Locke Keith: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Locke Keith: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17494] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 In the estimates report from the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee there is a transcript of the Minister’s comments to the committee where she says that the roading budget will be $1.7 billion which is more than double what it was in 1999—that is $850 million—and of the present Budget $980 million will be spent on roading in Auckland. She talks about $480 million being spent on public transport and that over 5 years the expenditure on public transport will be $2.5 billion which indicates that public transport spending will be about the same for 5 years despite the fact that the petrol price increase has been quite dramatic over the past few years particularly over the past year and projections are that it will go much higher. 
Surely that situation should affect the spending on public transport. Public transport is still a poor party compared with roading expenditure at a time when the car traffic on our highways is dropping particularly because of the petrol price increase. The price for motoring has now gone up substantially. The Automobile Association says costs have gone up over the last year by $614 per motorist for those who travel about 14000 kilometres a year. The Government and the Minister often say—rightly so if we look at it in terms of multiples since the Government came to office—that there has been quite a significant increase in public transport expenditure. But when we compare it with roading expenditure the $480 million being spent on public transport in the current year is much less than the $850 million increase in roading expenditure since the Government came to power. 
In some ways the increase in public transport spending is just part of an increase in the usage of public transport. For instance in Auckland the usage of rail has gone up hugely—in fact by 35 percent over the last year I understand or from about 1 million journeys a few years ago to 5 million or more now—and bus usage has gone up by 7.3 percent in the past year. The Government’s per-passenger funding accounts for most of that increase in public transport expenditure up to $480 million and still we have very overcrowded buses and overcrowded trains. Particularly at peak hours very often there is more demand for public transport than there are buses and trains available. 
The reason why the Greens are saying to cut back the roading expenditure and put the money into public transport expenditure—and Jeanette Fitzsimons has a member’s bill before the House now that will move in that direction—is that there is so much more that needs to be done. I do praise the Government for what has been achieved in terms of the Northern Busway coming on stream the Auckland line double tracking the reopening of the Onehunga line and the Auckland line electrification that can now proceed now that the Land Transport Management Bill has been passed. But there is just so much more to be done particularly in Auckland. 
The Auckland Regional Transport Authority has a project that will cost over $1 billion for extending rail beyond the dead-end of the Britomart underground connecting up with Mount Eden running a new line from Avondale through to Onehunga and then from Onehunga to the airport the airport to Manukau City and then hopefully beyond that around and through to Botany Downs. That will involve a huge amount of extra expenditure and the money devoted so far if we are looking at it over 5 years being $2.5 billion—not much of an increase on the present—is just not sufficient. 
The money that needs to be spent on cycling and walking is currently in this Budget at $33 million and that is good but we obviously need a lot more than that and a lot more pressure on and coordination with the local authorities to build a proper network. Thank you.