Smith Lockwood: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Smith Lockwood: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:618;Page:14016] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 In speaking to Part 1 of this Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill I want to say to Auckland people that they can relax because help is on its way. In the next year or so there will be a National Government and finally something will be done about the outrageous roading shambles in the Auckland region. It is a disgrace and I say to the Minister in the chair the Hon Chris Carter that this bill is a sick joke. He thinks that fixing up Auckland’s shambolic motorway and roading system will be achieved by creating two more committees. They are to be called the Auckland Regional Transport Authority and Auckland Regional Holdings and that will fix up the roads? What a sick joke! The Minister in the chair should get his brain around what has to happen in Auckland. This legislation will not do a damned thing to fix that absolute shambles. 
I must tell my colleagues something funny. Do they know that we have a Minister responsible for assisting the Prime Minister on Auckland issues? Yes I think it is the Hon Judith Tizard. Well we had a meeting with the Auckland Regional Council where we were being briefed on this legislation because the council want changes in it. I got up and said: “Look the progress that is being made on roading in Auckland is such that it is actually getting worse and worse by the month. Things are falling further and further behind. For example the traffic north of Orewa is now getting so bad that there is a crisis right through to Wellsford.” 
Do members know what the Hon Judith Tizard said? She said that this bill was only about the Auckland region. The Minister helping the Prime Minister on Auckland issues did not know where the Auckland region extended to. She thought Wellsford was outside the Auckland region. That is the Minister advising the Prime Minister on Auckland issues! We had news for her of course. The Auckland region extends right up to just north of Te Hana north of Wellsford—and the Labour Government does not even know that? It brings this legislation into the House and it does not even know where the Auckland region extends to. 
I am going to tell this Minister in the chair that Part 1 is a joke because it sets out the purpose and there is nothing in that purpose that will do anything to fix the roading problem. I invite the Minister to name one thing in that purpose that will do anything to get the bulldozers moving and the dirt shifted to build a road in Auckland. When National was last in office the motorway was going right through to Puhoi as a single construction and the money was there to do it. What has Labour done? It has done nothing but establish with this legislation two more committees—as if committees will build any roads. I say to that Minister in the chair that the public of Auckland will boot him and his mates out because they are sick of being stuck in traffic. They are sick of it. 
But I want to be deadly serious about this. The problem is getting worse rapidly and there is nothing in this legislation that will improve the situation. By 2008 apparently the Albany to Puhoi realignment will be constructed through to Puhoi. I want to tell the Minister that by 2008 he will have such a shambles north of Puhoi to Warkworth and Wellsford that it will be impossible to get through. Already the queues of traffic around Warkworth and Wellsford are such that it is impossible to get through. When there is an accident on that piece of State Highway 1 there is an absolute shambles. 
There is a desperate need to actually shift some dirt and build some roads—and this legislation just sets up two more committees. They are two more committees that will do nothing because there is an absolute disconnect between Transit’s priorities and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority’s priorities. There is nothing in this legislation that requires Transit to do anything that the Auckland Regional Transport Authority thinks should be done and there is nothing in Part 1 which sets out the purpose and the interpretation that will fix that problem.