Key John: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Key John: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:9673] 
JOHN KEY (National—Helensville) 
: 
 It is not true that the Land Transport Management Bill is good for nothing. In my opinion it has two very fine uses: the first could be as a doorstop. If doused in petrol its second use could be as a Little Lucifer fire-starter. What it will not do is fix New Zealand’s roads or Auckland’s roads. 
I want to put this in perspective: if this legislation were used to construct the Flemington track where the Melbourne Cup was run today we would not need gallopers we would need hurdlers. They would have to be good hurdlers. They would have to jump over hurdles so high that they would be unbelievable. This legislation is drafted by the Greens for the Greens. It is all about coalition arrangements and all about walking buses around the Coromandel. It has nothing to do with the $1.4 billion of economic activity that is just not happening in Auckland. 
We have sat through this debate and heard some self-congratulatory speeches from the Labour Party. What a load of nonsense! What a load of waffle! If the Minister’s own officials cannot provide him with the information I will do so myself. Never let the facts get involved with a good story! That has a helluva lot to do with Part 1 which is meant to fix the problem outlined by the Government. We have been told that Auckland roads are being fixed because the Labour Government is spending more money. Let me just point this little fact out: in the 2002-03 period $151 million was spent on Auckland’s roads. It was up from $89 million. That is quite correct. That is an increase of about $80 million—$80 million out of the $256 million that was raised on the 4.7c petrol tax. 
Just before the Government goes round congratulating itself on what a wonderful job it has done fixing New Zealand’s roads I want to say that it has failed miserably and is a disgrace. This legislation is so bad that the Minister went up and down the country begging people to oppose it. He said he wanted people to write the strongest submissions they could because this was the biggest load of rubbish they had ever seen in their lives and had nothing to do with fixing roads. What he said was: “Look very quietly this is about a coalition agreement with the Greens. I have not drafted it. It has not come from my officials. It has not come out of my office. It has come out of some woofter in the Greens—and Heather Simpson.” That is what has happened. 
I want to tell members how much worse it has become. Not only has this legislation now come out of the Greens but I sat on that select committee—day after day hour after hour—and begged the Labour members to put efficiency into the clause. I was on my hands and knees begging them for efficiency. Do members know what they told me? They gave me the old “deer in the headlights” look. There was no response from Paul Swain’s office. He did not want to know because he was too busy booming up the coalition arrangement and being Helen Clark’s lapdog. That is what this bill is all about. That is what was happening. 
Lo and behold what do we see? Efficiency has now been introduced. Why? Because United Future wandered over and said it might not be good for much or contributed much but if the Government did not put efficiency in United Future would not like it either. Mr Swain said: “What the hell when we are forming legislation that is good for a coalition negotiation who cares whether it fixes roads! That is not our objective.” 
This legislation has failed so miserably that I do not know why I am going on to discuss the individual bits of it. It is so bad that after asking people to campaign against his bill Mr Swain gave up and set up the joint officials group. We all know that at a date between 15 and 17 December it will come back and say that this hopeless legislation is a waste of space but do not worry about it because we have our coalition agreement tied up and here is the real deal we will present to the people of Auckland. That is now called blatant vote buying. We have tied up the old coalition arrangements so now we will get out there and try and hoodwink the good people of Auckland. Well it will not work because they are good in the Labour Party at babysitting the settlers.