Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Thank you Madam Speaker. Government speaker after Government speaker has stood up from Wellington and from the regions and told Aucklanders on this side of the House that we should be grateful for cuts to our public transport and our roading budget; that Aucklanders should be so grateful that Wellington is telling them that they are having cuts to the long-term kind of investment that we need to be the city of the future that we can be.Because I love Auckland and I hear the Hamiltonian member Tom Rutherford who has resumed his seat asking me whether Auckland is the city of the future. He was the closest they could get to standing a speaker near to Auckland. So I have listened to his contribution.Tom Rutherford: Point of order.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Point of order Tom Rutherford.Tom Rutherford: That's a misrepresentation. I'm not from Hamilton.Hon Simeon Brown: Speaking to the point of order.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Point of order the Hon Simeon Brown.Hon Simeon Brown: Well speaking to the point of order I actually gave the first speech on this bill and I am an Aucklander.Hon James Shaw: Speaking to the point of order.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): The Hon James Shaw.Hon James Shaw: Yeah the Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee the other day requested that when giving points of order that we refer to which clause—which specific Standing Order—the interjection related to.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): I haven't called Point of order" so we'll just leave it there. Thank you Arena Williams.ARENA WILLIAMS: Thank you Madam Speaker. Those debating points were well made. They were points about how Auckland is represented in this debate making points over and over again about how Auckland needs this investment; how Auckland—to be the best city that it can be to be the kind of city that we want to live in as Aucklanders that we want for our kids who are growing up in Auckland to be—we need long-term investment. This cannot be treated as something of a political football. We need to grow up and resource our biggest city to be a city that is somewhere where everyone wants to live.Because Auckland is awesome. There are some parts of Auckland that I'm so incredibly proud of. South Auckland is a creative place. Some people see it as "the hood" but that's where all of the good creative juices come from. The worst thing about living in South Auckland is the amount of time that it takes us to get around. That is time between getting up in the morning and going to work where we are not with our kids and our families; that is time in the evening when we are tired and coming home from our jobs that we could otherwise be spending in our homes with the people we love.Transport and its investment isn't something that's esoteric; it's not something that is high-minded and difficult to understand. These transport investments being cut mean that more Aucklanders will spend longer in their cars. It means that kids will have to wait another half an hour before dinner with their mum or dad. It means that the kind of quality of life we enjoy as Aucklanders will be diminished. And for what? For $1.80 a week in savings for most Auckland households. That's the advice that was prepared in the departmental disclosure statement: that this that has been done in the name of cost of living relief for Aucklanders will have such a minute effect compared to the long-term investment that our city needs in order for us to live better lives.In fact it's not even that: that we're also being faced with a 22c increase on fuel straightforwardly almost in a very quick amount of time and $50 increases on vehicle registrations. Those things combined mean that essentially this is giving with one hand and taking away with the other. You'd see the regional fuel tax saving Aucklanders perhaps $600 million in revenue that would otherwise go to these specific transport projects but the $50 increase would then net the Government another $660 million—almost conveniently the same amount of money—that will then be going into a general pot for general transport projects.This is a real disappointment for the people of Auckland who needed a ring-fence around those projects. We've also heard from the other side of the House that the remaining funds in that pot of money will be spent on projects. Here's where we get back to my point about Wellington telling Auckland that we should be grateful for this because those are projects which have been ring-fenced not by Aucklanders but they have been saved because of the choices of this Government. Those are not necessarily the priorities of Auckland; they do not necessarily reflect the greatest need in Auckland. They are things like the Eastern Busway which benefit certain communities.So I think it's a disappointment that we are dealing with this bill in this way that we won't have time to really drill down into what it means. But I will be using the committee stage to speak specifically to those things which this bill seeks to change in South Auckland in the region that I call home and those projects which we need which will be gotten rid of because of these changes—changes which also allow for the prioritisation of Mill Road but also go alongside major cuts to the way that South Aucklanders get around and ultimately lead to South Aucklanders spending more time in their cars and not having transport choices to get out of their cars if they so wanted to. So I do not support this bill and look forward to discussion at the committee stage."