9. Question No. 9—TransportSIMON COURT (ACT) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 9—Transport9. SIMON COURT (ACT) to the Minister of Transport: How much money has been spent in total on transport policies that have been cancelled or re-scoped by this Government and how much of this if any has been spent on consultants and contractors?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): I'm advised that across the four transport policies that were cancelled or re-scoped as part of the reprioritisation of the Government's work programme in March approximately $4040000 was spent of which approximately $1807000 was contractor or consultant spend. This reprioritisation has enabled approximately $600 million of savings to be realised which have the potential to be invested in other priorities particularly carbon emission reduction projects. Simon Court: Can the Minister confirm that as at 28 February 2023 $726000 had been spent on the cancelled clean car upgrade programme with not a single car upgraded and that's $287000 more than what was reported in Stuff this morning?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: I can refer the member back to my primary answer which gave an overall cost for the programmes that we reprioritised. If the member wants confirmation of individual projects and he wants to approach my office I'm happy to provide that.Simon Court: Does the Minister stand by his statement that Waka Kotahi expects further costs to be incurred over the coming months as the clean car upgrade programme is closed down." and if so what is the total estimated amount to close down this programme which has delivered nothing?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: When programmes and projects are reprioritised there sometimes will be closing-out costs which have to be incurred; that will be worked through in the coming period in respect to this one. Overall New Zealanders appreciate the fact that our Government took a hard-nosed look at our programme and has made reprioritisations in order to ensure that we get the best benefits for New Zealanders.Simon Court: Point of order Mr Speaker. I don't consider the Minister has addressed the question sufficiently. It was a question about how much will it cost to wind down the programme. SPEAKER: It was addressed.Simon Court: Can the Minister confirm that as at 31 October 2002 he had spent $38 million on the now cancelled speed-limit reduction programme which less than a third of Kiwis supported; and what is the estimated amount to wind down this programme?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: Waka Kotahi and local government are the agencies which are responsible for managing speed limits across the State highway and local roading network. They continue to have that role under statute. The Government has confirmed that there will be a focus on the 1 percent of roads where the highest level of harm occurs in Waka Kotahi's future works. So it is wrong to say that that work is not continuing at all. As I said earlier on the Government does believe that reprioritising—looking closely at our spending—is a valuable thing to do. Had the previous National-ACT Government done that a bit earlier they might not have spent $30 million building a sheep farm in the Saudi desert. David Seymour: Point of order Mr Speaker. There were two legs to the question: can he confirm $38 million spent and what will be the remaining expenditure to be wound up? He didn't come close to addressing either of those; he just gave generalities about who is responsible for speed limits. SPEAKER: Yes I'll give the member two extra questions. Simon Court: Why did the Minister think that spending $569 million on a "cash for clunkers" scheme to reduce emissions at a cost of up to $1.138 million a tonne—21000 times more expensive than the emissions trading scheme—was a good idea in the first place?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: The Government has made investments and policy decisions to clean up New Zealand's dirty vehicle fleet. We have made exceptional progress in that area and we have turned vehicles coming into New Zealand's fleet from being some of the dirtiest vehicles on average in the world to being some of the cleanest vehicles in the world on average through our Clean Car Programme. The clean car upgrade that the member refers to was designed to ensure that lower-income New Zealanders were able to access the benefits of cleaner vehicles but we've decided that there are better ways of achieving that outcome. Simon Court: Would spending tens of millions of dollars on cancelled speed limit projects social car leasing schemes and "cash for clunkers" have been avoided if the Minister had listened to the sensible opposition from ACT to those policies in the first place?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: No. In formulating the Government's policy to reduce transport emissions I don't listen to modern-day climate deniers.SPEAKER: Question No. 10 Dr Anae Neru Leavasa—Oh sorry. Point of order David Seymour.David Seymour: Point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister has completely failed to address the question. He spoke of "modern-day climate deniers" but ACT actually has the most sensible climate policy in the whole Parliament.SPEAKER: Yeah—no we'll call that one all shall we because the first word the Minister said was "No.""