Carter John: Road Traffic Reduction Bill — Second Reading 
Carter John: Road Traffic Reduction Bill — Second Reading 
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JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 I was not going to take a call in this debate because— 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: Sit down. 
JOHN CARTER 
: I would sit down but the point is that after the last address I feel myself compelled to take a call. One fact that came out of the speech made by Dave “Horeora” in the debate tonight has to be repeated. [ 
Interruption 
] The member should listen to this; it is important. New Zealand was waiting for something to come out of the Labour Government from this debate tonight and it is this: Dave “Horeora” was responding to a comment made by Peter Brown when he talked about the Green spokesperson on transport and I want it recorded because it is important. Apparently Peter Brown said that the spokesperson on transport from the Greens should have a driver’s licence and Dave “Horeora” said that of course it was not fair that one should have a driver’s licence only for driving. Apparently one had to have a driver’s licence for marriage as well. 
David Benson-Pope 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That is the third time the senior whip Mr Carter has—presumably accidentally—inaccurately referred to my colleague and mispronounced his name. I would ask him to abide by the Standing Orders. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I think it was inadvertent. I take it that the member knows the correct pronunciation of the name of the member who spoke before him. 
JOHN CARTER 
: No. Can you tell me what it is? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Hereora. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Hereora. OK. I do apologise to the member. I was not trying to take the mickey out of him about his name. However I will try to highlight this issue. In fact I will not even say his name now in case I get it wrong. I want to highlight this issue because I think it is important. 
When members think about some of the things this Government has done they will realise that it has been very cunning in the way it has made those announcements. Obviously it was that member’s turn to make that announcement with regard to marriage and family tonight. Now one does not have to get a marriage licence; rather one has to get a driver’s licence when one wants to get married. The mind starts to boggle. Can members imagine a person in a car with a testing officer who is testing that person on driving and half way through the officer says to change into second gear. The person starts to move the gear lever forward and the testing officer says to put the blinker on. The person starts to put the blinker on making sure he or she is getting it right and when turning the corner says: “By the way can I get married?”. The poor old testing officer will not know whether that person means to the officer or to someone else—or who the heck that person is getting married to. It will certainly not be anyone from Labour because there will not be anyone here after the next election—but what a revelation! That is the problem with this debate. That contribution is at about the level of contribution that Labour is making now to the governance of this country. 
That brings me to the thing I really want to say. Here are the Labour members banging on about the fact that National did not do this and National did not do that—we did not open any roads and there are no plaques around the place. The fact is that that may or may not be so—and it is not actually accurate—but more important the point is that it is 5 years since Labour took over governance of this country—5 long years; 1999-2004. Well let us be pedantic. It is 4½ years—or however long one likes—and what has it done about Auckland’s congestion? Labour members have added to it. The only thing they do is to get in their LTDs and drive around Auckland— 
Brian Connell 
: And then they are getting married. 
JOHN CARTER 
: And then they use drivers’ licences to get married to people. 
The real problem is that this is the Government that added 4c on to a litre of petrol—I cannot remember exactly when—and increased the petrol tax. Why did it do that? Those members came into this House saying they had to do it so they could get the roading infrastructure right and get everything right. What has happened? [ 
Interruption 
] It is the cost of a driver’s licence. The question is: what has happened to the money? It has gone into the consolidated account. There is a $240-million surplus. What will happen to that? It will go back into Michael Cullen’s surplus. 
Brian Connell 
: They said that was for Auckland roading. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Well it has not gone on Auckland roading has it? It has gone into the consolidated account. [ 
Interruption 
] The “paint stripper” from the other side can cry as much as she likes but that is the actual fact about the matter—it keeps going back into the consolidated account. Why? What have they done to make it work? Nothing. 
What have they done about planning? Before we left office we had a plan to get the planning right. The Hon Nick Smith had a bill prepared that would have overcome some of the planning problems and allowed us to proceed. What did Government members do? They scrapped it. They consigned it to the wastepaper bin and changed it so it was hopeless mainly because the Greens were—well I cannot say what they were kissing. Anyway the fact is that they did away with the planning legislation that would have helped them out. 
The next thing that is a worry is that the Government is saying not only did it put petrol up by 4c a couple of years ago but it is going to whack it up another 5c. Why? Because it wants to fix the roads in Auckland—fix the congestion here and fix the congestion there. It cannot do the planning because that will take 3 or 4 or 10 years to get through. But even if it does do the planning what about this question: who will they get to do the work? There are not the firms in this country to carry out all the work that needs to be done if the money were available. Has the Government thought about that? 
Brian Connell 
: What about the RMA? 
JOHN CARTER 
: Well we have dealt with the Resource Management Act. But the Government will have to bring people in from overseas to carry out the work if it is to be done and will this Government allow private enterprise firms from overseas in here? Not on your nelly! One has to be joking. It would be like the driver asking the testing officer to marry him or her for goodness’ sake. It would be the same sort of thing. It is just a nonsense and some of the things the Government is doing I have to say in this House absolutely stagger me. Having listened to some of the speeches and excuses from the member who just resumed his seat one has to say no wonder Labour is in trouble politically because its thinking is all over the place. 
Sandra Goudie 
: The wheels have fallen off. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Well in this case the wheels have fallen off. At last Labour members are starting to feel the breeze of change going up their skirts and they do not like it. They are starting to get all worried about what is happening in the House. Their speeches are showing it and their demeanour is showing it. The whole way they are looking shows they know they are in trouble and they know that some of the things they are doing will cause them more problems. My colleague from Coromandel remarked to me that she had never heard so many back-benchers speak on a Wednesday night as we have tonight. We have never heard them take full speeches and we cannot understand why. It is a change of tactics—they are worried. This bill is another example of why they will go down the gurgler. 
Motion not agreed to.