Goff Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoff Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 01 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9270. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill): In my brief 5 minutes tonight I want to focus on a very special group of New Zealanders. They make up about 35 percent of our population. They make up 35 percent of our production. Do not come to Auckland—Auckland is coming to you. These are Aucklanders and we are growing by 800 people a week—40000 people a year.Compared with the problems of some parts of New Zealand having the problem of growth is probably a good problem to have. But I would rather have growth with a Government committed to working in partnership with Auckland City to provide the infrastructure that enables that growth to be properly dealt with. Sadly that is not happening. We do not have a regional development policy in New Zealand that works. I challenge any member of the Government or the Opposition to tell me one—one—regional development policy that works other than housing unaffordability and congestion in Auckland which drives people out of Auckland. I do not think that is a satisfactory regional development policy. We do not have a policy that tries to match population growth to the infrastructure that serves it. Once upon a time we would tweak the pointing system for immigration. We would lower the threshold if we wanted more people coming; we would raise it if we wanted less. But the Government knows that the only thing that is sustaining growth in New Zealand is immigration at the moment so it is allowing that immigration to come through at the speed that it will.Now I am in favour of immigration. I think the immigrants to New Zealand—and we are all immigrants to New Zealand actually at some point in history—really add strength and diversity and make a huge contribution to New Zealand socially economically and culturally. But I worry about the impact of growth that the Government is not addressing. I worry about the road congestion that makes it almost impossible to get around Auckland at peak hours. The Productivity Commission says that it costs us $1.5 billion a year in lost time alone because of traffic congestion in Auckland—$1.5 billion. The New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development puts it at $3 billion. That is like taking $3 billion a year and tipping it down the drain because in the lost productivity you have got nothing to show for it. We desperately need infrastructure that will match the growth.We had a number of things that were very useful. The City Rail Link was to double the amount of passenger traffic on rail lines but for 5 years various Ministers in the Government opposed that so when we get it it will be 5 years late. We had a thing called a petrol tax for Auckland which enabled the council to have the money to invest in transport infrastructure; the Government repealed it. I am really pleased to say that the Government has done a U-turn on the City Rail Link and is about to do a U-turn on road charging legislation—but it is too late. We are building a motorway up the north-west into Henderson and Te Atatū. It is good that it is being broadened but there is no busway there—no separated lane for buses yet we know that on the North Shore it is the busway that has been the most effective way of getting more people into town from the North Shore by public transport than we get by private transport. We are not thinking ahead. At the moment we have got the major Port Future Study that we are looking at to know whether or not we should move the port out of Auckland like they did in Sydney. But the Government will not participate in that so we do not have a regional or a national strategy for it.What I am saying to the Government is that we have to have that partnership between central government and Auckland City if we are to make Auckland work. Auckland is a great city. It is the only global city in New Zealand: it is the place where we can retain New Zealanders and where we can attract the best talent from overseas. For New Zealand to succeed Auckland has got to succeed. My call on the Government in housing and transport—the two major infrastructure deficit areas—is for the Government to get off the sidelines and to collaborate with Auckland City so that we can make Auckland a truly great place for New Zealand and a great place for people to live.