Penk Chris; O'Connor GregCHRIS PENK (National—Kaipara ki Mahurangi): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a call on this the local issues debate. It's a fine innovation I think of this House and the opportunity to speak about issues that are near and dear to our hearts as local MPs and list MPs based in the area too. Speaking as the MP for Kaipara ki Mahurangi—the rural north north-west and west Auckland—I'd be remiss if I didn't make my contribution something along the lines of infrastructure that has not kept up with population growth in those areas. More particularly I want to raise for the attention of the House the issue of transport infrastructure. It's not the only example of where additional attention planning and indeed investment is needed but it is perhaps the most obvious one—and it would be I suspect the one most frequently raised with me in my office by some margin. Within the transport space we could choose the infamous Hill Street intersection. We could look a bit further north on the way to Wellsford namely the Dome Valley route. That route was recently beset by a slip notwithstanding that a huge amount of money was recently spent and goodness knows plenty of road cones and time and energy and disruption in the service of seeking to upgrade that road along other lines. We could also look across to State Highway 16 State Highway 1 or indeed further north to the Brynderwyns where as another member has pointed out constituents from my electorate heading north—and of course Northlanders heading south—require that access to safely traverse that arterial route that is the motorway north. But actually I've decided to focus on a particular issue that relates to the area of Kūmeu and surrounding areas in north-west Auckland. It is to do with the fact that notices of requirement have been set in motion—or sent out—with letters sent to households advising that certain works are contemplated and I'll get into the detail of that shortly if I may because this is the crucial bit. We've got a so-called rapid transit corridor in the area which from my perspective is the wrong project the wrong place and the wrong time. We've also got an alternative corridor—so called—often referred to as a Kūmeu bypass" where the whole north-west area of Auckland will benefit from the fact that they will have an opportunity not to go up the main drag that is deeply and highly congested on that main arterial route which is known as the main road but also State Highway 16 through that heavily populated part of the world. So the problem is that we've got residents—by which I mean households but also businesses—who have received letters to say that works will take place at some point at an unspecified time. It's unclear to the people who have received those letters how they might be affected or whether land will be required to be acquired from them in a "willing buyer willing seller" arrangement or perhaps compulsorily acquired under the Public Works Act. So there's a lack of clarity but also more fundamentally the issue is that these projects haven't been funded. They are not certain either as to timing or even necessarily whether they would go ahead and you can forgive the cynicism when you think about the longevity of these projects as projects that have been discussed but not yet delivered or even indeed subject to detailed planning. So for some years now—and I think it must be at least three years—residents in the area have received letters which sit on their property file form part of the knowledge about what is affecting their property and say that land may be required for the alternative highway. Well this is unacceptable because this is hanging over people. They're not able to sell the property except with the sword of Damocles hanging over the potential buyer. They don't know if they can make good decisions to remain in the area and attend local schools—which is another story for another day—and so forth. So for people to be in limbo to this extent without the certainty or without the ability to be bought out really frankly isn't good enough. When you place that in the context of a lack of delivery—and yes that's been a longstanding issue; it's not a recent phenomenon and I don't seek to make a partisan issue of it in that sense—but the reality is that the people of north-west Auckland as well as further afield—but I'm focusing on this particular aspect today—have been very poorly served. They have been rendered uncertain and fearful in some cases about what may happen to them. We need to get on and provide them the certainty. We need to build the infrastructure if it's to go ahead and put these people out of their misery. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can I just indicate that maths has never been my strong point. There's actually only going to be a three- to four-minute call. What I will do is: ACT were actually shy one minute—they're owed one minute—so I will halve this call. So it is 1½ minutes for ACT and 1½ minutes for Mr Glen Bennett."