Bennett David; Wood MichaelHon DAVID BENNETT (National): The Minister mentioned the North Shore and north-western line. Why are they less of a priority than the Auckland rail link at this time?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): Firstly because it was a manifesto commitment that we campaigned on and received a mandate for at the last election. Secondly because of the significant growth potential and congestion challenges along that corridor.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): Well if there are suggestions of a growth prospect on that corridor the business case talks about 36000 houses available with the potential of 66 if there is an investment in large renewable urban centres along that route. Has the Government put any money forward to enable that investment?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): The Government's already putting a lot of investment into the Auckland Housing Programme and that's one of the reasons why this route is important because it goes through the Auckland Housing Programme areas in Mount Roskill Ōranga and Māngere where there's already significant urban growth occurring. In the next phase as we move into detailed planning for the route the establishment unit recognises and recommends that we bring together the transport planning and the urban development planning. That's why we've had Kāinga Ora and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development involved in this project and I expect further work to be done at the next stage.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): So the Minister said just before that the growth was a big part of the reason for our Auckland rail link at 36000 houses in that area. How many houses are expected to go into the north or the west of Auckland individually?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): The member would be better to address that to the Minister of Housing.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): Would it be more than 36000 when his business plan for Auckland light rail indicated 320000 houses in total in Auckland? Wouldn't he expect that the west and the north have a significant command of that increase when you look at what the Auckland Plan said say three years ago which would indicate that there were significantly more increases in housing in those areas than his route.Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): Well I can help the member there. The establishment unit identifies that with the investment of Auckland light rail between 19 and 25 percent of Auckland's urban growth could be catered for along that corridor which will be more significant than any other.But in reference to those other growth areas we are making continued investments. We've turned around the singularly stupid decision of the previous Government not to enable bus lanes on the north-western busway and construction is already under way to create that so that the people of the north-west have access to mass rapid transit. The northern corridor project which our Government is funding is extending the northern busway up towards Albany and creating better roading connections as we speak.Hon DAVID BENNETT (National): So Minister how can he say that it's 19 or 20 percent when 35000 or 36000 houses which is what the project business case says out of the 320000 houses which is in its initial paragraphs of the total number of households—that's close to 10 percent. The 20 percent figure you're using is only if there is that huge development along the route which is not funded by this Government.