Pillay Lynne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Pillay Lynne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:607;Page:4195] 
6.  
LYNNE PILLAY (NZ Labour—Waitakere) 
 to the  
Minister of Transport 
: Has he received any reports about support for the Government’s recently announced New Zealand Transport Strategy? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 Yes I have. The Automobile Association has commended the Government for developing a 10-year strategy for transport. The Auckland Business Forum has indicated its support of the strategy’s broad purpose and objectives. Transfund has indicated to me that it has received eight applications from councils for alternatives to roading funding 20 applications for walking and cycling projects and has approved $23 million of transport regional development funding for projects in Tairawhiti and Northland. 
Lynne Pillay 
: Has he received support for this strategy from any other sources? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Yes. I received comment that transport priorities should be changed to emphasise economic value and safety and that there should be tolls and private funding to deal with Auckland congestion. These comments came from the Leader of the Opposition. Assisting economic development and safety and personal security are two of the strategy’s objectives announced in December last year. Toll roads and private funding are both included in the Land Transport Bill introduced at the same time. The Leader of the Opposition seems to be 4 months behind on both issues. Nevertheless I welcome his support. They are big improvements on the comments of his transport spokesperson who wants a four-lane highway from Auckland to Wellington. 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: Does the Minister agree with the statement of Simon Carlaw of Business New Zealand that: “The major concerns to business from this radical change in transport policy are prohibitive cost increases for road users and continuing neglect of important roading projects. These will both ultimately impact on the competitiveness of the economy and its ability to grow and deliver the living standards we all want.”; if so what changes does he intend to make to the land transport strategy to allow it to achieve its own stated goal of helping New Zealand return to the top half of the OECD or has he abandoned that goal? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The first two questions can be answered. 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: I am sure that Simon Carlaw would agree that the land transport strategy the Land Transport Management Bill and the significant funding increases that have been put in place by this Government are a huge advantage over what was in place under the previous National Government. Any changes to be made to that bill are currently being considered by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and the Government will wait to hear its deliberations. 
Ron Mark 
: Will the Minister tell the House whether he has received letters of congratulation from the Hurunui District Council the Waimakariri District Council or from the Christchurch City Council as a result of his proposals to defer roading projects such as the northern arterial and the Awatere bridge in the Hurunui district? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: I may well have received such letters but do not recall them offhand. The issue that the member raises is of course the draft plan put out by Transit. Currently consultations are going on. I am aware of all those projects that have been deferred. I expect the people concerned to be making strong submissions to Transit and we will wait and see its final deliberations in the middle of the year. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Why will the Minister not concede that the land transport strategy will not solve any of New Zealand’s transport problems because it will result in even more paralysis by consultation especially when tolls and public-private partnerships are concerned? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: That is just not the case. In fact there has been an enormous amount of consultation leading up to the presentation of the strategy and the bill. My advice to that member if she wants to take part in consultation is to have electorate offices in other parts of the country and not just in her party leader’s flat. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Have any applications for alternatives to roading been received under the new strategy; if so what impact will they have in reducing pressure on road use? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: Yes there have been a number of applications to that particular pool and they have been very positive indeed. They have been things like investigation of the Marsden Point rail link funding for the Hamilton transport centre and investigation into extending the Clandeboye Dairy Factory link. Many of those involving rail will take some considerable pressure off the roading network and will produce a much more multimodal transport strategy which the Government along with the Greens support. 
Larry Baldock 
: Given that the New Zealand land transport strategy outlines a vision to be realised by 2010 how much importance does the Minister attach to the passage of the Land Transport Management Bill as a means for providing flexible road-funding alternatives to help reach that goal? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: We attach quite a lot of significance to that. We simply cannot fund traditionally the kinds of projects that everybody wants. We need more flexible arrangements. I thank the United Future party for its support of that bill. There are currently submissions before the select committee and we will wait and see what the deliberations of that committee are before we consider any changes to be made to the bill. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: What level of consultation or demand came from the United Future party in particular Mr Dunne on the question of Transmission Gully or did he just slide over that as usual? 
Hon PAUL SWAIN 
: There was considerable discussion and consultation with the United Future party before the introduction of the bill. That party is most concerned about alternative funding mechanisms and those include public-private partnerships and tolls. Certainly Transmission Gully is one of the kinds of projects that would be considered as part of that proposal.