Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National): Madam Speaker thank you. I want to thank the member for Northcote for his thoughtful contribution to this very important debate noting of course that he sat on the select committee and considered all the submissions. I did not unfortunately have the privilege of sitting on the Transport and Infrastructure Committee although I've previously been a member of the committee and previously been a transport spokesperson for the National Party and now I'm the infrastructure spokesperson.In this contribution I want to lay out our position on congestion pricing. I think it's really good that we are having a special debate on this topic. This is one of these rare issues where there is—I think I'm right in saying—unanimity across the Parliament: congestion pricing. As I understand it the Labour Party is cautiously supportive of congestion pricing. Certainly that seems to be the indication from Shanan Halbert and the Minister. The National Party has been in favour of it being introduced in New Zealand. We made that clear back in 2018 and 2019 and at the 2020 election the ACT Party—I believe I'm right in saying—is in favour of it as are the Greens although no doubt we'll hear from resident transport expert Julie Anne Genter in her contribution. So I think I'm right in saying there is unanimity in the Parliament. So really the question for the Government is: what are you waiting for? Let's get on with it.The history of this is an interesting one. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has been issuing reports on congestion pricing since 1993. So we're going back nearly 30 years—the NZIER has been making the case for better pricing on our roads to manage demand on our roads and of course it was the last National Government through the Auckland Transport Alignment Project that set in place the programme of work that led to the congestion question report. So back in 2015 2016 2017 the Auckland Transport Alignment Project carried through into the new Government of 2017 onwards. So this has been a programme of work between central government and local government in Auckland in particular that spans the last National Government and the current Labour Government as well. So the question really is at some point the Government has to make a decision and say that the time has come. I think we're almost at that point. The Ministry of Transport and Auckland Council have done all these reports and they got kicked to the Transport and Infrastructure Committee to kick around and the committee has issued a very thoughtful and sensible and useful report. But at some point someone has to make a decision. That can't be us because we're not in Government—at least not for the moment. [Interruption] I'm trying to be constructive here. We're not in Government guys—in case you hadn't noticed. You like to point it out on a regular basis. You are. So at some point a decision has to be made.I just want to make it clear that the benefits are vast. All of the economic studies 90 percent of economists are in favour of congestion pricing. It's one of these issues where if you ask an economist if they're in favour of congestion pricing the vast bulk will say they are. It's like free trade. Yes there are a few economists who decry free trade but if you ask economists Is free trade better or not?" the vast bulk of them will say "Yes absolutely. It's economically efficient leads to economic growth. There's a comparative advantage etc." Congestion pricing is in the same boat. If you ask most economists particularly transport economists if they are in favour of congestion pricing they'll say "Yes. It leads to more efficient use of the roads it uses price as a mechanism to manage demand. When roads are free people overuse the roads. When you put a price on the roads you create the economic incentive to look for alternatives or people defer their travel to the times in which they don't face that charge or they look for public bus or rail or whatever the particular alternative is." It's exactly the way the emissions trading scheme (ETS) works. When you put a price on carbon over time it sends the right economic signals through the market.Hon Scott Simpson: Behavioural change.CHRIS BISHOP: Exactly. As my colleague the Hon Scott Simpson says it leads to behavioural change—and you're seeing that play out through the ETS right now. Now that there is a price on carbon and it has flown through the economy generators in the electricity market are making different decisions. That's been the case for the last 10 years. You're seeing major industrial users start to make different decisions around what energy sources they use and around the way in which they do their lighting and energy-efficiency initiatives. Prices work. We just don't have proper or very effective road pricing on our roads. So is there more we can do with road pricing? Yes there absolutely is. Is congestion pricing a part of that mix? Yes it is and as Shanan Halbert rightly pointed out the most comprehensive technical study done in the last couple of years showed an 8 to 12 percent reduction in congestion as a result of properly implemented congestion pricing. You might think that 8 to 12 percent doesn't sound like a lot but it is. It's the equivalent of school holiday traffic as Shanan Halbert pointed out. And as the Ministry of Transport advice to the committee said that would lead to a meaningful lift in transport and economic productivity. What's the great disease that confronts the New Zealand economy? Productivity—our lack of productivity growth. At the end of the day that's what everything is all about when it comes to wages and prosperity and wealth—it's productivity that drives wages and wealth and prosperity. Congestion pricing will lead to better and more economic use of resources and lead to a lift in productivity. It's not the be-all and end-all. It's not the silver bullet clearly and I see Julie Anne Genter nodding furiously. So it's not the one lever we need to pull or bullet we need to fire to set us on the path to economic nirvana. There is no silver bullet. If there was—well this Government wouldn't have pulled it. If there was the last Government would have pulled it. There isn't. It's a whole bunch of a hundred different things we need to do as a country to get our economic growth rate up and to get our economic productivity rate up. This is part of it. This is one of many hundreds of things we have to do.So yes there are questions about when we implement it. Yes that's a legitimate question. Clearly it can't be tomorrow—we're not in a position to do it tomorrow not least because the rail network in Auckland is going to go into managed shutdown next year and in 2024 and that's a whole other issue that we need to get to the bottom of—how exactly that's happened; most of the rail network is going to shut down for most of the next two years. That is an issue and we need to get to the bottom of exactly how that debacle has happened. It's going to cause chaos in Auckland and it's a shocker. I personally think we need greater accountability as to how exactly KiwiRail—which has been poorly run for the last few years. It's a poorly run organisation and we need to know exactly how that's been allowed to happen and we need to know what information was flowing to Ministers and to officials about what's happened. So it clearly can't happen tomorrow and there's a legitimate question about when it happens. We've got the City Rail Link coming—a great project started by the last National Government. We're very proud of it and I'm looking forward to seeing that finished. And of course we've got the Eastern Busway in Simeon Brown's electorate which is taking 20 years to build. It's taken far too long and we need to be doing more on busways in Auckland and as my good friend Julie Anne Genter always points out to me the Northern Busway is the single greatest transport project we've ever built in New Zealand and it's a rare occasion that I agree with her. When the Northern Busway was built it had a benefit cost ratio of 1. They thought it was basically about economic. Now 40 percent of people cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge on the Northern Busway. Amazing project. So we need more busways not the fantasyland economics of Auckland light rail which will never get built and not this $30 million tram or—actually light rail is a misnomer. It's not even light rail any more. It's called Auckland light rail but it's not actually light rail but it will never get built. We don't need that but we do need more busways and the cost-benefit ratios for those are much better.So we need more busways and there's a question about when we do it but the real question that's confronting the House in this report on congestion pricing is: when and will we actually do it? That's really a question for the Government because—and I'll end my speech where I started—there is unanimity on the idea. There are questions about exactly how and exactly when but there are not really questions about whether or not it has to happen. It does and that is in the Government's decision-making framework—not us."