Newman Muriel: Rodney District Council (PENLINK Toll Road) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
Newman Muriel: Rodney District Council (PENLINK Toll Road) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:614;Page:10417] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (ACT) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the ACT party to speak on this bill. I have to say that the response of the Government to this proposal is simply indicative of Labour’s failure in the whole area of transport. When Labour came to power it inherited a state of gridlock in the Auckland region. It tried to pretend that it was pro-Auckland pro-business and all the rest of it and that it was going to sort out that region’s transport problems. However it has totally failed. Its response to this toll road proposal is simply indicative of the extent of its failure. It will not let this bill go through even though it would actually allow the people of the Rodney area to take the situation into their own hands and to create their own solution which they are prepared to pay for. The Government will not allow even that to happen. 
Instead of approximately half the money collected from the petrol tax every year going into roading this Government—because of its cosy arrangement with the Green Party—is putting that money into walkways cycle tracks railways and shipping. It is putting it into all sorts of things apart from roading. So right now less money than ever before is being invested in our roads. Given the problems that the Auckland region and other cities around New Zealand have that is an absolute disgrace. 
There is another issue here. I heard Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith the instigator of this bill talking about how the Government seems to have turned its back on the Rodney area but he forgot one simple fact—that the Rodney district and the Northland region in general are held by National members of Parliament. The real reason why this Government has walked away from the Northland and Rodney areas is that National Party members hold those areas not Government members and their cronies. 
This bill was intended to alleviate the gridlock traffic problems in the Whangaparaoa area. I was not on the Local Government and Environment Committee that considered this member’s bill but I understand that Labour supported it going to a select committee. From what we have heard today in the debate the bill was then blocked by the Green Party. We know that the Green Party is anti-roads at the best of times so it would certainly be anti large roads which this one would be. 
But this situation is just part of a very sad picture for the Rodney region. Not only does it have gridlock in the Whangaparaoa Peninsula area; it also has the most outstanding disaster zone in terms of roading in New Zealand sitting right in its midst. The northern motorway our premier motorway stops dead in the middle of a paddock in Orewa then winds down through a residential area before eventually hitching up with a very dangerous stretch of State Highway 1. This project called the Albany to Puhoi realignment B2 (ALPURT B2) a 7-kilometre stretch of roading should have been finished as soon as the resource consents came through from the Environment Court. We know that those consents were held up for about 6 years but earlier this year all of them came through. 
Before Labour became the Government Transit New Zealand promised that completion of that motorway would be its No. 1 priority. In fact it was hanging out waiting for the consents to come through. But after the change of Government the membership on the boards of Transfund and Transit changed and instead of the project being the No. 1 priority all of a sudden it was shoved right down to the bottom and according to the original plan it probably would not have been completed for about another 15 years. This Labour Government has shepherded that absolute disgrace of a major motorway stopping in a paddock. It is a dangerous part of the State highway and costs according to Transit $1 million a week in lost opportunities for the people in the Northland region. This Government’s response is simply to say “Tough!”. Well I say it is not good enough for a Government to turn its back on State Highway 1 which is part of its jurisdiction and part of its funding regime. 
Instead we now have the Land Transport Management Act which I understand from talking to the sorts of companies that should be lining up to invest in these public-private partnerships is virtually unworkable. They ask why anybody would invest their money in one of these toll road proposals given the terrible conditions that this Labour Government puts on them. The Government is heralding the Land Transport Management Act as the answer to New Zealand’s traffic gridlock problems—“We’ll fix it all with toll roading.”—but meanwhile it is delivering to the country legislation that will not even work. Again that is simply indicative of this Government’s failure to come to terms with one of its most important priorities which is to provide infrastructure so that New Zealanders can get on with doing their jobs running their businesses and building wealth and productivity for this country. 
I understand that right now in the Auckland region only three roading projects are ready and able to go. They are the ALPURT B2 road—now that the consents have all gone through—which would cost about $140 million; the Penlink road which would cost about $50 million; and I understand the Greenhithe Bridge proposal which is also ready to go. 
Dail Jones 
: It’s under way. 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN 
: It is under way I understand. But the Government has $225 million in Transfund’s bank account that is earmarked for projects in Auckland that will come on stream one day and it should be saying that as that “one day” is months if not years away it will put some of that $225 million into completing ALPURT B2 and into getting the Penlink road on the go. That would be the sensible thing for this Government to do. Will it do it? Absolutely not! 
I have one concern about ALPURT B2. I have talked to the Minister of Transport so he knows about the shambles at the end of State Highway 1’s northern motorway. He admits that it has to be fixed but I have one huge difference of opinion with him. He says that the road that completes the northern motorway from Orewa to Puhoi should be a toll road. Well I say that is irresponsible. It is State Highway 1! State Highway 1 is funded by people paying petrol tax money by that money going into Transfund’s bank account and by the Government using that money to build State highways. Any deviation from ALPURT B2 being a State-funded highway is a total abrogation of responsibility by this Government. 
It is quite distressing for a Northland MP to see the way in which this Government has been dragging its feet on roading issues. It costs that region so much every single day in lost opportunities and in the extra cost of transport to anything going on in Northland. Many Aucklanders do not go north when they could or when they want to because they know they will get stuck in traffic. Why would people have a beach house in the Kaipara district when they would be stuck on the motorway for ages? That is one of the reasons why Labour has been dragging its heels on these issues. It wants to keep people in Auckland where its voters are—we know that—instead of allowing them to go and live in the north which is an area with a bunch of National members of Parliament who are actually doing a very good job in this House. 
The fact that this bill is about to be voted down by the Government is again indicative of its failure even to be concerned about completing infrastructure. If it voted for the bill that would be a very very good indication that it does care. I say that it does not care. It will vote the bill down and that is a disgrace.