Baldock Larry: Land Transport Management Bill — Third Reading 
Baldock Larry: Land Transport Management Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:613;Page:9809] 
LARRY BALDOCK (United Future) 
: 
 I rise to support the Land Transport Management Bill. It has been a long hard process for everyone in getting this bill into its current form and I for one am satisfied that the bill is at least a good start. As should be expected for a party with only eight MPs out of a total of 120 United Future did not get everything it wanted. However we were able to ensure the bill is a lot better than it might otherwise have been. 
Mr Sowry’s comments earlier about submitters asking for many changes but not getting any completely floors me. Anybody looking at the bill in its current form can see the massive amount of changes and most of them were made at the request of the submitters who appeared before the select committee. The changes have resulted in a bill that is much better than the bill introduced to the House earlier this year. 
One of the common-sense changes that United Future was able to secure was to have reference in the Land Transport Management Bill to efficiency greatly strengthened. The reason we made this issue such a priority is that we believe that social and environmental considerations should be ranked in importance on a par with economic efficiency—not somewhere far above it. This is particularly important where the responsibilities of Transfund and Transit are involved. I have just been passed a little bit of good news from Tony Friedlander the Chief Executive Officer of the Road Transport Forum who acknowledges that the amendments to the bill with regard to efficiency will be of a great deal of benefit. I thank him for that. 
Many lobby groups and political parties all around New Zealand have spoken of the need for tools with which we can solve our transport infrastructure deficit. This bill does contain a few of the necessary tools. It contains an opportunity for local communities to use tolling as a means for raising the funds needed to build roads that those communities have determined for themselves are needed in their areas. One important case in point is that Greater Wellington now has the tools needed to raise the money for and build the proposed Transmission Gully motorway. It is in Wellington’s hands entirely. Tauranga also needs to build a considerable number of new roads and Tauranga will be able to make those decisions for itself. 
Peter Brown 
: We don’t need tolls. 
LARRY BALDOCK 
: The speaker for New Zealand First was saying earlier that this bill will result in toll roads all over the country. That will not happen because communities must make that decision themselves. They must give full support to those proposals. We believe in empowering communities to make those decisions themselves. 
It is clear that the Minister of Finance’s comments today in the House completely passed over the heads of New Zealand First members. He said we cannot expect any changes to the amount that currently goes into the Crown account from fuel excise and that that is the way it will be for several years to come. The Rt Hon Winston Peters may dream about being Minister of Finance again but I have to say that today he is not the Minister and he is unlikely to be the Minister in the near future. Therefore we must look practically at how we are going to build our roads and tolling is one of the options that communities will be able to use—thanks to this bill. 
The bill also allows for public-private partnerships in a variety of ways. Private investors may engage in partnerships with central or local government on projects that have the potential for public good and for providing a fair return on private investment. 
After sitting through the Committee stage and hearing all the doomsayers predict that this bill will do nothing to help build roads I cannot help but think of a passage from the Book of Proverbs: “ ‘Bad bad’ says the buyer but then he goes on his way rejoicing about the purchase of his good bargain.” That sums it up really. Much of the shrill opposition to this bill is politically motivated—pure and simple. It has nothing whatsoever to do with its merits. Even groups comprising major transport operators—such as the Auckland chamber of commerce and Ports of Auckland—have been saying the bill is at least a start and provides a platform from which they can move forward. It is shameful for those Opposition parties which profess to be acting in the interests of the public and of business to be interested only in short-term political point-scoring when it comes to something as important as improving New Zealand’s infrastructure. New Zealand cannot afford to throw this bill out and start all over again. That would simply not be acceptable. We must move on. We must take what we have been given and build upon it. 
Much has been said in this debate about tools. The best way to describe this bill is as a tool-box. It is not primarily about the tools themselves; it is the tool-box that the tools will go into. It does not yet contain all the tools we are going to need. There are some tools in this legislation but there are more that can be added over time and will be thanks to the common-sense presence of United Future. The business leaders who met with Peter Dunne this week understood that. That is why they said that although the Land Transport Management Bill does not represent all the progress they want: “We are nonetheless here to encourage the Government to implement the bill with urgency and a commitment to taking the further steps necessary to achieve faster network completion in Auckland.” The colour of the tool-box as I have mentioned is also a little greener than we would like it to be. However that is the reality of MMP and it is the result of the three-way negotiation between the Government the Greens and United Future. 
United Future was pleased to have the opportunity to make changes to the legislation to the best of our ability. We are now prepared to accept what has been delivered and to encourage Transfund Transit local and territorial authorities road users—commercial and private—business and the general public to make the most of the opportunities it now offers for moving forward. As I have said we have begun to work already on cooperating with the Government to introduce the next bill which will be more about tools and less about the tool-box. Those tools are going to be a different colour from the tool-box and will address the concerns of those who know we must use every tool possible to deliver a transport network that New Zealanders can be proud of in the 21st century in which we now live.