Russell Deborah; Pugh MaureenHon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm going to begin this contribution by putting to bed the ridiculous notion of $500000 speed bumps. I think it's important to do so because it's indicative of the way that that Government over there has approached this whole issue. It seized on one or two issues and then frankly pursued a misleading approach to what is going on. Now those $500000 speed bumps alleged were a blaring headline in the New Zealand Herald—$500000 speed bumps" they said blaring up. The Minister of Transport over there seized upon that number and has repeated it with glee. But the New Zealand Herald had to retract that number. Radio New Zealand who had repeated it had to retract that number. There was one speed bump—or one raised crossing I think—that had to be rebuilt because it encountered serious stormwater problems and that led to increased costs because of those serious stormwater problems; it incurred those costs. But the speed bumps and the like along Meola Road and the like cost around about $19000—cost a much much smaller amount than has been recited with glee by that side of the House. So the estimated cost of crossings is between $19000 and $31000.So I'm going to ask the Minister to treat this with a bit of integrity to treat this with a bit of being straightforward and to treat this going with what the real numbers are. So instead of reciting a headline that had to be withdrawn to go to the actual real numbers in this case.Let me go on to another issue. There has been no select committee process here yet again—yet again no select committee process. This Government has barrelled through bill after bill after bill after bill with no select committee process in some kind of frenzied attempt to meet an artificially imposed deadline of 100 days so that they can trotter around saying "Oh we've achieved a whole lot of 'stop repeal replace' in a hundred days." Well good on them! That does mean we haven't had a select committee process for this bill.So what I have chosen to do with the time I have available here is to actually get some evidence from what is happening in our largest city. So in the New Zealand Herald—what's the date today?—well yesterday the day before yesterday Monday: "Extra Buses for March Madness as Auckland's worst choke points revealed". It happens every year in Auckland. In March the roads are just beyond congested—extraordinary choke points on the road. Now it happens as the universities go back and the polytechnics go back and as schools go back so suddenly there is just a whole lot more people on the roads. The choke points are reasonably well known. We know it's East Tāmaki to Greenlane in the morning. It's Royal to St Lukes. We know it's Greville Road to Esmonde Road on the Northern Motorway. We know it's Manukau to Māngere northbound on State Highway 20. We know where the choke points are and we know what the problems are. We have some of the same issues going home in the evenings. Any Aucklander who is trying to get through the city at sort of between 8 and 10 in the morning or maybe 7 and 10 morning and trying to get home between say 3 and 6 in the evening we don't have to tell you this. It's northbound on the Southern Motorway from Princess Street to Greenlane. It's State Highway 20 and State Highway 1 merging in the evening—that's a really choked-up point. You know we might as well call State Highway 20 "a parking lot" at that time of the day. And on it goes just the known choke points.Now part of what we are trying to do in Auckland is to get people to change to public transport to change to active modes of transport so that we have fewer cars on the road. What some of the regional fuel tax was going to do was to help with that with providing those projects which would enable people to access other modes of transport so that they didn't have to be on the roads in their cars. Gone and the March madness will persist. So that's one story coming from Auckland.I thought this one was fascinating coming from Devonport. So this was on Radio New Zealand on 22 February. One of the local ward councillors on the Devonport Takapuna Local Board was really really worried when she heard the news that the regional fuel tax was going to be removed. Why? It was because the Lake Road project has gone. Now that's the road that runs down into the peninsula so from Takapuna down to Devonport and it is hopelessly crowded.Hon Member: Always blocked. Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: It is always blocked. It makes life quite difficult for people living on that peninsula. You know Devonport is a really beautiful suburb and I can understand why people want to live there but they cannot get in and they cannot get out. Why? It's because Lake Road is choked up. Now one of the potential improvements that actually hasn't just been put on hold but has been stopped was the improvements to Lake Road that were going to help with the congestion along there. So taking out the regional fuel tax has left people in Devonport stuck with their deeply congested road. Now I know that people in Devonport quite overwhelmingly voted for that Government; I'm beginning to wonder if they regret their choices.And here again another piece of information and this is in lieu of the submissions that we might have received is from Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. Now Mr Brown can be fairly cantankerous at times but he's a pretty straight-dealing sort of man. It's one of the interesting things about dealing with him: he might be grumpy but by goodness you get a straight answer from him. You get some pretty straight language and it makes him quite easy to deal with because at least you know where he stands on stuff. He has warned he says that actually stopping the Auckland fuel tax is going to create huge problems for Auckland. He has been quite outspoken about how he actually wanted that regional fuel tax to continue. He has had to call for a stop on all sorts of transport projects because the regional fuel tax is no longer in place. It's not just Mr Brown; it's other city councillors who have said that this is a real problem. The transport committee chair John Watson said that a number of significant projects have been left up in the air. Councillor Richard Hills said that the projects that were being funded through the regional fuel tax were needed. So by removing the regional fuel tax that Government has created real ongoing problems for Auckland. The Auckland Mayor who said you know "We needed that funding up in Auckland." has put a stop to projects that were needed. Well thank you very much you know we're one of the people who are stuck in that.But I want to talk a little bit further because some of the other submissions that might have come in—had there only been submissions—might have got to some of the information that was revealed in this disclosure statement. We've already traversed a little bit of the information that was there about the actual impact on people's back pockets which we know is going to be about $2.70 a week per household—big deal! But there are going to be a couple of problems. One is that in theory the price of fuel is going to drop by 10c a litre. Now no matter that it varies by more than that across the city a lot even on a single day but driving from the Gull station in Titirangi down to the Mobil station in New Lynn can see a 10c increase in the price of petrol just because of the way that pricing operates. But one of the things about the way those prices fluctuate means it is going to be very hard to be sure that that 10c a litre is actually going to be passed on to consumers. I haven't heard a word yet from the other side of the House as to how they are going to ensure that the actual benefit of that cut is going to be passed on to the consumers instead of just quietly absorbed by the fuel companies. So I'd like to hear about that and I'll be asking the Minister about it later on in the committee of the whole House stage of the bill.But let me just read the last paragraph of the disclosure statement that was prepared by the Minister's own officials—the last paragraph. It says: "Removing the Regional Fuel Tax is unlikely to have a substantive impact on households and this change would need to be made alongside other interventions in order to help reduce the cost of living on Aucklanders." What are the other interventions that they put in place in this space? Well they're going to whack up the cost of registration by $50. An own goal Minister; you are making the wrong decision.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): The question is that the motion be agreed to."