Tizard Judith: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Tizard Judith: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12463] 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD (Minister with responsibility for Auckland Issues) 
: 
 That speech came from a man who was part of a Government that strangled Auckland for 9 years. It came from a lawbreaker and a wrecker a person who was part of a Government that passed the Resource Management Act then set out to destroy it and who destroyed regional government in his own region. The forestry companies are coming to us and saying they now have to do three times the work they would have done under regional government. The National Party has completely failed at the first hurdle. Could it put up an Aucklander? It could not even find an Aucklander. It could not find an Auckland MP to get up and talk about this issue and it had to put up the lawbreaker the wrecker from Nelson who cares about nothing in Auckland. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do not want that word to be used again and I want the member to withdraw and apologise. 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I bring to your attention that the Minister here also used the word “lawbreaker” and I would ask that he also withdraw and apologise. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: If the member made that comment he will stand withdraw and apologise. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: I stand withdraw and apologise. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: There will be no further comments about that. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. During that interchange the member Nick Smith challenged another member’s courage. That is right outside the Standing Orders. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is perfectly correct. The member will stand withdraw and apologise for that comment. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Now we will proceed properly with the debate. 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: That pathetic little speech came from the wrecker from Nelson the person who sobbed and wept about his previous leader Bill English losing the leadership. Bill English went looking for congestion in Auckland and could not find any—the bus ripped up the motorway. National does not even realise that the congestion is there only sometimes—it knows so little about Auckland. 
This legislation is the third time in 14 years that Parliament has tried to bring some sense to Auckland transport in terms of national legislation. First of all the wrecker from Nelson joined together with Warren Cooper the wrecker from Queenstown who was so worried that he came over and told me that I had to understand that if Auckland ever got its act together it would be a serious threat to the rest of the country. That was how concerned that local government Minister in that National Government was about getting Auckland working for the benefit of New Zealand. So what did that Government do? It expropriated Auckland’s regional assets and put them into the Auckland Regional Services Trust in the hope that it would be flogged off sold privatised following the Government’s agenda. What happened? Bruce Jesson came in and ran it perfectly well and it ran at a profit. What did the National Government do? Could those profits be used for Auckland? No they could not. So then we had Chris Fletcher’s and Tony Ryall’s attempts with Maurice Williamson dancing the “Maurice” dance behind them saying: “Sell sell! Privatise privatise!”. What did Maurice Williamson want to do? 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I believe we are debating the Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill and I think it might be time for the Minister to come back to what it is about. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: If I thought that I would be bringing the Minister back. But this bill is about Auckland matters. It is an Auckland bill and I think the Minister is entitled to delve a little into history. 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: So then we had another attempt by the National Government to privatise Auckland’s assets and destroy Auckland’s ability to put in an integrated efficient transport system. We saw Auckland sack-tied; we saw the National Government twice put so many restrictions on Auckland’s ability to do anything that we had 9 years of complete inaction under a National Government. 
We now have the New Zealand Transport Strategy we now have Transit and Transfund working to a 10-year project strategy and we have a 10-year financial plan. For the first time ever we have an integrated transport analysis and funding package. And what does the National Party do? It opposes it. It wants to stop Auckland progressing again because it can see a vote in it in Nelson and in Tasman and in the south of the South Island. I want to tell the National Party that this package is $2.97 billion for the whole of New Zealand $1.62 billion of which will be spent in Auckland and $1.35 billion of which will be spent— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Over how many years? 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: It will be spent over 10 years. It will be extra and it will be spent in the rest of New Zealand. So the wrecker from Nelson can take that and tell the people whom he is trying to stir up that this Government for the first time is addressing the real issues in Auckland. It is addressing the need for coordination to deliver an integrated public transport roading and traffic management system for Auckland. 
Let me talk about some of the actions of this Government. We have seen massive building of roads. We have seen the Grafton project completed on time and under budget with great celebration. We have seen the Puhinui interchange finished. A constituent told me that it is saving him over an hour of travelling time a day. That project went through because Mark Gosche as Minister of Transport said to Transit and Transfund: “Get in and do what you can now. Get things going; get projects up.” We are building State Highway 18 we have massive work on State Highway 20 and we have the central motorway junction project—the “Spaghetti Junction” which was stopped by the Muldoon Government in 1976—up and running with over $250 million being spent. We went up and broke the ground for the North Shore busway on Monday. We are spending three times the amount that the National Government spent on public transport. This project is a fabulous project that needs support and coordination and this legislation will provide that. 
On 12 December last year the Government outlined its Investing for Growth package. We will not privatise Auckland’s transport. We will not flog off Auckland’s regional assets. We will allow Auckland to make the decisions it needs to make with its regional transport strategies which are now in the sixth round of consultation I think. Dr Smith does not even understand regional transport strategies which were brought in under the Transport Act and the Local Government Act in 1989. He should read the legislation. The plan is there and Auckland wants to get on. This Government has funded massive development in an integrated transportation strategy in Auckland. We have buses providing services that we have never seen before. We have a magnificent package. 
There is ongoing work to develop details of increases in fuel tax and road-user charges and in the Crown contribution which together will deliver an additional $1.62 billion to fund Auckland’s land transport over the next 10 years. It is this Government’s intention that the additional revenue raised by higher fuel taxes and road-user charges will be allocated across all the regions of New Zealand on the basis of population. The National Party should talk to any mayor council roading contractor and freight operator throughout New Zealand because those people know that this Government is working for them. These measures will result in an estimated $1.3 billion in additional roading funding to be used outside Auckland as well as to fix Auckland’s problems. This Government is delivering for Auckland and I say to the National Party that it should be very afraid because in the next election Auckland will tell that party what it thinks of its stupidity and obstruction.