Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. The Green Party is supporting this bill. I would like to just very briefly speak in support of the words of my colleague Shanan Halbert who spoke previously.You know transport is an area where we have an opportunity in New Zealand to do much better than what we have been doing in a way that meets the different needs and values of pretty much everyone in society. There's often a misconception that we have high levels of car ownership and car use because people have chosen that. But when you really look at the history since the mid-1950s it hasn't been a choice that has been made by most households; it's a choice that was made by transport engineers and city planners. It copied the style of development that happened in the United States and most of the English-speaking world at that time and what we've learnt over the last 70 years is that it doesn't solve the congestion problem it doesn't reduce the cost of transport; it increases it.So we had this unintended consequence of planning rules and of traffic engineering practice that has led to a situation where most New Zealanders have to use a car to get around. And that is actually costing us a fortune in terms of land that's tied up for moving and storing cars—you know most of the off-street car-parking we have in New Zealand is empty three-quarters of the time; that's land that could be used in more productive ways if we manage parking in a different way. That would mean more land in our urban areas for affordable housing for schools and businesses and shops and hospitals green space—all the things that make a city attractive to live in we could have more land for that if we manage parking in a more intelligent way. I do believe that some of the provisions in this bill will allow for that and will mean that it's a little bit less complicated for the Government to allow for changes in rules and regulation that make it easier for councils to be able to charge the appropriate price for example when they have to tow a car. At the moment they're not able to even recover the cost of towing that car.So some of those little detailed rules it's really important that we have a streamlined process and that's one of the things that this bill is doing allowing for a more streamlined process for updates to rules and regulation that will facilitate a smarter approach to parking management. And this isn't at all in any way about making it more difficult for people to do things; it's about having fair and appropriate pricing it's about a fair allocation of resources and it's about giving people true choice.When you have buses and trains that run every five to 10 minutes at peak time and throughout the day and on the weekend that gives people real choice. When the public transport services are more frequent more people use them they're more affordable to provide and the more people who can use buses and trains the fewer people clogging up the roads with their cars. It's the same with active transport: a huge percentage of trips at peak time are short trips. I mean we're talking two-thirds of peak trips that are less than five kilometres. Now that is a distance that can easily be cycled by most healthy adults and even some children but only if it's safe. And when the traffic engineers planned everything around cars and trucks the reality is that that made it less attractive less safe and much less viable to use a bicycle for these short trips. And we saw a complete collapse in the number of kids walking and cycling to school. It's just not an efficient outcome.And you do hear people say Oh but what about the tradies? They can't cycle." Well in some countries they do but actually they don't need to cycle. The point is that you only need about a 10 percent reduction in cars on the road at peak to have free-flowing traffic on the roads. So we only need a small percentage of those car trips for people to say "Actually it is viable for my kids to cycle to school and it's viable for me to cycle to work and actually I can join up the train with the e-bike so rather than driving and having to park at the park and ride I can actually cycle and leave my bike in secure storage at the bus station or put in on the train and get to the other end of the journey."This kind of joined-up transport planning is mainstream in many other countries and New Zealand has fallen behind and unfortunately there's been a real politicisation of transport projects and you really hear this with the sort of campaign right now for a second Auckland Harbour crossing for cars. It just makes no sense; the cost of that would be astronomical and the benefit to the people getting around Auckland would be negligible and that's what the studies that have already been published have shown. So why is it that the parties who supposedly care about the economy and choice are asking for this massive taxpayer subsidy to single-occupant vehicle trips into the city centre at peak time which is just going to cause more congestion and more pollution? That is the question. They say they want congestion charging but the reality is if we had congestion charging there would be way higher demand for public transport walking and cycling and car sharing. There would be no need for this additional car capacity at peak time. And so yeah I'm all in favour of investigating congestion pricing but you have to have the alternatives in place because what's going to happen is many more people are going to shift from driving alone to wanting to do other things and if the buses aren't there if the trains aren't there if they aren't affordable and frequent they don't have that choice.So ultimately I think the direction the Labour Government's going in is the right direction but there still is a challenge and that is in the implementation because unfortunately the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi has a real deep embedded culture of this traffic engineering philosophy which doesn't care about cost-effectiveness doesn't care about choice doesn't see people having the choice to cycle as a real serious transport alternative. And they have completely ignored the evidence that we've seen over the last 70 years that when you increase road capacity you increase traffic; when you decrease capacity for cars you actually reduce traffic and you get a better outcome. That is an undeniable fact. There is not a counter example anywhere in the world; that's why right wing parties in Europe are very supportive of cycling as a mainstream transport option why they're supportive of public transport.So you know I look forward to the day in New Zealand when we all are willing to embrace a rational evidence-based approach to transport that gives people real choice that solves some of our complex problems around transport costs long commute times high carbon emissions high public health costs of people not being able to walk and cycle with kids not being free to explore their neighbourhoods and get to school under their own steam. That is something that I think everyone in New Zealand should be able to get together and support and I look forward to that day but we commend this bill to the House."