Swain Paul: Land Transport Management Bill — Third Reading 
Swain Paul: Land Transport Management Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:613;Page:9802] 
Hon PAUL SWAIN (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 I move  
That the Land Transport Management Bill be now read a third time 
. The Land Transport Management Bill signals a new era for the planning and operation of the country’s transport infrastructure. The legislation will ensure greater consistency in long-term planning of the networks a more integrated transport infrastructure and a multimodal approach to the sector and it will provide new mechanisms for funding roads. 
The legislation has been strengthened and improved by the work of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and the amendments in Supplementary Order Paper 165 in my name approved by the Committee of the whole House yesterday. Consultation requirements have been simplified and clarified. Efficiency and effectiveness now appear in the purpose clause of the bill and are taken into account when Transfund assesses applications or activities. Tolling is now permissible on new roading infrastructure provided there is community support for a project. The select committee has also decided to include a degree of flexibility in the bill in response to submissions. A project will require the specific approval of the Minister and civil penalties have been added where any conditions of the project are breached. 
Public-private partnerships are arrangements in which the private sector and public agencies work together to bring forward projects that are difficult to fund under existing funding arrangements. The bill now contains a more flexible funding option around lease arrangements similar to the Melbourne City Link project in Victoria Australia. The bill allows for early conditional approval from the Minister of Transport who must be satisfied that any conditions are met before the concession agreement is entered into. 
Regional transport planning has been improved by emphasising the strategic focus of regional land transport strategies and by clarifying the relationship between various planning organisations. Regional councils will be able to own and operate public transport services and infrastructure and that was a manifesto commitment by the Labour Party. This legislation is not the end of the story and further legislation may be needed next year as a result of ongoing work being done between central and local government in the Auckland region. 
Some thanks are due given that we are in the process of passing this legislation. Firstly I acknowledge the work of the Green Party and in particular of Jeanette Fitzsimons. She and the Green Party have worked constructively and collaboratively with the Progressive-Labour Government on this important issue of transport. On many occasions the debate went long into the night and the highlight for me was the debate around the issues of traffic demand management. In 10 years’ time when that is such a standard thing in transport planning that no one even gives it a second thought people will look back to this legislation and see that it was indeed a landmark. I also thank the United Future party and in particular Larry Baldock who spent many hours with us in working through some of the issues particularly those around alternative funding mechanisms. I thank the members of the select committee and the chairs Helen Duncan and Mark Gosche. I also thank Roger Sowry who stood in in an acting capacity for a short while. 
I particularly thank the hard-working and dedicated officials who have worked tirelessly for long and hard hours on trying to work their way through what have been some extremely difficult concepts and turn them not only into policy but also into law. I thank them for their dedication and hard work; we are now seeing the fruits of their labour. In particular I thank the partners of the officials because they have had to put up with their partners working many hours late into the night here. They are due a special vote of thanks. We now give them back their loved ones hopefully in no worse a condition than when they left some months ago. I also thank the officials in my office particular Susan Graham and Michael Parker for the incredible work—now going back a very very long time—that has been done on this legislation. 
This is a particularly good bill. It is a landmark piece of legislation that will change the way in which transport is planned and delivered in New Zealand. I am particularly proud of it and I commend it to the House.