Eagle PaulPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): Thank you Mr Speaker. Your time will come Julie Anne—just give me a wee while. Look it's a pleasure to be able to take a call on this amendment bill. I was on the Transport and Infrastructure Committee last term. Let me give you some background here because what we've heard about is a whole lot of projects ghost roads etc. etc. But what I want to do is refocus this conversation back on the bill.Back in October 2019 the Ministry of Transport did a review of the New Zealand Transport Agency's (NZTA's) regulatory capability and performance and that was because we inherited an unsafe system. So this is about safety. This is about putting safety first. And we haven't heard that message here this afternoon. That side of the House instead focused on ghost roads and other things to try and rark it up but this is a serious matter. Safety is serious so serious that the then Minister of Transport the Hon Phil Twyford commissioned a review in October 2018 but that was because we inherited a really unsafe system. There were all sorts of vehicles going off the road. Basically the Government entity prior to us taking over wasn't doing its job because there was no focus on safety; it was building roads—or trying to anyway. What we've done is grapple the beast bring it back and gone We've got to put safety first." So that's what hasn't been talked about—the underpinnings for this work. So the goal of NZTA under our leadership was to ensure that it became a best-practice regulator to improve safety of course and obviously reduce harm.What made it most interesting today is we had the transport agency in Waka Kotahi and no one questioned the general manager of regulatory compliance Kane Patena one of the officials there. No one mentioned a word from that side of the House. We know it's in hand we know safety is a priority and we know that it's under control. That means that if I was to just explore what safety means in this context it's safer drivers of course safer vehicles. I had the privilege of attending Rightcar.govt.nz which was a small stakeholder function yesterday with the transport Minister the Hon Michael Wood to look at the five-star ratings on vehicles. Because sometimes we see a car and we think "Oh! This is nice." but it doesn't have the safety ratings that reflect the type of car that you need to drive on New Zealand roads. So that was a small but important function again to show where this Government's priorities for transport are.Safer commercial transports—look we inherited a whole range of unfortunately commercial transport operators who had cut corners who essentially were able to run their businesses not all of them some of them. Most of them were actually quite good but some of them were not. They were dangerous. They made New Zealanders' lives dangerous particularly on rural roads and in the provinces where big trucks and kids having to walk to school etc. is unacceptable. These guys had not ensured that their vehicles were fully compliant. We've changed that and the last aspect of that is safer rail and we had KiwiRail in today also as part of our annual review process. They're taking a firm and fair approach. That's what we expect of them as a Government and that's what we're going to get and that's what we've got. And that came through I believe in our annual review documents today.I want to also make a comment on the Chatham Islands. It's being raised. I'm not quite yet the high commissioner for the Chathams but it's coming I feel but it is being made a regional council. It does have an affiliation with Environment Canterbury and they are on island. They have a depot there. They undertake some of their role as best they can but the reality is that when you've got such a small island it does mean that they need the powers of a regional council to effectively monitor some of these changes to ensure the safety of those islanders and the huge increase in tourists who have afforded themselves on an overseas holiday literally to the Chathams. So that means in terms of maritime and navigation safety they'll have a harbour master for the first time and they'll be able to make and enforce navigation bylaws. So key things on a small island but no longer do we think it's acceptable anywhere in New Zealand no matter if you're 800 kilometres away that we continue to have our land transport and maritime transport being delivered in an unsafe manner.I think other parts of this bill have been covered and the only other thing I wanted to comment on is the size of the boards. I'm always keen to ensure that boards reflect the diversity of this country but also some of these issues that these entities face are increasingly complex. That means that sometimes they need more people who have more experience in more areas to ensure that their risk is covered. So I'm pleased to see that Waka Kotahi the Civil Aviation Authority and Maritime New Zealand will see that increase. They have requested that; they will get that and I'm pleased that part of this bill cleans some of that up. That would be my concluding statement—that is as an omnibus bill this combs a whole range of Acts that looks at a range of detail to ensure that our transport system is modernised it's fit for purpose and delivers a safe transport system for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand. I commend this bill to the House.Debate interrupted.The House adjourned at 5 p.m."