Bishop Chris; Rurawhe AdrianCHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Well it's been a few weeks since the Prime Minister's actual statement to Parliament but there were lots of things I suppose to poke fun at in that speech and lots of things to mock I guess you would say but the biggest thing that I found most unbelievable and that actually provoked laughter from this side of the House was the statement that This is a Government of infrastructure." I don't know if members remember—Chris Penk: It's still funny. CHRIS BISHOP: —it is still funny and you're right Mr Penk—but the Prime Minister said about five minutes in "This is a Government of infrastructure." and we all laughed. She seemed quite surprised and I'm not quite sure why but it was a comical comment and in my contribution in this debate I want to explain why. Newer members opposite will not remember the past nine years when the National Government progressed roading projects around the country that the Labour Opposition of the time opposed. For example the Auckland to Pūhoi road was described as the "Holiday Highway" by members opposite. The Waikato Expressway—Tim van de Molen: That's right—a great project. CHRIS BISHOP: —was criticised and my good colleague Tim van de Molen has been a strong supporter on it. All of the projects that National advanced in that time of Government—the roads of national significance—were criticised by the Labour Opposition. Of course now they've had a road to Damascus conversion to four-lane highways but a lot of these projects were opposed. Phil Twyford even said when he became the Minister of Transport "We've over-invested in roads and motorways for decades."—OK? We had the description of the road north of Auckland as the "Holiday Highway". We had Phil Twyford criticising all of these roads in cahoots with Julie Anne Genter and one of the first things that the Government did when they came into office was to establish a new Government policy statement on transport. Now you might think that that's what new Governments do and that's fine. That's absolutely correct—that is what new Governments do. They've got the right to set their own priorities. But alongside that new Government policy statement on transport came a $5 billion reduction in the State highway budget—$5 billion. Not all at once—there was a reduction immediately—but $5 billion over the 10 years and what was the effect of that? The effect of that slashing of the State highway budget was a delay or in some cases actually an outright cancellation of a score of projects right around the country. Firstly there were 12 re-evaluated projects 12 projects that were part of the National Land Transport Programme on the New Zealand Transport Agency's books some of which were actually in the process of being procured and funded—well they were funded. But they were in the process of being procured and were out for construction tender—for example the Tauranga Northern Link which was about to start construction when the Government changed. Included within that are projects like Pētone to Grenada in the Hutt Valley an important project; the Melling interchange; and the East-West Link which is still apparently being re-evaluated according to the New Zealand Transport Agency website. All of these projects are delayed and in some cases as I say cancelled. Now things got so bad that the Prime Minister's own advisory council—a group of people around the country that the Prime Minister had pulled together to advise her about business matters—wrote to her and said "Prime Minister we are at infrastructure crisis point." That's not my language. That's not me in Opposition being political but that's the language of the Prime Minister's own advisory council about nine months ago: "We are at crisis point." The cutting of the State highway budget is what they said has destroyed the infrastructure pipeline. We started to hear stories come through in the media a few months ago about workers being laid off because the projects that are currently being constructed are coming to an end. Projects like for example the Peka Peka to Ōtaki four-lane highway which when it opens will make a big difference to the safety on that road. The intention was for the workers working on that section of road to go further up the line and do Ōtaki to north Levin one of the most dangerous sections of State highway in the country: 145 deaths and serious injuries projected to be saved over five years once that road is four-laned and done properly. What did Phil Twyford say when the Prime Minister's advisory council wrote to him? He wrote back and said "These projects are of low economic value. We will not be advancing them."—"low economic value. We will not be advancing them." Finally something twigged and I do have to give Grant Robertson credit for this; something twigged. Grant Robertson decided towards the back end of last year "Hang on a minute. Something's gone wrong here. I don't think Phil Twyford's done a very good job here. I think I might have let Phil Twyford and Julie Anne Genter run the transport portfolio a bit too much to themselves." Although to be fair to Julie Anne Genter she has literally accomplished nothing in transport. Their electric vehicle policy is the same as the outgoing National Government's. The only thing Julie Anne Genter has been able to achieve in transport is to stop the Mount Vic tunnel. So you know kudos to her for that I suppose; that's the only thing she's been able to achieve. So Grant Robertson said "OK I think we've made a mistake here." and we had the $6.8 billion transport package which was announced at the start of the year. And lo and behold what's back on the table? Four-lane highways. All of a sudden four-lane highways are back baby. They're back and all of a sudden the Melling interchange is back—great news for the Hutt Valley. The Tauranga Northern Link's back in action: four-lane highway north of Ōmokoroa. The Ōtaki to north Levin's back: we're going to four-lane it. The Greens put out this pathetic press release the day before the announcement because they knew that what was coming was not good for them. The Greens put out this pathetic press release in which they said—I think it was—"Nine schools have been moved from coal boilers to solar power." Nine out of 3000 schools or something. Well happy day—I mean that's a good thing. We support that. Don't want to be too critical. But you know they had nine schools that have been moved away from coal burning and that's I think $17 million or something. What did Grant announce? $6.8 billion for largely four-lane highways: a road to Damascus conversion. Then we have the Prime Minister turning up saying "It's all about safety and we've got to invest in safety and these are economic connectors and they're very important to connect our regions together and drive economic growth." She sounded like Simon Bridges. She sounded like Steven Joyce. She sounded like National Party Prime Ministers of years gone by. But the critical thing is this: the Labour Government do not believe in these roads. They don't believe in these roads because if they did they wouldn't have cancelled them in the first place. If they truly believed in these projects they wouldn't have cut $5 billion from the State highway budget Phil Twyford wouldn't have turned up to select committee a year ago and said "We've over-invested in roads." and Phil Twyford wouldn't have described these projects as being of low economic value. Let's remember: in August they were of low economic value; three months later they're the saviour of all mankind. They're the greatest thing the Government could be spending money on. All of a sudden they're incredibly important and "We've got to get on with them straight away." Grant Robinson said they were "shovel-ready". Well the Ōtaki to north Levin project doesn't start until 2025. So there's no way they'll be in Government then. I hope that a National Party transport Minister—and I hope at some point of the future it will be me—will get to open that road. It's the road that we've planned we've funded and we consented—well we didn't consent it but we funded it and we planned for it in the first place and we believe in it. My message to New Zealanders and the message of the National Party to New Zealanders over the next few months is going to be: why would you place your faith in a party when it comes to transport matters that doesn't believe in these roads? They don't believe in them. That's why they cancelled them in the first place. Not only that they have no history of doing them. They have no history of building them. I want to close my remarks by talking about the train wreck that is Auckland light rail because Auckland light rail—a bit like KiwiBuild actually—I think has become emblematic of this Government's incompetence their ineptitude and their failure to deliver on their promises. Let's remember this was not some pie-in-the-sky idea that was dreamt up on the campaign trail; this was a cast iron commitment from the Prime Minister. One of the first things she announced as Labour leader on the campaign trail was "We will build it to Mount Roskill by 2021." What are we now? March 2020—just started March. Is there a business case? No. Are there any consents? No. Is there a plan? No. Is there a route? Nope. Is there a funder? Nope. Is there even an idea about what the railway line will look like? No. The only thing Phil Twyford could tell us in December is that it will be a railway engine on two tracks going forward. Well I mean well done Phil Twyford! In two years you've managed to define what a railway track is—congratulations! That's literally all that has happened on light rail. It is a train wreck and it is emblematic of this Government's incompetence and ineptitude and we do therefore not believe the Prime Minister's statement is worth what it's written on.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! The member's time has expired. I call Jo Luxton—five minutes."