Williamson Maurice: Budget Debate 
Williamson Maurice: Budget Debate 
[Volume:618;Page:13600] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 I have had the pleasure of sitting in this House and hearing 17 Budgets nine of them while we were in Government and eight of them while other parties were in Government. One of the things that members do when in Opposition is wait desperately while the finance Minister’s Budget speech is photocopied out in the lobbies and flicked around everyone. Then they race through it as quickly as they can to spot their portfolios and see what the Government is going to do in their areas. I have to say that in my portfolio of transport the one issue that is screaming out for action—indeed more than screaming out—is roading and in particular the problem that Auckland faces. 
This is not a new problem. Even in the late 1990s it was becoming very clear and the National Government initiated work to see what had to be done to get huge investment into Auckland’s infrastructure to try to solve the problem. Labour Party members when in Opposition made their position very clear: “We don’t want a bar of this privatisation of our roading. We don’t want the private sector. We don’t want tolls. We’ll solve it another way.” Let us give them some credit. That is what they thought. That is their philosophy. But after 5 years of this Labour Government I wonder what any Aucklander—who one cares to stop on the side of the road and ask—thinks about Labour’s solution. Anyone would think that after 5 years with Labour in Government—and Chris Carter cannot deny this—the problem with Auckland’s roading has become far far worse. It is worse than it was before Labour became the Government. But Labour just keeps saying: “Hang on. Help is on the way.” 
The Government released a package in December and one could think that it sounded quite good. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: How much was it? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: It was something like $1.6 billion. So people say: “Boy that’s a big number! That sounds good.” However let us put it in context. That is $1.6 billion over 10years. That means it is only $160 million a year. Let us put that in context. What is a realistic estimate of what Auckland’s roads need spent on them in the next decade? We can debate whether we put extra services on the eastern corridor or whether we do a tunnelling or whatever but the figure that is very widely accepted amongst the mayoral forum and the Automobile Association and so on is about $10 billion. So about $10 billion is required to get Auckland moving again; and members should remember that Auckland is a very important part of the New Zealand economy. I accept the agricultural sector provides an enormous amount of the powerhouse of the economy but Auckland is also central to that. People cannot get their goods to market if the ports cannot function. People cannot make the agricultural sector work if they cannot export. 
So $10 billion is the figure but let us get it in perspective. That $10 billion is the broad-brush agreed figure that Auckland needs. What is the Government doing? Let me tell members about its previous 3 full years of spending on new roads in Auckland. These are the Minister’s own numbers. In 2000-01 the Government spent $82 million on Auckland roads. The next year it spent $127 million. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: What was the figure last year? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: It was $139 million. I am pleased Chris Carter asked that because in real dollar terms National’s last year of spending was higher than any of the years in which this Government has been in office. That is a fact. Those are the Minister’s own answers. Here is the graph if the member does not believe me. So I am pleased he led me into saying that in National’s last year in office more was spent on Auckland roads in real dollar terms than in any year this Government has been in office. But let us forget that and move on to look at last year’s full year of spending—$139 million—and multiply it by 10. I will be generous and say $1.4 billion. So we take the $1.4 billion which is currently spent and add the $1.6 billion for the new package. Let me do the figures: $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion—take the square root of 91 divide by five—and I think that comes to $3 billion.  
Let us be generous and tip in the whole billion dollars that Infrastructure Auckland has sitting in the pot waiting. Now we are up to $4 billion. Even if we do a real sleight of hand with some of the other numbers—and it is very hard to do with the way things are funded and the Auckland Regional Council’s money and so on—we would be barely pushed to get to $4.2 billion or $4.4 billion. That says that Auckland’s needs are $10 billion but it will not get even half of that under the Government’s announced package. 
I had thought this Budget would be the first vital chance for Auckland. I know how Governments work. Governments do a little teaser. They announce for example the $1.6 billion in December and when the Budget comes along the Government has the Opposition lulled into thinking it is only $1.6 billion. Then the big cruncher comes. I have been in Government. I have been a Minister. I know how they do it. They set it all up and they come in with the cruncher on Budget night—it is another $2.4 billion or another $3.6 billion. So I grabbed the Budget speech—and there is not a single member in this House who will deny that Auckland is in serious trouble with its transport issues—and I read it. I went through page after page. I am a very quick reader when I am looking for something that says “transport” “roading” or “funding”. There was not a mutter not a murmur not a sausage. Nothing—absolutely nothing. 
So I went and talked to people like the Automobile Association the chamber of commerce and the Employers and Manufacturers Association. They said the Government has lost the plot. So I thought I had better refer back to the December package and see whether the Government is really committed to roads. I am pleased the Hon Chris Carter Minister of Local Government is in the House. I read his press statement. Guess what? He does not mention roads in it. See—he is surprised. I say to the Hon Chris Carter that he should go back and read it. He does not mention roads in his December package. He talks about “transport solutions”. He talks about cycleways and walkways. He talks about all sorts of things but not roads. I have to tell him that in the end yes ferries will provide about a 1 percent solution to Auckland’s problems. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: I don’t know about fairies. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Not the sort of fairies—no that is very unfair! I am talking about rail probably getting to 0.8 of 1 percent and buses—let us be generous—getting to 2 or 3 percent or maybe 4 percent. But in the end members simply cannot deny that the motorcar and the roading network is what Aucklanders are seeking. This Budget did absolutely nothing for that? Absolutely nothing. 
 I understand why Governments at various times in the past have said they could not spend anything. I was one of the incoming Ministers in 1990 and I saw the books and saw deficits so big they would literally take one’s breath away. So I know why Governments have said they simply could not do anything because they were so hamstrung and it was moribund. As members will know in the “mother of all Budgets” the extra spending was next to nothing. In fact we had to cut wherever we could. 
But here is a Government that makes a complete and utter boon out of the fact that it has a $7 billion surplus. It is easy to do actually. What one does is overtax people. It is really easy. When the Government has the taxation lever in its hand it is easy to do. It just pulls back and then pulls back a bit further. There is a $7 billion surplus. The people of Auckland were saying that the good thing about the Government having this surplus is that it would have the ability to spend some money to fix the one serious problem that is killing this city. Did it do it? No no. 
I ask anyone who is interested in this debate to go and have a look at the completion dates for the various major arterial connectors that will finally solve Auckland’s problems. Are they planned for 2005 2006 or 2007 where they need to be? Not on your nelly! This Government published its completion dates for the Mount Roskill connection of the Mangere motorway State Highway 20 through to Manukau City State Highway 18 across the top the connection of the north-western motorway through to the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the eastern corridor. The dates are 2015 2017 2018 and 2019. Aucklanders will revolt long before 2010 if this Government carries on with a pathetic attempt to solve that. 
Now there is one other way the Government could have fixed it. It could have let the private sector loose to build it toll it and start seeing the Albany to Puhoi realignment B2 (ALPURT B2) and so on. But what has it done to the private sector? It has kicked it in the guts and said: “We don’t like you. We won’t send you anything.” This Budget is an outrage.