Halbert Shanan; Brown SimeonSHANAN HALBERT (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. This will be my second line of questioning. I haven't received responses to my key questions at the start. The Minister of Transport acknowledged that he had met with Mayor Wayne Brown but my question was actually framed around what the current state of the relationship is and the impact of this piece of legislation. What were the views of the mayor and councillors on this piece of legislation to inform those decisions?CHAIRPERSON (Barbara Kuriger): I don't think that the Minister's responsible for the views of the mayor. The questions are to the Minister's actions not somebody else's.SHANAN HALBERT: Sure. The reason I'm asking that question Madam Chair is because I'm interested in what advice the Minister took on board given the absence of a submission period from Aucklanders from the mayor and from councillors. Usually in select committee we would have the opportunity to hear directly from them; we don't have that in this instance hence the question to the Minister. I'd really appreciate just a bit of an update of that state of that relationship and how he intends to move forward in working on transport infrastructure with Auckland Council.The second question I want to move to is around the relationship with Auckland Transport and how they might have been involved in his decision making. What was their advice that they gave the Minister and which particular parts may he have considered in that? Did he meet with Dean Kimpton the CEO and what was Dean's advice to the Minister and is there follow-up to address the cancellation of projects and the hole that it leaves in in transport infrastructure in Tāmaki-makau-rau Auckland?Lastly in this line of questioning I wanted to drill down back into—somebody touched on the road safety point but I wanted to come back to particularly safety for our tamariki around schools and pedestrian crossings. I respect the Minister and I have enjoyed working with him in the transport space over the past few years but I have openly called him cynical today in our speeches on the basis that he has doubled down on pedestrian crossings in this particular discussion. I'm seeking an explanation from the Minister because children's safety road safety is a very important part of the decision that this legislation is making and in my community we have very good examples where pedestrian crossings have been very effective: outside Birkdale Primary Beach Haven Primary Northcote Intermediate. While the construction of those were quite disruptive actually it prevents any of our tamariki being hit by cars or being seriously injured as a result.The question I had for the Minister is: in his second reading speech and first reading speech he continued to mention the amount of $500000 as a cost for pedestrian crossings. Part of his rationale in this legislation change is that he wants to get more bang for buck and that's fine. I just wonder which example he might be referring to in that cost of $500000 what other examples of more cost-effective pedestrian crossings he may have looked at and what were those costings and which projects may he have completed site visits to. I appreciate that these might be part of the cancellation of prospective projects—but it's an important part just to understand where the Minister's thinking is in his decision when prioritising key parts. I accept partially that you know he's called a halt to the regional fuel tax; that there's only a certain amount of money left but when we come to how do we actually decide on how we spend that I'm not clear on how the Minister has gone through that decision-making process.My questions regarding pedestrian crossings are actually because from what I've heard from the Minister I worry that he has unfairly looked at those and used a poor example from the New Zealand Herald that has been withdrawn. So I do want to understand what his view actually is on that and what examples he might have looked at out in either my community or out in other communities because from my understanding not all pedestrian crossings are at $500000. Thank you Madam Chair.Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Transport): The number of questions there from Shanan Halbert asking me for my views of the mayor's views and in relation to the views of Auckland Transport etc. etc. I mean ultimately as I've outlined on a number of occasions we took this policy to the election; Aucklanders voted for it—in fact I think Auckland voted 57 percent for the coalition Government—and now we are delivering on that promise with this legislation. The bill I think outlines all of those various elements of how we are repealing it what projects are remaining and so I don't think those questions are particularly in relation to the bill.Arena Williams asked earlier around the issue around the fuel companies passing on the cost. The answer to those questions is that ultimately the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is responsible for the regular monitoring of importer margins on fuel. They will be doing what they did when the last Government reduced fuel excise I think two years ago and we'll be making sure they're monitoring that in exactly the same way to ensure that the reduction in the fuel excise is passed on to motorists.