Baldock Larry: Budget Debate 
Baldock Larry: Budget Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:21097] 
LARRY BALDOCK (United Future) 
: 
 I too rise to speak in the Budget debate and I would like to address the issue of transport spending particularly spending on the building of new roads in New Zealand. United Future has in the last 3 years made a real project of seeing that there was more funding. When we came into Parliament in 2002 the Government was proudly announcing that it would spend an extra $225 million. We have seen that figure increase to nearly $500 million per year over the last 3 years. Now in this Budget the Government has agreed to add to that another $100 million per year from 2006 to 2009. 
United Future members are not backward in coming forward in claiming credit for that because we have been the “Roads Party” in Parliament. We have constantly reminded the Government that New Zealand’s transport infrastructure has a huge deficit to catch up on and we are pleased to see this progress. We welcome the news from the National Party that it is promising to spend all the money that is diverted from the road transport fuel tax. But the important thing the voters of New Zealand should understand is that they need to have United Future in Parliament to make sure that either the Labour Party or the National Party keeps its word and continues the progress that has been made over the last 3 years. 
New Zealand First of course came into Parliament in 1996 with laudable aims of reducing the amount that was diverted and spending more money on roads. But we all know that its term of office did not last. All the laudable aims it may have had and all the promises it may have made to the electorate came to nought because it could not maintain the stability that is necessary for Governments to achieve what they have promised the electorate. It is important for New Zealanders to understand that if they want roads to continue to be constructed in New Zealand they need to make sure that United Future is the party that holds the major parties honest in this Parliament so that they continue to make progress on roads. 
We have also seen development through the transport legislation that has been introduced in this term. Penlink is just about ready to go with a toll road project and the new harbour bridge in Tauranga is to be continued. Those projects are a very necessary part of the infrastructure that is required in those areas. Although we have seen a lot more money being spent it is not enough. We still need to see more spent in order to bring our roading network up to First World standards so that we can have not only efficient transport across the country but also safe transport. Too many people are still being killed on our roads because our roads are not up to standard. United Future will continue throughout the rest of this term and into the next term to push for further spending on roads in New Zealand. 
Earlier today in question time the Green Party suggested to the Minister of Transport that we cannot “motorway” our way out of congestion in Auckland. But we cannot “walking bus” our way out of it either. We welcome the walking bus programme in Auckland. It is a good idea but in no way will it solve the congestion in that city. Nor will public transport on its own. Public transport is great and we should be encouraging people to use buses but if we do not build roads for those buses to travel on pretty soon people will be sitting in buses in very slow-moving congested bus lanes around Auckland because we have not built the necessary roads that we need. So it is ludicrous to suggest that we cannot “motorway” ourselves out of the problem and that we can solve it all by just shifting to walking buses and public transport. 
One of the problems—and I am sure the Minister must be frustrated—is that certain regions are not doing anything with the money that has been given to them during this 3-year term. It must be incredibly frustrating that the Auckland regional authorities are still arguing and bickering about how they will solve the roading problem up there. Likewise down here in Wellington we still have people unwilling to take the bold steps necessary to see that Transmission Gully is finally begun. Transmission Gully is the only answer to the problems we have in the Wellington region. 
We have had all sorts of discussions about the inner city bypass in Wellington and there have been unending protests by Green members trying to stop it but it will not solve Wellington’s problems because we still have only one tunnel through Mount Victoria and it will not be possible to fit all the traffic through that one tunnel even when the inner city bypass has been completed. We need regions like Tauranga that are ready to go and have thought through what they need in their transport areas. Tauranga will take every cent that the Government gives it and spend that money wisely. Tauranga will see the problem solved there and I urge the Government to be very generous to the people in Tauranga in the coming months.