12. Question No. 12—TransportSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 12—Transport12. SIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga) to the Minister of Transport: Is he confident NZTA is meeting his expectation of responsible and proportionate spending"; if so is he satisfied that NZTA's spending is giving taxpayers good value for money?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): Yes overall I do. At the same time I continue to advise all agencies that I'm responsible for about my expectations around spending. However on this side of the House we are unapologetic about supporting Waka Kotahi to transition from an agency focused solely on building roads to one with a broader set of objectives around our climate resilience and safety ambitions. The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) that we inherited did not have the resources to deliver on that broader vision nor even to fulfil its basic regulatory functions. That's why we have increased its resourcing for example to spend 40 percent more on the maintenance of regional roads around New Zealand; that's why we've increased its resourcing to provide decent public transport in our cities; and that's why we've increased its resourcing to run a fit-for-purpose and safe regulatory system in place of the broken one we inherited that probably cost at least one person their life under the previous Government's system. There are a wider range of objectives we have for the transport system. We'll continue to keep an eye on appropriate spending but also we're going to keep an eye on those objectives and not constantly be down just in the weeds.Simeon Brown: Why has the number of communications staff at NZTA more than doubled from 32 in 2017 to 88 last year and why does NZTA need twice as much help with communications under this Minister's watch?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: I note two points in response to the member's question. The first is that Waka Kotahi is conducting more of that activity from within its own resources and actually has fewer external contractors doing that work than it did in the 2017/18 year. Secondly what I note is that the agency is doing more. It is getting on with more projects to deliver transport outcomes for New Zealanders in the region and many of those communications staff are not sitting in offices in Wellington; they're actually out there in the regions communicating with communities like the Tauranga community about the Takatimu North Link or with the East Auckland community about the Eastern Busway.Simeon Brown: How many of those 88 communications staff were dedicated to the Auckland light rail project and how many staff are needed to tell Aucklanders that zero metres of light rail have been delivered in five years?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: What Aucklanders expect of us is that we actually are serious about building a fit-for-purpose public transport system for their city after 50 years of neglect. We'll continue to talk and engage with Aucklanders about those ambitions and I think that Aucklanders support that rather than the big talk and no action on the other side of the House.Simeon Brown: What value have taxpayers received from the $55 million spent on Auckland light rail for zero metres of light rail tracks to be delivered and will construction begin before the 2023 election?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: Anyone who seriously understands how the transport sector works will be aware that money needs to be invested in detailed planning consenting and design before significant projects are implemented and are built. Perhaps if the previous Government had put more of that upfront investment into Transmission Gully it wouldn't have turned into such a mess that we had to clean up.Simeon Brown: What value have taxpayers received from two giant zeros to promote the Road to Zero campaign or were they just built to advertise how little this Government's actually delivered?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: Considerably more than under the previous Government which over the five-year period between 2013 and 2018 oversaw a 50 percent increase in deaths in our road transport system.Simeon Brown: Supplementary.SPEAKER: No the member's run out."