Twyford Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Twyford Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:675;Page:21271] 
6. 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister of Transport 
: Does he accept any responsibility for the failure of the train services in Auckland on Friday night? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 No. The Minister of Transport has roles in the provision of infrastructure funding policy and legislative matters. The Minister of Transport’s remit does not extend to transport operations although there are some days when I wish that it did. As members will be aware the issues that occurred on Friday were the result of operational matters. They are currently being addressed by the operator Auckland Transport and its contractors. 
Phil Twyford 
: Does section 50 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act prohibit Auckland Council from public transport management and vest that power in Auckland Transport and did his Government pass that Act? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Yes the Government passed that Act. 
Phil Twyford 
: Did he see any warnings about establishing an autonomous body to run Auckland transport instead of making Auckland Council responsible and did he ignore those warnings? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: No. If the member thinks that that would be the issue then obviously we would not allow Air New Zealand to run air transport we would not allow KiwiRail to run rail transport we would not allow road freighting companies to run road transport and we would not allow bus companies to run bus transport. That premise obviously does not apply. 
Phil Twyford 
: Does he take responsibility for creating the structure and appointing the people and for the subsequent debacle produced by the structure he created and the people he appointed? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: No for the points that I have just made in answer to the previous supplementary question. The member seems to suggest that only elected bodies can run transport operations. I suggest that the evidence worldwide is that that is not the case. If he thinks that for example Councillor Mike Lee would be better to run it that is entirely up to him. 
Phil Twyford 
: Does he agree with the statement of Nikki Kaye that due to his Government reorganising Auckland local government and splitting Auckland Transport off as an autonomous organisation “We will be able to get rid of those transport bottlenecks.”; if so why was he not able to get rid of the transport bottlenecks in Auckland last Friday? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: The Government has had considerable success in improving the transport situation in Auckland but the issues last Friday as I explained to the member yesterday were to be fair at least in part the result of much much higher transport loadings than were anticipated by any party that considered the matter over the last 4 or 5 years— 
Phil Twyford 
: Not true. Michael Barnett said 150000 people. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: No that is incorrect. And— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Why did McCully appoint him in a cafe? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Oh for goodness’ sake! 
Jacinda Ardern 
: Does he intend to reconsider and take into account any factors in addition to his ministry’s cost-benefit ratio when considering funding of the city rail link such as our inability to manage international events without it? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I must say I find amusing the suggestion that somehow the answer to the question is a $2.4 billion central business district rail link through the middle of town. If that is what is required to move people from downtown Auckland to Eden Park then we have a very big issue indeed. I am sure we can find a slightly more economical way of doing that. But it is important to point out that Auckland Council and Auckland Transport are meeting pretty much as we speak to address those issues and will be making announcements later on this afternoon on both the causes of what happened last Friday and their mitigating actions and I think we should give them the opportunity to do that.