Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
Williamson Maurice: General Debate 
[Volume:642;Page:12445] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 About 5 years ago this Labour-led Government passed legislation called the Land Transport Management Act. At the time of passing it not only Minister Paul Swain but a number of Government members crowed about what a fantastic new innovation the Land Transport Management Act would bring to the funding of roads. Mr Swain said that the bill would finally allow the private sector to be able to fund the building of roads through public-private partnerships. 
I say to Labour members on the other side of the Chamber that National fully supports the idea of the private sector being involved in the funding of roading and we are very happy the Government is thinking along those lines—even though the Land Transport Management Act was very restrictive and prescriptive. 
A really interesting thing happened earlier this month. Steve Maharey did an interview with Colin Espiner in the Christchurch 
 Press 
 about how dreadful it was for private sector money to be involved in things that the State should be doing. He said he did not want private sector money being involved in schools or hospitals. Then Steve Maharey got hoisted by his own petard because when he was asked about the building of roads he said that the Labour-led Government was opposed to private sector funding for building roads. That is what he said; I have his statement here. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: He didn’t say “building them”. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Yes that is exactly what he said. He said that the Government is opposed to private sector funding for building roads. So then I asked Annette King in the Chamber on 10 October a question about whether she stood by her colleague Mr Maharey’s statement that the Government would not countenance private sector funding even when it came to the building of roads. Poor old Annette King had no option but to support her front-bench colleague. She said that the Government had ruled out private sector funding for the building of roads. She said it was public-private partnerships for this Government whereby the public sector funds it and the private sector goes out and lays the tarseal and scoria and so on. 
I have news for the Labour Government. That is how every road has ever been built in the history of road building. Michael Joseph Savage built schools under that model of the public-private partnership. The chippies plumbers and electricians who went and built those schools were all private but the Government funded them. We did not need a Land Transport Management Act. We already had what Labour members now say is the public-private partnership model. 
It gets really serious. One project in this country is now in grave danger of falling over because of that foolish comment by Steve Maharey: the Penlink project to put in a major road and a bridge out to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. I have spoken today to the Mayor-Elect of the Rodney district—Penny Webster a former member of this House—and she said that the people of Rodney are absolutely hanging on the decision because the Government has been working with them to prepare this whole package. About a quarter of the funding for the Penlink project will involve private sector funding. 
If the Labour Government hangs on to what Annette King and Steve Maharey said then Rodney district has to say goodbye to Penlink. Here is the consultation document. It states that around a quarter of the funding will come from ratepayers and development levies; a quarter will come from the private sector funder which will be a concessionaire on the project; and around half will come from the Government through Land Transport New Zealand. That document is what the Government has been out consulting on with the people of Rodney and that funding is what the people are expecting. 
I can tell the House that Penny Webster was gobsmacked this morning when I said that Annette King in the Chamber last week ruled out something that Paul Swain did—it was the right thing to do and I congratulate her on that—which was to enable the private sector to fund the building of roads. But no the obfuscation goes like this: “Well what we meant by public-private partnerships is that the Government funds it and the private sector does the building of it.” So what was the need for a Land Transport Management Act? Why was that legislation passed 5 years ago? And why was there all the crowing of Paul Swain and others in Labour that this was a new world a new venture and a new way to fund it? 
What they have done—and I am happy to say this—is create really serious concern in Rodney right now that a $160 million project which is absolutely vital to getting the Whangaparaoa link is hanging in the balance because it is expected that the private sector will be a part funder in a public-private partnership. But Steve Maharey could not help himself in his interview with Colin Espiner on 3 October. He could not help himself but say: “I want to make it clear that even when it comes to the building of roads we are opposed to private funding.” He ruled that project right out.