King Annette: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
King Annette: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:4181] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 Can I thank the— 
Dr Richard Worth 
: A useful contribution may occur. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Thank you very much to the member who has just made that excellent interjection. I do appreciate his solid support for the speech I am about to make. Firstly I thank Maurice Williamson and David Bennett for their contributions to the debate tonight and say that I have found Maurice Williamson to be a very constructive member of Parliament. He is very happy to give me the benefit of his vast knowledge as a former transport Minister and seriously I have appreciated the discussions we have had. I thank him for his comments regarding the Government’s appropriation for transport in the last Budget. I know that he was particularly pleased but was also very disappointed because in Government he was never able to achieve that level of funding for the transport sector of New Zealand. 
It was an abysmal effort over the 1990s by the National Government as it took money out of the infrastructure—whether in roads health police or whatever. It was unable to put the investment into New Zealand that was needed. I am pleased the National Party acknowledges that in this Budget we are setting out to invest in the roading infrastructure in New Zealand and not only in roading but also in public transport and transport in general over the next 5 years. We have done something that has not been done before in that sector—that is given a 5-year appropriation of funding and certainty of funding over the 5-year period so that roading in particular can be completed. The money has been set out; the programme has been set out by Land Transport New Zealand and Transit New Zealand. The people of New Zealand know that the money is going in. 
I have been asked tonight why we do not enshrine in legislation that we will use all the motor vehicle registration charges the road-user charges and petrol levies for roading. But we do not need to enshrine it because not only are we going to do it but we are also going to put in $300 million more than we receive in those particular levies. We will put in $300 million more. It is not confined to just the amount that comes in from road-user charges petrol levies and so on; it is $300 million more. 
I would be very interested to hear the National Party tell us tonight whether it will be its policy at the next election to enshrine in legislation that all revenue that comes in through those mechanisms will be used on the roads. I would like to hear that commitment from members opposite. They have made two speeches about that tonight and made a big play of it. So I would like to know whether that will be their policy. Well I know what their policy was at the last election. They said they would consider putting all the road user charges the motor vehicle fees and the petrol levy into roads over a 6-year period. They did not say that they would do it or were committed to it; their policy was that they would consider it over a 6-year period. I am very pleased that this Government has been able to put in not only that money but additional money as well. 
The member Maurice Williamson raised the issue of the Resource Management Act and the need for us to build roads faster. I agree with him that we need to get on and build the roads we need in New Zealand. But I am told that the Resource Management Act is not the problem. The problem in the past has been having no money and having no commitment to getting the money—the fact is the previous National Government did not put in the money for it to happen. When National finally decided to put in a road it took one hell of a long time. So I say to the member that there are people in New Zealand who want to be consulted when a road is going to go through their community. There is no way we will be able to fast track their right to have some say over whether a road goes through their community. 
I am actually quite confused about where the National Party stands on these issues of public consultation. We are trying to get extra electricity to Auckland—[ 
Interruption 
]—especially for Mr Worth; he needs to be lit up. We are trying to get some extra electricity to Auckland. Well what is happening with the National Party? National Party members of Parliament are petitioning against the ability to put more power into Auckland. Under the Resource Management Act they are petitioning against electricity for Auckland. Where do they stand? They are at sixes and sevens on this issue. I have to say that Maurice Williamson does not agree with them but he is stuck with those Luddites who are lions in their own patch but when they come down here we never hear from them. 
Dr Richard Worth 
: Time to sit down Minister you have gone on long enough—we’re happy. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Oh the member is very happy tonight. He is a very happy member and is really enjoying himself tonight. 
Another issue raised by Maurice Williamson is the ability to have private sector funding for transport. Let us clarify that matter—and I think this is also in answer to David Bennett as well. He said that this Government is ideologically opposed to having private sector funding in the roads of New Zealand. Well I think National was in Government for 9 long years and in that time did those members pass legislation to allow private funding of roads? Did they allow one single private funder to build roads in New Zealand? No they did not. But now that they are in Opposition we are being told that we are opposed to it. 
It was this Labour-led Government that passed the legislation in 2003 that does allow for private funding of roads. I welcome a proposal that comes to me to sign off as Minister of Transport that has some private funding of roads—I say: “Bring it on!”. But it is only because of this Labour-led Government that legislation that allows that to happen is on the books. Those members talk big in Opposition and do nothing in Government. Why did they not pass the legislation when they were in Government and why did they not build a single road with private money? There is silence from the Opposition benches. 
Let us move to David Bennett the new eager member for Hamilton East. Do people know that people in the Waikato after getting peanuts or nothing from the last National Government for their roads for year after year after miserable year—in fact the National Party did not even know how to spell “Waikato”—finally in Budget 2006 have been given what that member called a miserly sum of money: $214 million. I would have thought that was a pretty good sum of money particularly as it came out of a joint officials group’s work where they set out their priorities. The Government has come in behind it and put up the money. What an ungrateful member that person is because I can tell him that there is no way he would have got that money under a National Government. The member would have been dog tucker because as a marginal seat member he would not have got anything out of a National Government because it would have spent it all if people remember on tax cuts—and tax cuts do not pay for roads. 
So I say to that member that I believe people in the Waikato are very lucky and long may they have a Labour-led Government that will look after them. But it is not only them; many many communities around New Zealand have benefited from the money this Government is putting into roading and transport in general in this Budget and over the next 5 years.