Eckhoff Gerrard: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:9688] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT) 
: 
 I have listened with huge interest to this debate and I will make a few comments first of all about the Green Party’s contribution. I have always believed that the Greens are a party of principle and its principle is simply that no sacrifice is too great for the people of this country to make on its behalf. It is a party prepared to die in the ditch on its principles. Jeanette Fitzsimons very nearly did according to I think the  
Independent  
just recently. Ignoring the green strip on the road that is supposedly for buses or cyclists or somebody or other the Green Party—this party of principle this party of the law—instructed a taxi to pull in outside Bowen House which held up the traffic and contributed to an outrageous situation in this very town just outside this very building. I am shocked. It is not the sort of thing that an ACT party member would do. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: That’s resignation stuff. 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: It is resignation stuff. I am talking about principle: getting things right doing things right and sticking to what one believes in. I hope that Jeanette Fitzsimons will take a call and explain to the Committee why she ignored the very important paint on the road which enables cyclists and the buses to travel in safety except when the Greens are in a taxi. 
I listened with great interest to a new economic policy that I heard from some members tonight—I think United Future has one and I think Peter Brown has one as well. It is that roads should be free. One can only assume that United Future prays to God and the next morning there is a free road somewhere. I have a little surprise for them—it does not happen that way. Nothing is free. Somebody pays somewhere. If this principle about roads being free really did work why do we not apply it to electricity? Why not make electricity free? We have a shortage of electricity right now so imagine what would happen if we made electricity free. It would make the roads in Auckland on a Friday morning at 9 o’clock look absolutely ridiculous by comparison. Why do we not have free food? There is a thought for us. What would happen if food became free? I have heard these dumb concepts in the Chamber about this new economic principle. 
If we really want to look about and fix the roading problems then two things stand out in my mind. First of all you have—I say “you” Madam Chairperson but I am speaking in the “ewe” concept being an agrarian-type person—to make decisions. This might be a difficult concept for the Government to understand but we have to decide that we will fix this problem make a decision and stand or fall on the merits of that decision. 
 It is not difficult but what we have here are huge impediments to decision making. At last count clause 15 listed something like 11 organisations. There was Transfund the Commissioner of Police affected local authorities—God only knows how many of them; representatives of land transport users affected communities the Ministry of Health and approved organisations. I suppose “approved organisations” means groups like the Environmental Defence Society and Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand and those sorts of organisations. Then there are affected Maori. That is an interesting one. I see later on in the bill somewhere that there are such things as Maori roads. I wonder whether anybody could tell me exactly what a Maori road is. Is it a road that is privately owned by Maori or is it the “Road to Nowhere” up near Tame Iti’s spot? Some of the stuff that I find in this bill is quite extraordinary—absolutely amazing. 
If the Government is going to have this level of consultation then we should not be surprised to find that no decision will ever be made because there are vested interests. It will be a case of territorial authorities versus everybody else. Then we have Infrastructure Auckland which is desperately wanting to hang on to however many dollars it has.