Brownlee Gerry: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Brownlee Gerry: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:9685] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) 
: 
 I think a number of speakers have traversed the inadequacies of this bill and have come to understand why the Prime Minister told the House today that Labour is unable to fix the problem not only of roading throughout New Zealand but more specifically the difficulties of Auckland City. I am flabbergasted to read clause 15 in Part 2 which talks about consultation. We know that up and down the country now local authorities that had their new bill passed just before Christmas last year are beginning to struggle under the weight of the consultation they are required to participate in and their ratepayers are beginning to feel the cost of that consultation process. 
Interestingly it probably will not hit them fully until the election year 2005 but I note that in order for any of the parties involved to get a roading project up and running there is an extraordinary requirement for consultation. Clause 15(1) lists that when it is preparing a land transport programme Transit must consult Transfund New Zealand the Land Transport Safety Authority every affected local authority—that would be the regional councils—and every affected approved public organisation. What sort of a list is that? What public organisation does not have an interest in transport on behalf of its members on behalf of its employees or on behalf of the group that it works in? Is there a public organisation that does not have an interest in transport? One could go to the phone book find the public organisations in a certain area that must be consulted and come up with a huge list of those I am sure. 
Clause 15(1) provides that Transit must consult the Accident Compensation Corporation the Commissioner of Police the Ministry of Health the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and the land transport users and providers. [ 
Interruption 
] Perhaps the Green member could tell the Committee who the users and providers are who have to be consulted in this particular clause because once again I would have thought that it was a matter of going to the phone book to find out who the users are. 
Clause 15 goes on to list affected communities Maori and the public. In the case of Auckland there are seven territorial local authorities plus the Auckland Regional Council plus the infrastructure-owning Auckland Regional Transport Network Ltd plus the Infrastructure Auckland organisation. So Transfund New Zealand has an interest Transit has an interest and Track Co. has an interest. In this case it is easy to list seven groupings that have to consult anything up to 11 other categories of interested parties before anything moves. In the case of Auckland there are seven territorial authorities and it is inconceivable that a roading project would not go across more than two or three of those authorities. It is not hard to build a picture of a massive consultation process that will just bind everything up so much that nothing will happen. 
I know that the select committee heard from the respected Auckland engineering firm Beca Group. It said that even without this bill a roading project that might take 2 years to construct can take 5 years to gain consent. 
John Key 
: Seven. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: The member behind me says 7 years. A 2-year project takes 7 years to get off the ground. That firm came to the select committee and said: “Make it easier.” Well the Labour Government being the Labour Government thought that was code for “make it harder”—it must have. The brilliant Minister Mr Swain got all those cloth-cap friends of his into his office in the Beehive sat them around a table and as they sipped their water they came up with this amazing clause that makes it harder.