Genter Julie Anne; Mallard TrevorJULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): I rise to speak against these Estimates in this debate because as the Minister Steven Joyce laid out very clearly a moment ago this National Government is not investing in the infrastructure that New Zealand actually needs in the 21st century. I believe that Minister Steven Joyce is stuck back in the 1960s—that is where he has got most of his infrastructure projects from.He laid out that in the Estimates; $9.2 billion will be spent on new roads. Now I am a big fan of roads. They can do a lot. We have roads. The problem is that investing in new roads now is not going to help the people who are trying to use the roads we have. The single most effective way to improve our transportation network is to invest in the complements to the roading network—things that have languished for decades like the rail network. I am sure that some other Minister will get up soon and claim that National is spending more on rail than anyone has ever spent in New Zealand and technically that is true but it is also spending more on new highways than anyone has ever spent in New Zealand and therein lies the problem. When you are spending $6 to $7 on new highways for every dollar you are putting into our terribly under-invested rail network then we are missing the opportunity to actually carry more people and more goods through the rail network.The Green Party has long been an advocate of public transport and rail in New Zealand and in Auckland and we have been proven right because everywhere we have invested in public transport and rail it is has been wildly successful. In fact it was about 4 years ago that I was coming into this House and asking the then Minister of Transport whether his Government would support investing in the City Rail Link and we heard over and over again: No no no. It's not needed until 2030. OK if Auckland reaches 20 million passengers by 2020 we will bring it forward." Well guess what: Auckland is going to have 20 million annual rail trips this year in 2017. It is 3 years before the target that was arbitrarily set by that Government for starting the City Rail Link.So good on the Government for finally realising that if it did not start it now it was going to be a complete disaster but we have doubled rail trips in Auckland in just 3 years. Now is the time to be expanding around that work. Now is the time to be building rail to the airport so it can be open by 2021 in time for those events that are going to be happening in 2021. There are a number of them—APEC the next America's Cup. Now is the time to be investing in the alternatives so New Zealanders have the option to leave the car at home. That is the only way—that is the only way—to reduce congestion but it is also the best way to reduce the cost of transport and getting around. There are opportunities all throughout the country to be investing in the infrastructure that will actually reduce our climate pollution. Doing anything else at this point is completely absurd.We have only a short period of time to cut our carbon pollution and transport is still growing. As long as we put our money into infrastructure projects like the East-West Link or Penlink there is an opportunity cost of not putting that money into accelerating projects that will actually cut carbon pollution that will cut costs that will cut congestion and that will improve public health. I would have thought that this National Government if it truly cared about economic responsibility and meeting our climate targets would say that it has looked at the data and at what is effective and that actually its recent spending on transport has not been very effective.It is time to start prioritising the projects that will be effective. The Green Party will do that. We will build rail to the airport by 2021. We will invest in rapid transit in Wellington and Christchurch. We will invest in our national rail network—complete electrification so we do not have to ditch our electric trains and bring back diesel because that is the best way to achieve a whole lot of goals that I know most New Zealanders share. I know that across the political spectrum right now in Auckland everyone basically agrees with me. It does not matter whether they vote for National New Zealand First Labour or the Green Party—probably even ACT voters realise that spending $9 billion on a few highway widening projects in urban areas is not going to solve the fundamental problem of too many cars on our roads.Here is the opportunity. I am sorry to say that National is not taking it but we do have the opportunity to change the Government and get a much better spend on transport which will be better for our climate our environment our people and our towns and cities.Andrew Bayly: Mr Chair.Hon Simon Bridges: Mr Chair.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Well this is interesting. I am going to give the call to Andrew Bayly on the precedent that came before and that is that people who have been regularly seeking the call even if they have missed out on it are likely to get it."