Falloon AndrewANDREW FALLOON (National—Rangitata): The most important job that a local member of Parliament has is to be an advocate for their community. It's a role that I take extremely seriously and one of the responsibilities of that is to meet regularly with New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) officials locally. Now I did that twice last year and it wasn't just about four lanes between Ashburton and Christchurch. There's a whole range of very serious safety issues on mid-Canterbury and South Canterbury roads.One of those as an example is the very dangerous intersection now at Rangitata of the corner of State highways 1 and 79 where there's been as many crashes in the last six months as there were for the previous four years combined. Another important project is lights at Tinwald where there's now a lot of additional traffic coming through from Lake Hood. There are also other important projects like replacing the roundabouts at Walnut Ave and of course a second bridge crossing over the Ashburton River.So I met with them twice last year and earlier this year I invited my local NZTA officials to again meet with me in my office. I was told there'd been a change of process and that I needed to go off and ask the Minister's office which I duly did. The response came back: no I wasn't able to meet with NZTA officials. I asked the reason. He claims they're too busy to meet with me twice a year. So I thought that's very interesting. I'll ask some questions about this. So I did and I found out that he's done it on eight previous occasions—eight previous occasions. But when you look at the list of the eight MPs who have sought meetings one thing becomes very very apparent. What do you think it is that those eight MPs all have in common? They're all National MPs—all MPs from the Opposition. So it turns out that local NZTA officials aren't too busy to meet; they're just too busy to meet with Opposition MPs.So I ask MPs opposite—Labour MPs who have been most of them I think in Opposition—what possible reason do you think there is for a Minister to prevent Opposition MPs from meeting with their local NZTA officials? Why is it that you've got a Minister trying to stop Opposition MPs from doing their job locally? Well there's one very simple answer and that is the Minister is embarrassed.He's embarrassed that they've taken $5 billion out of the State highway network to instead invest in Auckland rail and cycle projects. He's embarrassed that they've cancelled important upgrade projects the length of this country including four lanes between Ashburton and Christchurch and including the very important Woodend bypass just north of Christchurch which is so important for keeping their community safe. They've cancelled the Northland motorway which is so important for unlocking the economic growth and potential of that region. He's embarrassed because he's made New Zealand roads less safe. This is from a Government who said that their number one priority in transport is to make our roads safer. The road between Ashburton and Christchurch—the highway between Ashburton and Christchurch—is now the second most dangerous stretch of highway in the country for fatal crashes and serious accidents. The response from this Government has been to do nothing—to do absolutely nothing—to say it is fine as it is keep the road at two lanes and actually potentially make it more dangerous to cyclists by putting a median barrier down it.This is a Government that has turned its back on mid-Canterbury turned its back on South Canterbury turned its back on Southland and turned its back on Otago.When we are re-elected to Government we will not forget important communities in the South Island. We won't forget the need to make our roads safer. This is a Government that is embarrassed that they've pulled funding—important funding—out of the State highway network and out of keeping our roads safe. This is a Government that has failed New Zealanders.