge that. 
The situation that we were in prior to the announcement last week was simply this. The geotechnical work had been completed a clear route had been designated savings had been identified in the original proposal and a certain amount of funding had been allocated. However there was as the Minister of Transport said a $600 million gap to be bridged. The argument being had within this region in Wellington was how that funding was to be made up—a regional fuel tax tolls a local authority contribution or whatever. The five local authorities—or is it six; they seem to grow like Topsy—could not agree amongst themselves. This project was in danger of foundering because of a lack of financial certainty. 
I think that the announcement last week resolved that problem because what the Government said in effect was that these seven roads of national importance would be funded nationally. Therefore the argument about how we in Wellington will bridge the $600 million gap has been resolved. Given what has already happened in terms of the design work the geotechnical work and the various projects that have been completed over the last 2 or 3 years there is now nothing to stop this road proceeding as a matter of urgency. 
 The commitments that are needed now are political. We have all the local authorities in the region bar one—the Wellington City Council—onside and it is time for the Wellington City Council to come onside. Its concern all along has been about funding but the Minister’s announcement last week effectively resolves that. So I look forward to the Mayor of Wellington getting off her high horse coming in behind this region along with all the other local authorities and supporting Transmission Gully. 
I welcome the intervention of Mr Finney from the Chamber of Commerce as reported in today’s  
Dominion Post 
. It was a wise and prudent article. I deplore the fact that the  
Dominion Post 
 which seems to feel that it has to toe the Wellington City Council line and cannot be an independent newspaper continues to give press to the deluded little group up on the Kapiti Coast the Coastal Highway Group. That group is promoting a dream that is utterly unattainable and this morning’s column demonstrates that quite clearly. 
So here we are in a situation where a necessary infrastructural project has had a huge amount of work done in terms of its design costing and a number of the consents that are required. The financial obstacle that has held it up thus far has effectively been removed by a Government acknowledgment that the Crown will stand the cost of these roads. The only decision we now need to make is about timing and getting on with the job. If last week’s announcements mean that there is more certainty in State highway funding and that the campaign I have waged since the early 1990s is now coming to an end and Transmission Gully is coming to its beginning—and its conclusion eventually—then I for one say that is good news and something we should be celebrating. As we are having an urgent debate in the House this afternoon we should be chivvying the Minister along to make sure he gets on with the job and sees this road built.