Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Chair and thank you for the opportunity to take a call in this debate on the transport sector. I do just want to start with a couple of introductory comments before asking the Minister some questions. I think what became incredibly apparent during the select committee hearings of the annual reviews was that this Government is leaving an infrastructure hole in New Zealand. We have seen project after project which was under way being cancelled: East West Link Mill Road Whangārei to Port Marsden Woodend bypass Cambridge to Piarere Ōtaki to Levin cancelled and then restarted Tauranga Northern Link cancelled and then only partly restarted.The number of projects which are now coming up to completion started by the last Government is awkwardly coming up to completion meaning there is going to be a massive transport infrastructure hole left by this Government. We've had Transmission Gully opened a couple of weeks ago; Hamilton bypass which National started almost complete; Pekapeka to Ōtaki almost complete; Pūhoi to Warkworth almost complete; but nothing new is actually under way under this Government. I think that's something which this Government is going to have to be held to account for at the next election.Then you've got big promises: $29.2 billion for the light rail and we'll get to that shortly but first I'd like to ask about some of the New Zealand Upgrade Programme projects. The first one is regarding Mill Road in South Auckland a critically important piece of infrastructure which we discussed at the select committee. We were told the Minister would have advice around the rescoping by March of this year. I would like to know: has that advice come has a preferred option been decided and will that road be a four-lane highway or is it now only going to be a two-lane highway?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): Just responding to a couple of queries from members. Firstly acknowledging and thanking the chair of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee Greg O'Connor. I did notice a small typo on page 15 of the report though; I have to inform the member the total value of the New Zealand upgrade package is $12 billion not $12 million—apart from that an excellent report.In response to his question about the Maintaining International Air Connectivity Scheme that has been a critical part of our response to COVID-19 in maintaining freight connections for imports and exports that otherwise would have collapsed potentially given the lack of passenger travel to support air freight. There's been a total outlay up until this point of nearly $1 billion but that has supported approximately $20 billion of imports and exports to New Zealand and retained significant and important air corridors that will be critical as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19; so a really good example of Government having an active and positive role in supporting New Zealand through that difficult period.In response to the member opposite's comments I do just have to set the record straight here: this Government has a record investment that's going into the transport sector. The total investment going in through the National Land Transport Fund is approximately $24 billion over the last three years which is a 40 percent increase on the previous period; $8.7 billion going in through New Zealand Upgrade Programme (NZUP). Many new projects are going ahead across that programme across road rail walking and cycling. There is certainly no lack of investment; in fact the critical challenge we face from the sector is making sure that the sector has enough capacity to keep up with the investment that we're putting in.In respect of Mill Road I started to receive initial advice through on the South Auckland NZUP package and I expect to receive further advice before joint Ministers make decisions in the coming months.