Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. It is a pleasure to rise to participate in this debate. Although I'm not part of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee who has actually looked at this very issue I'd like to commend the work of the members who took part. As I've listened to some of the debate I think everyone in this Chamber agrees that we need to do something. I think that comes from lived experience. I mean I live in Auckland; I drive a car. If I didn't have to drive a car I would actually take public transport if there was public transport available. In August I had a visit to Korea and one of the things that I can say is that South Korea has 10 times the population of New Zealand. It's more than 50 million people in South Korea. I was in central Seoul and it is so much easier for people to travel in public transport whether it's buses or subways because they have invested in it. Often it is easier to catch a subway train or a bus than catching a taxi on the road. I think if we had the option a lot more people would use public transport and that is the incentive for us to do something about it. And I think National is open to looking at any proposal the Government may have to bring forward in dealing with congestion charging and actually would support it if it is an incentive to get people to make the shift towards using public transport to reduce congestion. I have to say you know on Tuesday I had leave from Parliament to attend an event where the Navy training ship from Korea was visiting. It was a big deal for the Korean community. I had to attend to actually welcome in the sailors and the officers who are training the sailors with the Korean community. There were little children who took pleasure in missing school to present them with flowers. But the trip from the naval base in Devonport—actually for me in a taxi from there to the airport it was diabolical traffic. I nearly missed my flight. I don't like being late for my flight and I hate it when people call my name at the airport but it actually happened on Tuesday. Simeon Brown: It increases your profile though.MELISSA LEE: It could potentially boost my profile but for the wrong reason I would have actually thought Mr Brown. It took more than an hour and a half to get from the Devonport Naval Base to the airport because of congestion. And let me tell you the other congestion that I was appalled at was I was in Simeon Brown's electorate for a public meeting a little while ago now and from Pakuranga I had a meeting in town right in the city centre and I thought if I gave it an hour and a little bit it was going to be plenty of time for me to drive from Pakuranga to the city; it took more than two hours to get from Pakuranga to Auckland City. That is diabolical congestion and we need to do something about it. You know when people actually say we are aspirational about dealing with our congestion by saying we're going to spend billions on a cycle bridge I don't think that is aspirational. We need to deal with congestion and it has to be multi-pronged. We do need more public transport options. As I said right from the beginning I am actually jealous of countries that have amazing public transport systems that allow people to take those options. We don't currently have one and I wish the Government will actually respond and bring on more options for New Zealanders so they can make the shift away from cars if they could if they can and if they choose to. But we also need roads without potholes. We also need plenty of options for people and not all people in New Zealand can move to electric vehicles. Some of them can't afford it. Some of them don't want to afford it because they don't have electric options for tractors or utes. And I think it is really upon the Government to think about providing options for people. Congestion charging is one and I'd like to see the piece of legislation brought to this House so we can all consider it and potentially support it unanimously.