6. Question No. 6—TransportJAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 6—Transport6. JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) to the Minister of Transport: Did the New Zealand Transport Agency commence a process of procurement for the Tauranga Northern Link project; if so what decisions if any have been taken to halt suspend or modify that procurement process since 26 October 2017?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Transport): The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) had asked for registrations of interest to build the Tauranga Northern Link but no contracts had been entered into. In answer to the second part of the question when the Government came into office NZTA advised us that an 8.2c a litre excise increase would be needed to pay for the existing unfunded promises made by the former Government let alone the $10 billion of expressways that National had campaigned on. This was not sustainable especially as increased investment in safety regional roads and public transport is so badly needed. So the Transport Agency has decided to re-evaluate future expressway projects including the Tauranga Northern Link to ensure that they deliver value for money. At the same time we have invested $4.3 billion in safety and boosted regional road funding by $600 million.Jami-Lee Ross: Why did he make the funding decision to reduce the State highway improvement budget which has resulted in this project being shelved—a project that would have saved lives on a stretch of road that has seen 86 serious and death crashes in the recent past years?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well I reject the member's assertion that I made that decision but let me say this: I agree with the people of Tauranga that we need to fix the bloody road. The number of crashes is unacceptable. New housing was allowed to be built along that highway while the road was neglected. We are investing $65 million right now on State Highway 2 between Waihī and Ōmokoroa to make this stretch of road safer. That includes putting a wider centre median strip in place to keep vehicles apart widening the road shoulders to give drivers more room installing roadside barriers and making 26 intersections safer on that stretch of highway.Jami-Lee Ross: Given he says he didn't make the funding decisions was he sitting next to Fergus Gammie when he was asked Did the agency make any changes to the procurement processes for the Tauranga Northern Link in anticipation of the Government's policy statement on land transport being issued?" and Mr Gammie replied with "The short answer's yes."?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well of course the short answer is yes. Our Government just like the former Government set the high-level goals for the transport policy and set the spending bands within the National Land Transport Programme but we leave—unlike the former Government who love to practise pork-barrel politics and politicise the spending of billions of dollars of transport money—the road engineering decisions to the experts so that they can do their job free of political interference.Rt Hon Winston Peters: When was the idea for the Tauranga Northern Link first proposed given it's apparently such an urgent priority for the Opposition now? SPEAKER: The member is responsible for the first part of the question.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: In 1997 an options report on the route was completed and the route was designated in 2001. In 2009 the Bay of Plenty District Council included it in their regional land transport plan.Jami-Lee Ross: Did he play pork-barrel politics himself when he announced in May that Cabinet had agreed to launch a procurement process for the Auckland tramways?Clayton Mitchell: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Look I think the member's been here long enough to know that he can't preface a question with a statement such as that one and he should be asking the question quite directly. That's Standing Order—SPEAKER: No no. I think when Ministers use those expressions then they're subject to questioning even though it might prima facie be out of order.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Supplementary question.SPEAKER: No no. We've got the question to be answered first.Jami-Lee Ross: I should ask it again Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: No. The Minister should answer it.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: No.Rt Hon Winston Peters: If the Bay of Plenty District Council included that in the land transport plan in 2009 how much of the Tauranga Northern Link was built between 2009 and election day 2017?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Not a single metre.Hon Simon Bridges: What of the following is incorrect: that the Transport Agency had fully funded a four-lane Tauranga Northern Link; that earlier this year it was out on a tender for the project and that the Minister instructed them to stop that tender and stop the four-lane highway earlier this year?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: The third part of that question.Todd Muller: Will he commit here today to drive from Ōmokoroa to Tauranga to experience first-hand that road like my constituents do every day?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I can't commit to that because I am busy making sure that the Transport Agency as an urgent priority gets on with re-evaluating that project so that we can make the safety improvements on that highway that that Government failed to do over nine years and has spent the last nine months scaremongering about."