Shearer David: Urgent Debates — Rugby World Cup—Extension to Queens Wharf Fanzone 
Shearer David: Urgent Debates — Rugby World Cup—Extension to Queens Wharf Fanzone 
[Volume:675;Page:21369] 
DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert) 
: 
 It has been a remarkable few days and I mean remarkable in a number of ways. It is remarkable in the sense that the opening of the Rugby World Cup really was a world-class event. It is something that we are particularly proud of. As New Zealanders I think we can be particularly proud of it. Many of the events that have been going on around the country have been remarkable as well. People have touched on some of those great games that we have seen being played already and we are only a few days into it. 
I pay tribute to the many many people who have helped to put the Rugby World Cup together right from its inception right through its organisation. They are the people associated with the rugby along with the various councils around the country that have been trying so hard and still try so hard to make this an amazing success for New Zealand. 
But the last few days have also been remarkable—and we have touched on this today—for what happened down on the waterfront in Auckland and on the way to Auckland. We had some problems and we know what those are. We know what those are. There was a failure of the public transport system. There was an under-catering for the number of people whom we expected to be down there. One cannot just ask everybody to come down and party and not think about how many people will come down. 
What we really needed after that was some cool calm thinking about what happened what went wrong and how to fix it for next time. But instead what we got was “Mr Panic Pants”—Murray McCully—coming down waving himself all over the place and saying that he will declare martial law down on the waterfront of Auckland and he based that on the Rugby World Cup (Empowering) Act. That was a very very dubious means to use as the basis for being able to do that I say to Mr McCully. He might have wanted to think about what exactly he needed to do before he made all those blustering sweaty announcements just the other day. He should have talked with the Auckland Council. He did not even give the council the courtesy of a phone call. If he had sat down with them he may have found out that they had been looking at this issue for many many days and had actually worked out a plan of action. That plan of action was publicised yesterday and it addresses many of the problems that we have been facing on the waterfront and in our transport system. But no we have had “Mr Panic Pants” coming down and blowing himself around the place and declaring that he is in charge now yet he does not even have the legislative backing to enable him to do that. 
His incompetence and his inability is matched only by that of Mr Joyce; the rear-visionary Mr Joyce who spoke in the Parliament just a few minutes ago. Mr Joyce says he has been very busy over the last few months opening up railway stations all over Auckland. He has been claiming credit for the double-tracking of the western line the electrification of the railway all the increases in rolling stock for turning up and opening the railway stations at Onehunga New Lynn Kingsland and Newmarket and also the northern bus route. But these were all things that the Labour Government put in place in its last few years. Mr Joyce has had the ability to open them but he has given no thought to what comes next—absolutely nothing. 
He has done nothing for public transport since he took on that job. All he has done is been at the opening of Labour initiatives. He has done absolutely zero. In fact he has managed to neglect Auckland’s transport pour cold water all over the rail-link which is so important for Auckland’s transport future. He looks backwards and thinks what we need to do is build bigger and wider roads. Well Aucklanders do not want that; they want a world-class transport system for a world-class city. They want to see National Party members sitting down with the Auckland Council and working this out together.