Twyford Phil: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionTwyford Phil: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 29 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2977. Text is subject to correction.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū):Nothing saps the legitimacy of a third-term Government more than the perception that it is governing in the interests of a certain section of society and ignoring another. And regional New Zealand over the last few years has formed a very strong view that this Government governs in the interests of Auckland and the big urban centres and neglects the rest. It is not just the centralisation of services and infrastructure. It is not just the loss of jobs and the cutbacks. Yesterday Air New Zealand abandoned Kaitāia it abandoned Taupō it abandoned Whakatāne and it abandoned Westport and not a word was said by the National Party MPs who represent those areas. The Minister in the chair the Minister of Transport hides behind the fact that it is supposedly a commercial decision of Air New Zealand. He does not have a thing to say about how those cutbacks will affect the economies in parts of regional New Zealand.But nothing—nothing—demonstrates the cynical neglect of regional New Zealand by this Government better than its cutting and cutting and cutting of spending on local roads. Under this National Government spending on new local roads has gone down from $180 million in the 2008-09 financial year to $162 million in the year 2013-14 an $18 million cut a 10 percent cut over the time that National has been in office. This Government has been running down a multibillion-dollar taxpayer-owned valuable asset—that is our local road network around the country. Why is it doing that? It is doing it so it can pour billions of dollars into a handful of urban motorway projects some of which will not even pay for themselves because the benefit-cost ratios are so low.Last week I was in Invercargill. Everybody whom I spoke to raised with me the fact that Southland has been hit hard by successive cuts to the funding of local roads. Southland is not getting a fair go under this National Government. In the year 2009-10 funding by central government for local roads in Southland was $56 million. In 2013-14 under this National Government that had been cut to $51 million another 10 percent cut $5 million sliced off the funding of local roads by this National Government. The effect of that on the ratepayers is that they are taking a hit. In Invercargill that means an $810000 cut by central government for local roads every year. For Southland District Council $750000 every year is cut from the spending on local roads. Gore has taken a hit and Clutha has taken a hit.The reason this is such a serious issue in Invercargill and Southland is that Southland has the biggest network of local roads in the country outside of the Auckland super-city but it has only 14000 ratepayers left to pick up the slack when the National Government turns out the light and cuts its funding off. What is the result? The result is that local roads in Southland are falling into disrepair. There are 100 dairy tankers a day on some of the roads in Southland and the Minister in the chair will know that for every dairy tanker that is the equivalent of 1000 regular vehicle movements. So these roads in Southland funded by the poor old Southland ratepayer are clocking up the equivalent of 100000 regular vehicle movements every day. I want to acknowledge the passing recently of Frana Cardno the wonderful former Mayor of Southland District who was a staunch advocate for her region and an outspoken critic of this National Government’s cynical neglect—cynical neglect—of regional New Zealand and the cutting of road funding.Let us contrast Southland with the other end of the country Northland an area that the Minister in the chair knows a little bit about from his recent experience. Let us call him the maestro of National’s humiliating by-election loss in Northland. One bad poll and Simon “Bridges” Bridges went into a flat panic and splashed out $69 million of taxpayer funding on 10 nonsensical one-lane bridges in Northland.