Bridges Simon: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bridges Simon: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 01 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4202. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Associate Minister of Transport) 
: 
 It is a great privilege to take a call to speak about transport. 
Phil Twyford 
: This is the junior Minister. Where’s the real one? 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES 
: It is a very exciting sector the transport sector. The Government within the transport sector is of course providing real leadership. Gerry Brownlee the Minister of Transport and I—Mr Twyford—as Associate Minister of Transport have four goals that we are pursuing vigorously in transport— 
Andrew Little 
: What happened to the 120-point plan? 
Hon SIMON BRIDGES 
: —better quality regulations better investment in infrastructure—just four—creating a safer transport system and opening more international and domestic markets. Mr Brownlee is taking a real lead in pursuing that vigorously. 
These are important goals. I want to focus on infrastructural investment very shortly but can I just say this: despite what some in the Labour Party and the Green Party say we are committed to a multimodal approach. We do roads we do rail we do public transport very well in this country and we are investing in it. When we are characterised as being just about roads I say that is absolutely wrong. Of course we invest in roads and we are proud to do so because that is where pragmatically speaking people are still driving and the vast majority of freight is still being moved. 
To talk about infrastructure I think it is important to start out and say how vital it is to transforming our economy to creating jobs and to lifting productivity. I know that in my own area for example the Tauranga Eastern Link is going to reduce a huge amount of time and allow many more journeys from heavy trucks as they take produce and as they take logs to the Port of Tauranga. This is a multimodal approach. 
Let me just say that in the period 2009-12 we have spent some $8.7 billion investing in transport infrastructure. That is $4.6 billion in the State highway network. That is $1.9 billion in local roads—that is in addition to what our friends in local government are investing—and $900 million in key urban public transport networks. In direct investment—I know Julie Anne Genter of the Greens will be interested in this—there has been direct investment of $2 billion in metro rail in Auckland and in Wellington so that commuters can get into town on rail. And there has been a $750 million additional investment into KiwiRail—I was going to say KiwiSaver—and its Turnaround Plan. 
Let us just focus in on some of what I think are the significant pointers in relation to roads. As I say there has been big investment. Over a decade $12 billion has gone in to improve the State highway network. Of course a big focus is roads—and we are unapologetic about that—in Tauranga in Auckland and all over New Zealand. Well-targeted investment in infrastructure is going to help lift productivity over time resulting in better wages and higher living standards for New Zealanders and their families. It is a substantial investment that we are making. I remember some time ago an economist saying that in a recession when you are wondering where to spend money investing in quality transport infrastructure is a very good way to go. 
 We have heard a lot about rail. Of course some of the members here in the Opposition have asked questions in the House about the Turnaround Plan. It is not going to be easy. It is not going to be something that is going to happen overnight as Andrew Little or Rachel Hunter—it was one of the two—once said. But we are committed to KiwiRail becoming sustainable by 2020 so that it can fund itself and so that actually the jobs that members like Clare Curran say they care so much about can be sustainable in that industry. Could I just say this: some 4300 people I think it is work for KiwiRail at this present time. I say let us back them.