Sowry Roger: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Sowry Roger: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:9662] 
Hon ROGER SOWRY (National) 
: 
 The title of this bill deserves debate because it misnames a large piece of legislation. The bill is not just about managing the land transport system; it includes allowing taxpayer money to be spent subsidising barging operations. Perhaps this bill should have reference to that in the title. If somebody thinks that coastal shipping comes under the Land Transport Management Bill that would be stretching the English language in the definition somewhat—but it does and coastal shipping will be entitled to subsidies under this new legislation. That is why this title is so wrong. 
It is also wrong because everybody who has read the bill knows that it will do nothing to advance the management of land transport in this country. In fact this bill’s purpose—and therefore it’s title—is best summed up by a comment from a Green member at the select committee: Mike Ward who said he hoped that the passing of the bill would ensure there would be no extra traffic growth on our roads. So if this bill is about zero growth in traffic then we should say— 
Sandra Goudie 
: Does he even own a car? 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: He does not. He does not have his licence—and is quite proud of it—and that is why he is the expert on land transport in the Green Party! We would be better off calling this bill by the title the Greens had—the “Road Traffic Reduction Bill”. At least that title reflected exactly what the bill is all about which is reducing the amount of traffic on the roads. This bill says that it is about managing traffic on land when in fact it includes subsidisation of coastal shipping subsidisation of barging the enabling of regional councils to own a whole new raft of infrastructural assets and the subsidisation of the construction of those assets. None of that is reflected in the present title. 
If that is not enough I want to agree with colleagues who have raised the issue of the Supplementary Order Paper that has been put on the Table today. It does not change the title but includes in relation to debating the title a whole new definition of transport. Transport now includes harbour ferries and ferries or barges on rivers or lakes. The title should reflect exactly what people want. If people are out there looking to set up a barging operation or some sort of boating operation with transportation across a lake they would not go to the Land Transport Management Bill to see what the regulations were that covered their operations. They would go to maritime legislation to look at those regulations. 
The least the Government can do is be honest with the title because this title is simply not honest in terms of what the bill does—and more important what the bill does not do. This bill will not deliver the solutions that Labour has promised Auckland for so long. The land transport problems in Auckland will not be solved by this bill which is titled the Land Transport Management Bill because nothing in its clauses goes any way at all to solving those problems. 
I hope members take the opportunity to vote against the title clause of the bill because it is so out of touch with the bill’s contents and I hope members also take the opportunity to chuck the bill out in its entirety as we move through its Committee stage.