Fenton Darien: Infrastructure Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Infrastructure Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:9810. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to have an opportunity to take a call in the second reading of the Infrastructure Bill. Before I get into my speech I offer my congratulations to the Green member on his very useful contribution in his first contribution to debate on a bill in the House. As previous speakers have said Labour supports this bill but we did not vote for Part 4 in the select committee. As other speakers have already outlined we hope we will be able to address our concerns when we come to the Committee stage. It is also fair to say that even though we are supporting this bill we have serious concerns about what this Government means by infrastructure development. 
The purpose of the bill is to progress a suite of amendments to facilitate infrastructure development. However given the scenario in Auckland at the moment one has to wonder whether this is achievable. The population growth in Auckland makes the challenges of infrastructure economic development and good planning even more urgent. Unfortunately Aucklanders are not having a real say in their future. By the way National and ACT are ramming through their version of a super-city a narrow and influential elite will determine how Auckland’s infrastructure develops. What happens in Auckland has a major influence on the rest of the country. That influence will grow even more in the future. It is crucial that the many not the few determine how this happens. 
The first part of this bill is about implementing a national code of practice governing how utility operators and transport corridor managers coordinate their activities. We are talking about installing telecommunications electricity gas and water along the roading and rail corridors of New Zealand. The Institute of Public Administration New Zealand one of the submitters described the current arrangement for the roading corridor as being effectively a commons where all parties have the absolute right of access without charge subject to conditions. Roads are the commons of modern urban society. 
Many of our utilities under the roads and rail corridor go back to the days when the Government owned the utilities operations and companies. The sell-off and privatisation over the years means that coordination and national consistency have become much more complex. These days local authorities the New Zealand Transport Agency and rail licence access providers are all corridor managers. The councils own the road corridors but they cannot stop people digging it up. One submitter told us that they literally do not know what is under the ground in some parts of the country in the corridors which makes the job of the local authorities very difficult indeed. At the select committee there were plenty of complaints from utilities managers as well. Coordination and national consistency were described to the select committee as the Holy Grail but I think that is a big ask in any legislation. To be honest I am a little bit cynical because apparently this code has been under development for many many years by the New Zealand Utilities Advisory Group. There appears to have been some falling out of some of the parties and some do not participate at all. 
 Although there was general support from utilities operators for an industry-led code an agreement about the need to make arrangements as consistent as possible across utilities and corridor managers local authorities had more reservations and concerns. Several submitters thought the bill could go further in making arrangements more consistent but there is definitely a divide in opinion between utility operators and corridor managers on several issues. 
Utility operators have rights of access to local authority - controlled roads but that has to be balanced against corridor managers’ responsibilities for controlling the road. Corridor managers need to have the ability to direct how the work is done as they are responsible for that amenity for the safety of the public and indeed for the contractors who are doing the work. The code will include rules setting out how work must be done which will give utility operators the ability to ensure that work is done in a way that does not damage their assets. 
A code can be prepared and presented for the Minister for approval by anyone although I have to say that this was queried by the select committee. It seemed strange to us that just anyone could be preparing a code. However the bill requires proper consultation and for the code to be broadly agreed to by the relevant corridor managers and utility operators and to reflect a balance of interests between corridor managers and those operators. The select committee has made a number of recommendations with regard to the strengthening of the enforceability of the code which Labour supports. 
Since this bill was introduced many questions have emerged about transport infrastructure in Auckland. Aucklanders are very concerned about the role and the undemocratic nature of the powerful new Transport Agency in the Auckland super-city. There have been warnings that Auckland’s local roads are likely to suffer in the mix between the Government’s control from Wellington and its desire for the so-called roads of national significance of which there are three in Auckland. The fact that the agency is required to deal with all roading issues including whether there are speed bumps or better footpaths in local streets is quite frankly bizarre. Eighty percent of the work of community boards in Auckland is street related: footpaths car-parking slow roads bus shelters traffic conflicts and so on. Yet all this plus the determinations of the huge asset of Auckland’s transport infrastructure is being handed over to an unaccountable group of Rodney Hide’s mates. 
I am foreseeing that transport will be a huge election issue this year come the super-city elections and it will be interesting to watch how the candidates including the mayoral candidates play out their competing promises in the campaign. It is hard to see however how the new mayor and those who are elected to the new Auckland Council will have any power to actually implement their transport policies. Since this bill was introduced we have had the grand infrastructure plan and I have to say it is great to talk about roads and railways and other things. The part that is always missing for me in any infrastructure plan that comes from this Government is the people element. Surely people are part of our infrastructure and skills and education. It does not seem so. I do say that we now know why the Kopu Bridge was rushed through with the mining announcements we have had in the last couple of days. 
At the same time there is increasing uncertainly around the Government’s commitment to rail with closures of some regional lines in the wind. A number of utility operators complained to the select committee about not having as-of-right access to rail corridors saying that it inhibits their ability to develop infrastructure. It was explained to the select committee that the rail corridor is different from the roading corridor. It has specific health and safety requirements. KiwiRail and ONTRACK are responsible for workers and contractors. There are few alternative routes and most of the network is a single track. So we are pretty concerned that Steven Joyce is planning to mothball some parts of the rail network as a precursor to the sell-off of KiwiRail in the second term— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Oh whatever. You’re always concerned. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: —Mr Henare can stand up and say it is not going to happen if he likes—and then the utility operators will have a field day. So we will watch with keen interest the Government’s plans to amend the Railways Act which is foreshadowed in this bill. 
This bill is about the things New Zealanders believe are their rights in terms of decent living: transport and utilities. It is an important bill and as I said Labour will be supporting parts 1 to 3. I will talk about housing in a moment. But I predict that the transport and infrastructure issues will get hotter and hotter for this Government without even talking about Great Barrier Island. 
I move on to Part 4. My colleagues have already said that we are opposed to the repeal of the Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Act. It should not have been hidden away in this bill. It should have been sent to the appropriate select committee. I think it is absolutely shameful that the appropriate select committee will not have the opportunity to discuss housing affordability and how that legislation will work. The decision to repeal the Act without such consideration is a wasted opportunity and it further limits the tools available to address housing affordability in New Zealand. We are hoping that when this bill reaches the Committee stage we will be able to vote separately. We will put forward amendments during the Committee stage and vote separately on Part 4. I am sure the Government wants Labour’s support for this bill and that is possible if we can do something about Part 4. Thank you.