Tuiono Teanau; Wood MichaelTEANAU TUIONO (Green): I'll be going mode shift as well myself. Just some context. Recently a campaign has been launched for free public transport for community services card holders students and anyone under 25. Reducing public transport fares is a quick way to encourage mode shift and reduce emissions. It also provides lower-income people with more affordable transport options. Does the Minister want to see public transport fares reduced to encourage mode shift and to give low-income New Zealanders better transport options?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): Thank you Mr Chair. Look making sure that public transport is as accessible as possible to all New Zealanders is really important both in terms of increasing patronage and in terms of our broader objectives around equity and fairness in our society. There's some really important things that we've done over the last year there. Over the course of COVID-19 the Government's provided additional funding to support what's called farebox recovery which has meant that as patronage has dropped off because of the effects of COVID we've provided additional support to make sure that services can continue without local councils having to increase fares. But really importantly we've also started work in this year on how we can directly target reduced fares for people on the lowest incomes. I did announce a little earlier this year and there's funding in Budget 2020 for an initial pilot of what we're calling the community connect card which is programmed to commence next year which will provide 50 percent lower fares for people with community services cards in Auckland. My hope and ambition is that we will be able to expand that out over time to give the benefit of lower cost public transport to more New Zealanders and I've received the petition the member refers to. I will continue to look at that and we'll make further considerations as a part of our response to the emissions reduction plan consultation.TEANAU TUIONO (Green): Will the Government commit to advancing free fares for transport disadvantaged groups such as community services card holders under-25s in Budget 2022?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): The Minister of Finance wouldn't be too happy if I made a commitment on behalf of the Government prior to the Budget process making its way through. But I'll certainly be continuing to make representations to ensure that we do have good funding. And as I've just said to the member I was very pleased that the Minister of Finance did see fit to support the community connect pilot that we are planning on running next year. The other comment I'll just make on this of course is we do have the emissions reduction plan consultation under way now and we do think it's important that we consider the feedback on that look at the range of proposals and ideas in the round and then make some good decisions as to how we support a better and more accessible public transport system.TEANAU TUIONO (Green): Why are SuperGold card holders provided significant public transport fare subsidies nationwide but not community services card holders and under-25s?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): I think that the institution of the SuperGold card which occurred under a previous Labour-led Government was a really important advance and it provides a particular benefit to seniors who without easy access to transport options can become very isolated and really have their options cut off. So I'm a strong supporter of the SuperGold card and it's something that I'm proud that it was this side of the House that instituted it some years ago and has made good efforts to retain it. So I think there are good reasons for retaining that. But I do take on board the member's point that there are other groups in our community who do have very fixed incomes. And that's why in that initial piece of work we're focused on people on the community services card who by definition are people from households with low income who often do suffer from transport poverty often really struggle with the running costs of a vehicle but might also struggle with what others of us might see as relatively small public transport fares. So that's why we've started the work there. And as I say I'm keen that we expand that out as much as we can and subject to me getting the support I need through Budget processes.