Brownlee Gerry: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Brownlee Gerry: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:9675] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
: 
 I do not know much about this bill at all I must confess. I am pleased as the newly appointed spokesperson on transport for the National Party to announce that I have done no work on this bill whatsoever. I am delighted to find today that I need not have bothered and that I have been quite insightful in not finding out anything about this bill. When the Prime Minister was asked in the House today about this particular piece of legislation she said it is a good piece of legislation but one cannot expect a Labour Government to put anything right. If it is so good and if the Government cannot fix anything with this bill why would one bother to put any time into it? 
That Minister can wave his hands in absolute disgust as a member of the Labour Party caucus that the Prime Minister should be so honest with the House as she was today but I ask why we are discussing this bill when the Prime Minister has conceded that it will not put right the problem. That is what the House heard today. Members can talk all they like about the money going to Auckland; my colleague John Key outlined how many hundreds of millions of dollars are being sucked out of the South Island and other parts of New Zealand and sent to Auckland. What for? To fix the roads which the Prime Minister has told us today will not happen under a Labour Government. 
I noticed earlier in the day that the Government put out a release stating that it had put an extra $21 million into Auckland roads. 
Hon Paul Swain 
: When? 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: The Minister sitting in the chair is saying “When? What? Where? Why?”. He is scratching his head; he does not know. He should talk to the Hon Judith Tizard. She announced today that an extra $21 million would be spent in Auckland on the roading system to fix up the drains the gutters and the walking tracks. Not one car will move faster more smoothly or more quickly to its destination because of that spend. The Government collects $256 million out of the taxpayers’ pockets gives out a lousy $21 million and brings a bill into the House that the Prime Minister says will not fix the problem. 
I ask the Minister why we are discussing this bill. The Minister went up and down the country saying to the major groups that have an interest in roading that they should not worry about this bill. He told them that the Government had to put the bill through the House because it had stitched up a deal with the Greens but that it wanted those groups to oppose the bill as much as they could. He said that the Government had to put it through that that was the price of it being in coalition but that it would bring in another bill in the New Year by which time it would have convinced United Future that it was now so hopelessly dependent upon the success of the Labour Government for its own future that it would have to support that bill no matter what. That is what the Minister has done. This is the way the Government is putting out the spin. 
I have always said sadly that people understand small numbers more than they do the bigger ones. When one talks about $256 million or in the case of the Auckland roading system now it seems a blowout to about $3 billion New Zealanders understand that as just a big number. When one talks about $21 million New Zealanders think it is just 6 months of good luck on a Saturday night; they understand that figure. This Government cynically manipulates that sort of understanding to make out that it is doing something about the transport problems in the big city of this country Auckland. 
As the Minister seems keen to talk to the Committee I want to know why after all these years we suddenly find that a new bridge is going up in the Waimakariri electorate. Is it not fantastic! The ACT party talks about a club of the right getting together to unseat Clayton Cosgrove and suddenly a bridge that has not been needed for over 25 years comes out of the bag and the pork-barrel Government goes on its way spending taxpayer money all over the place. I am very pleased about it. I am delighted that that bridge is going there. It is a very important access way to our city. I am pleased that the Minister has done it. But there is nothing like a little bit of vested interest and the fear that Government is slipping away to get those members moving.