SpeechGARETH HUGHES (Green): Mr Speaker kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. In the midst of the worst economic shock and health crisis in nearly 100 years in a country with a horrendous road toll a country who's been steadily declining down the economic rankings for decades a country with some of the most car-dependent citizens on the entire planet at a time when we see skyrocketing emissions from the transport sector since 1990 this country cannot afford the idiocy the siloed thinking and the waste of that party.Now I've come down at the last minute to speak on behalf of my colleagues and I've been listening to the debate and I want to steer some points of fact some points of rationality into this debate because what I'm hearing is just the siloed thinking that we need to keep rail over in a corner constantly going to the Government cap in hand yet fund the rest of the transport system entirely separately—this does not happen in other countries. This is incredibly rare and unique. Other countries modern countries sensible countries rational countries don't fund transport like this. They don't put rail in a corner and make it beg to the Government with a begging bowl. They have a transport funding system. What this legislation does is allow rail which is a critical transport network to be funded from the National Land Transport Fund. I can't believe that National is opposed to funding rail with the other transport networks in the National Land Transport Fund. It is simply ridiculous it's siloed thinking it's wasteful and this country can't afford it.Now I want to respond to some of the points—some of the I think inaccurate arguments that have been raised in this debate. Now what we heard was the last member Matt King talked about robbing Peter to pay Paul. Look at the history. Rail has been robbed for decades and decades in this country. Rail has been underfunded. I remember my home rail line in the East Coast between Gisborne and Napier. For want of $2 million in rail maintenance we lost an entire network—a network which cost 13 men's lives a network which was the backbone of the transport infrastructure for this region. For want of $2 million that rail network fell over because we didn't have enough money for the maintenance under that Government. It would have cost—if we could get it up and running—tens of millions of dollars to get it up and running because it was underfunded.Now people say that network was uneconomic. You know what? When I talk to local business owners in Gisborne they said they wanted to use that rail line they had stock they wanted to put on those carriages but you know what was lacking? The carriages. There were not enough wagons and carriages to put the freight and stock on it to move it. It was deliberately systematically underfunded de-invested and I would actually say sabotaged by that side who has an anti-rail ideology; they would rather put on a pedestal their mates in the Road Transport Forum New Zealand and their profits over an integrated smart transport network.And I'm angry about this because we know we've got an incredibly high road toll in New Zealand. I've had whānau that have been killed because of truck accidents on our road and what we see is too many trucks on our road that could be more safely carried on rail more efficiently carried on rail more sustainably carried on rail. This is good legislation because it's simply putting them on a level playing field with the roads with the trucks and the motorways through an integrated land transport network.Now I read the National Party minority view when I came down to the House on this legislation. They said we need to be realistic about rail. If we're going to be realistic about it let's be realistic about the history: the history of privatisation under-investment defunding and making the rail network come to the Government asking for specific pots of money. We heard from Mr Bishop that rail was uneconomic—only uneconomic under their old-fashioned paradigm. I mean it's like these guys have been in a time machine to the 1950s and then in that time machine in a cave they're still putting their hands over their eyes and fingers in their ears. It's not normal what we do in New Zealand. If you look anywhere around the world you see Governments investing in rail you see countries using rail you see citizens and freight being moved on rail. Rail isn't uneconomic; it's only their old-fashioned paradigm.Now this must be a party that's never heard of economic externalities. Rail is the poor cousin of our road network because we don't count the costs. We don't count those negative economic externalities. We don't measure the impact of the pollution with having such a truck- and car-dependent society. I heard another member say that it was bad for truckies. Now who in Gisborne was one of the most passionate advocates for reopening the rail network? Well it was a truck company: Weatherell trying to get a logistics and freight forwarding centre because smart truck owners know the less cars the less trucks you have on the road the less congestion there is to actually move the freight which has to be on the road. Now if we had a fair economic system—and we're doing that with this legislation which is giving a fair level playing field for transport funding—you are going to see economically rational decisions being made but it hasn't been an economically rational level playing field to date.Now while we're talking about the economics of our transport network I will not be lectured by that party: the party that literally borrowed billions for their roads of National Party significance with such dire dire benefit-cost ratios. I remember the Pūhoi to Wellsford: the first independent benefit-cost ratio that was estimated for that. Guess what it was! 0.3. You know what that means? For every dollar the Government was borrowing to fund it we were losing 70c on the original independent estimate. Now I acknowledge it did increase somewhat marginally in later estimates but my God I'm not going to be lectured on economics by that party with such a terrible terrible track record. Look what's happening with Transmission Gully and the mess that they've left us with the public-private partnership when it comes to that. I will not be lectured on transport and rational economic decisions by that party.So I'm proud to be part of a Government which is supporting smart integrated connected transport policies that is significantly investing in rail. We're spending record amounts on new ferries in the latest Budget—a Government that's actually reopening rail lines. Now for our communities—and National often says they like to talk for provincial communities but they are so out of touch with New Zealanders who know the heritage of rail who treat it as a taonga and know how important it is. This Government is investing a huge amount in rail; it's investing in the future. That party's stuck in the past.