Mackey Moana: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Mackey Moana: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:16984] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I am very happy to take a call on the second reading of the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill (No 2). That was a very interesting speech from the National member Maurice Williamson; I point out that this Government is very supportive of public-private partnerships and say that of course they have their place. But unlike the member who has just resumed his seat we believe that the Government has an active role in providing infrastructure in the country and that is why we have had an unprecedented road-building and infrastructure-building programme. It explains why when Maurice Williamson was Minister of Transport he did not build a single new road in this country. Every morning he would get out of bed rush to the window and hope that the market like the tooth fairy had somehow magically delivered him a new road overnight. He would throw open the windows and be incredibly disappointed that the market had not delivered for him. Unlike that member we understand the reality for a country like New Zealand and the Government is an active partner in the road-building business in this country. 
I am not a member of the select committee that considered this bill but I am chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee. I tend to try to look at all these pieces of legislation in the view of climate change policy because the Government has taken an all-policy approach to climate change and we are looking across the board. This bill is very good for climate change policy. The member pointed out the hypothecation of a fuel excise tax which just means basically that the tax is all tagged now for land transport purposes and that includes public transport. The Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues told us at the select committee this morning that there has been a 6 percent increase lately in people taking public transport. Obviously fuel prices are taking people out of their cars and putting them on to public transport. 
But the Minister made the very good point that public transport has to come first. There is no point waiting for there suddenly to be this overwhelming demand and then trying to play catch-up. If the buses and the trains are not there for people to travel on then they will not be able to take public transport. So public transport has to be ahead of the game and we have put an awful lot of money—I think it is over a 100 percent increase—into funding for public transport; I cannot remember the exact amount. But this hypothecation of that money going towards things like public transport will be very good for the Government’s commitment to climate change and to carbon neutrality. 
On that note I will pick out just two things in this bill that again flow into the Government’s climate change policy—those are of course rail and coastal shipping both of which the Minister mentioned. The Government’s decision to buy back the rail system is an incredibly important decision for this country. I think all of us know people who go overseas and then comment on the extensive use of rail in other countries that we like to compare ourselves to. We can look at what happened to our rail system in the 1990s and the early 2000s and be incredibly happy that the Government has bought back those assets and is committed to getting them going again. In Gisborne we have not had rail since Cyclone Bola so we have been a long time without any kind of formal rail system. We are very very pleased up my way to know that the Government is committed to rail and that rail does form an important part of transport policy when it comes to climate change. 
The other system that forms an important part is coastal shipping. I believe that coastal shipping is key in the climate change transport area to reducing our emissions. We need to remember of course that the transport sector is a very large part of our emissions. Imagine if across the whole country we had integrated transport networks and that more people—not just the people in Auckland and Wellington who already have pretty good public transport systems—were able to move out of their cars and into a public transport system. I am sure we would see an even greater emissions reduction. 
I wanted to take a very short call on this bill following on from the evidence given this morning at the select committee by the Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues. We spent some time on this matter and it is good to see that across all Government portfolios and across all Government areas and ministries we are taking an integrated approach to climate change issues. We are also taking a consistent approach. I challenge the next National Party speaker to stand and speak on climate change. Are we surprised that when something else has come along that is good for the environment—another piece of policy that is good for climate change—those members are voting against it? There is a huge vacuum in the area of climate change that the next National speaker needs to address. This part of our emissions profile is big it needs to be addressed but once again from the National Party we have all problems and no solutions. Thank you.