Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I rise in this local debate as the member of Parliament for Coromandel to speak on behalf of the people who live in the Coromandel who do business in the Coromandel and who visit the Coromandel to talk about the fact that we are now into nearly 5½ months of the main arterial Coromandel Peninsula Road State Highway 25A remaining closed and causing enormous heartache inconvenience and grief to all those people who love the Coromandel.Now it was just yesterday that we finally after 5½ months had confirmation of the commercial consortium that is going to be engaged to build the bridge that will span the chasm which was the drop out in the highway that closed that road back in January of this year following wet weather and heavy weather damage caused by Cyclone Hale and then subsequently by Cyclone Gabrielle. So since that period of time the good people of Coromandel have been left in very uncertain circumstances. Their day-to-day lives are inconvenienced; cost and time is added to any and all travel across the peninsula to and from the eastern seaboard. Visitors have stopped coming in the large numbers that they would normally do. In fact just last weekend on the King's Birthday weekend it was noticeable how few people were actually in the Coromandel spending time and money in an economy that so desperately relies on people coming and spending their hard-earned dollars in our patch. But it's not just across the Coromandel peninsula in my electorate that has been bruised battered but not beaten; further south from the peninsula just last week more homes were inundated and flooded by heavy weather at Waihī Beach and my thoughts and condolences go to those people who've had their lives and their homes impacted so negatively. Then further south again close towards Ōmokoroa and Katikati at the southern end of my beautiful electorate traffic and roading issues are again causing enormous delays and frustration and lost productivity to people travelling on State Highway 2 who are impacted by the construction of a cycleway on the Wairoa Bridge just north of Bethlehem in Tauranga. So for weeks now—indeed it's been a month or more—there have been incredibly long peak-hour traffic delays leading to massive inconvenience to people in Ōmokoroa Katikati and anyone travelling on that piece of State Highway 25. So these are issues that in my electorate—roading weather access to infrastructure—are crucial matters. For nearly 5½ months we have been told that it would be early 2024 before State Highway 25 was reopened. I have been consistently saying that that road needs to be opened sooner than that. It needs to be opened before Christmas. The people of the Coromandel need to have certainty so they can plan their lives so they can plan their businesses so they can organise matters that are so important to them—and we don't have that certainty. Now the Government has been saying it will be early 2024 before that road was reopened. Well I want to tell this House that I think we have been led down a merry path by the current Government because in response to a written question we find out that—and this is question No. 14088 which was answered by the Minister of Transport; well the then Minister of Transport the Hon Michael Wood. He says that of the options that are being considered for the road—and he gives some time frames: the bridge option has an estimated duration of 12 to 14 months before completion; 12 to 14 months. By my calculations that takes us well into at least this time next year June next year 2024 or possibly into August September or even October of next year.For the good people of the Coromandel that is simply unacceptable and I want to encourage this Government the New Zealand Transport Agency and indeed our local Thames-Coromandel District Council to apply more pressure for an urgent solution to the roading problems and hassles and disruptions that are causing such grief to the people that live in love and enjoy the beautiful Coromandel.