O'Rourke Denis: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: General Debate[Sitting date: 03 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4273. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): Transport is one of the most vital functions for any Government but in New Zealand regional transport is being shunted aside. New Zealand First is the party for the regions because we would put that right. We deplore it that only $97 million has been set aside in the Budget for regional roads and only $210 million has been set aside for rail. These are drops in the bucket and show no real commitment to regional transport issues by this Government. Northland has suffered transport neglect for far too long. An improved highway from Pūhoi to Wellsford is a high priority. Everybody agrees with that but only the link as far as Warkworth has been actually planned and budgeted for.Rail is also seriously neglected there. You can have a look for yourself as I did on the weekend at the rail link from Auckland to Whangarei which is in a shocking state and needs significant improvement and maintenance to service the deep-water port at Whangarei which is the main alternative to the struggling Ports of Auckland. Passenger rail for far too long has been neglected in north-west Auckland and it is being run down. There is a special housing area of 2500 homes planned for Huapai Kūmeu but the Waitakere Station is to be closed in July and the station at Huapai has been closed for some time yet it is a modern fully functional station built only in 2009. North-west Auckland has got the railway line it has got the stations it has got the rolling stock and it has got the population growth. What it needs is that rail link upgraded and not for stations to be closed.Let us look at Hawke’s Bay. We have the dumb decision by KiwiRail and this Government not to reopen the Napier-Gisborne rail link. Currently there is 1.6 million tonnes of logging per year there and 390 trucks on the road projected to go to 2.2 million tonnes and 430 trucks by 2022.Hon Anne Tolley: Logs have never used that railway line—never.DENIS O’ROURKE: The cost is only $4 million and local MP Anne Tolley once supported the reopening of that line at home but not when she is in Wellington. She is a lion in public at home but a lamb in Cabinet. That is her record on regional transport; that is her record in the Hawke’s Bay—not one to be proud of.In Wellington the Capital Connection serviceis planned to close. It is the only commuter service for up to 700 people per week between Palmerston North and Wellington but poor management by KiwiRail and a lack of maintenance and development of the route are the problem there. Incompetent KiwiRail management actually wants to de-electrify the main trunk line from Hamilton to Palmerston North. Ditching a core existing electrified rail route is nothing short of vandalism. New Zealand First would instead electrify the entire Auckland to Wellington route.In Canterbury the earthquakes caused a huge outflow of people north to Rangiora Kaiapoi and Pegasus and south to Rolleston. Road traffic to the north especially is now chronic. Surplus carriages and locomotives are available and so for just the cost of a few temporary low-cost railway stations we could have an effective passenger rail system from those places to the centre of Christchurch. It could easily be done but nothing of course is being done by this Government.In Auckland the completion of the Auckland City Rail Link is urgent but this Government dithers. There is also a need for a passenger rail link to the airport in Auckland via Onehunga and there are many opportunities for new light rail networks in Auckland City.Rail should have a great future but it needs a better development strategy and I am not confident that this 30-year strategy talked about by Simon Bridges today would be what we need. I would have very little confidence in that because as a consequence of the National Government’s underfunding and downgrading of the rail network KiwiRail has degraded and undermined the entire rail network and has ignored any opportunity to enhance and expand it.Finally other countries develop and electrify rail networks; in this country the opposite happens.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.