Chauvel Charles: Climate Change (Transport Funding) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Chauvel Charles: Climate Change (Transport Funding) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 June 2009. Volume:655;Page:4437. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHARLES CHAUVEL (Labour) 
: 
 As Labour’s spokesperson on climate change issues I am delighted to say that Labour will vote to send the Climate Change (Transport Funding) Bill to a select committee for public submissions. It is interesting to follow the previous speaker David Bennett because I think we should examine the National Government’s record to date. Its policy statement on land transport funding has allocated funding away from public transport. That has put at risk important projects that the previous speaker spoke about such as the continuing electrification of Auckland rail integrated ticketing for public transport in Auckland and in other areas and walking and cycling facilities. By those actions this Government has set back public transport so far that the only way to rekindle the debate is to support this bill. By doing so I hope we will be able to show the public that there is a political will within Parliament to support public transport to a much greater degree than the Government is currently prepared to do. 
It was also interesting to hear the previous speaker talk about the record of the current Minister of Transport. He is fast tracking seven highways of so-called national significance and he claims that the National Land Transport Fund will provide $10.7 billion over 10 years for investment in State highways. That needs to be seen in perspective. In Budget 2006 Labour announced a 5-year $13.4 billion spending programme in New Zealand’s largest ever roading programme. So much for calling it maintenance as the previous speaker did! But our approach to transport funding was also based on a multimodal programme involving not only State highways and local roads but also public transport sea freight and rail. Labour believes that we cannot just keep on building motorways even if we have electric vehicles being signalled up as a large growth sector in the future. Inevitably those motorways would soon reach their capacity and we would be back to where we started with gridlock. We believe in an integrated approach to getting people off the roads and into more efficient and attractive public transport systems because taking the pressure off the roads lessens the immediate need for more motorways. That is an obviously sensible approach demonstrated in many forward-thinking cities around the world. 
But sadly Mr Joyce’s approach means that the balance between public transport and roading projects will be lost very shortly. He is effectively robbing metropolitan areas of effective public transport systems in order to pay for a few big-ticket motorway items that will please his friends. In order to justify this position Mr Joyce claims that Aucklanders do not use public transport. Well people use it when it is available. Whenever improvements are made to public transport such as the Northern Busway—which my friend and colleague Darien Fenton knows about—patronage increases sharply. 
It is interesting to compare National’s policy on land transport funding released in May—last month—with our last statement while in Government which was released in August 2008. The numbers are as follows. Public transport service funding is down by $85 million. Public transport infrastructure funding is down by a quarter of a billion dollars. Walking and cycling facilities funding is down by $15 million. The major communities that are suffering in these cut-backs will be those in Auckland. So much for the Government’s super-city plan! How can Auckland grow without having an effective transport system? 
Finally I will say just a few words about coastal shipping and rail. It is well known that Labour was developing coastal shipping because within a relatively short time frame our roads will be unable to cope with the projected increases in total freight volumes. An integration of roading with an upgraded rail and coastal shipping network is the only possible solution as we look 10 to 20 years into the future. We bought back KiwiRail with that integration is mind but now this Government has cast a cloud over the future of rail by not guaranteeing the funding that is needed for an infrastructure upgrade. We put $30 million into helping to get coastal shipping up and running so that rail wagons could be rolling on and off ships at various ports throughout New Zealand but now that development funding is cancelled and the future of coastal shipping seems to be uncertain. What is certain is that the containers will now be on trucks being driving up and down our State highways thus creating an ever-increasing hazard for Kiwi motorists. 
The record of this Government is dismal which is why we must support the referral of this bill to a select committee. Thank you. 
Debate interrupted.