King Colin: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Colin: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 01 July 2008. Volume:648;Page:17082. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 The Land Transport Management Amendment Bill is a marvellous piece of work and incredibly complex with page after page. On that basis the title of the bill is probably quite appropriate the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill. But I make the point that there is so much management that we have bureaucracy getting in the way of the intent of the bill. Too often this House tends to take a high view of things and that is probably where governance has its rightful position. I will draw the House’s attention to some of the very drivers that repeat themselves throughout this legislation including these thoughts of assisting economic development assisting safety and personal security improving access and mobility protecting and promoting public health and ensuring environmental sustainability. 
To bring things down to a regional level and to support the comments of my learned colleague David Bennett from Hamilton East who spoke earlier I say that it is quite sad to see that the regions have effectively been closed out of this bill in the sense that quite often when we look at the major issues that confront them we see that they do not show up in a meaningful way in the overall configuration of the National Land Transport Programme. 
I draw everybody’s attention to a situation in my own electorate. I have a newspaper headline entitled “Buck passes on Butter Factory corner”. Butter Factory corner is on State Highway 1. It is on the other side of the Bombay Hills but the situation there has been around for as long as Blenheim has been around and we are not able to even get it up on the radar screen. That is hugely concerning because if members look at what works have been done around elevations and bridges and things like that they will see that all too often in the region it takes a death on the road before anything is done. But at Butter Factory corner we have a complex situation whereby everybody is blaming one another. Transit is being blamed by the council and  
Marlborough Roads 
 is saying that it cannot do anything yet there was an opportunity for the regions to be able to have that flexibility. 
It was good to hear that they did submit to the select committee to ask for that flexibility to be able to raise a petrol tax. It was something I felt compelled to mention at the first reading of this bill and it is something I am pleased to see was canvassed. I am very sad that it was not taken on board and worked into the process. Maybe in time to come it might be the next step forward because when we look at the structure and the framework about getting these matters on to the National Land Transport Programme it takes an enormous amount of effort. 
We acknowledge the building of the Awatere bridge. There were no accidents on that bridge yet it was seen to be of such economic importance that it was a must-do. On that basis credit where credit is due but we do have an enormous problem around a market town such as Blenheim that has grown exponentially. We have a situation at Butter Factory corner where we have a railway line 10 metres from the apex of the corner and when a B train truck stops on that route it is parked over the railway line. It is complex. There is the opportunity to do business with the local landowner; however there is a bureaucratic jam in the system where nothing is happening. There is a school just up the way and again no matter how good this legislation is we must be able to see that the ability of the local region is taken on board and that we are not stymied completely. 
The Automobile Association has recognised this area as the No. 1 priority. When trucks come off the State highway and turn into this particular road cars have to back into the Canterbury Meatpackers’ freezing works to allow them to get through. The biggest problem as is articulated here is sadly when Transit does business and sits down and tries to talk to the landowner the landowner feels that he or she is going to be screwed over. 
So I just want to tell the Committee that it is very important that this is contextualised. It is a great piece of legislation but there is a lot more work still to do.