Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour): Madam Deputy Speaker thank you for the opportunity to contribute tonight. As somebody who lives in Hamilton a list MP based in Hamilton we love Aucklanders. You know they drink their lattes they've got their boats they go out on the shore they've got their terrible rugby team—you know we get that. We love Aucklanders but we don't love them that much that we want to pay for all their infrastructure challenges. Why should us Hamiltonians have to pay for Auckland to fix some of their transport issues?Matt Doocey: Good question! That's what we say.JAMIE STRANGE: Matt Doocey—he's in the Waimakariri. Do your members want to pay for Auckland's transport issues—sorry Madam Deputy Speaker; not yours but do the member's people want to pay for Auckland? Stuart Smith the member from Kaikōura—do members in Stuart's electorate want to pay for Aucklanders' issues? So here's the point. Why should people in Masterton have to pay for Auckland? We're talking about a system here of personal responsibility.Now I had nothing else to do before so I just had a quick look on the National Party website. The National Party website talks about two things: loyalty to our country—OK sure—its democratic principles and our sovereign principles and the Sovereign as head of State. Well that's debatable. But here's one of the key values I saw on the National Party website: personal responsibility.So my point is why shouldn't Aucklanders take personal responsibility for their transport challenges? They're the ones that got themselves into this mess. So what the Opposition are saying is that the rest of the country should bail them out. What I'm saying is that the Aucklanders should take personal responsibility and that they can pay for some of their challenges. Sure we'll help out because we're nice like that—us Hamiltonians are nice like that—but the point here is that we care about Aucklanders but they need to look after some of their challenges. And that's what this bill does. This bill says that Aucklanders will pay for their infrastructure. Yes we'll help out but the Aucklanders will be paying for it.Now as some people may know I tend to like to sometimes put a little lyric into my speeches.Matt King: Please don't.JAMIE STRANGE: And tonight the lyric is—just for Matt King—Sterling Simms and the lyric says I'm stuck in traffic trying to get to you. I'm stuck in traffic trying to get to you." I've been up to Auckland a few times recently and I've been stuck in traffic. And where's the singer trying to get to? Family work maybe for leisure anywhere but the productivity aspect—sitting in a car on a motorway that's gridlocked—is a big challenge. And members from this side of the House have made that quite clear that there are huge challenges in Auckland around transport. This Government will address those issues and this bill is the start of doing that.So we talk about Auckland being a world class city and there are many aspects of Auckland that are absolutely world class and it's a desirable place to live and we're proud of it as a country we're proud of the city. But we've got a long way to go in terms of transport. When we look at cities like Canberra who are just in the process of building light rail; Adelaide; some of the countries over in Asia; many of the countries over in Europe—some of these countries and these big cities that we look at—we haven't kept up with population growth. The infrastructure hasn't kept up.So I'm excited that we've got a Government who will put their money where their mouth is. Because the previous Government talked about—let's have a look at this. Back in 2005 the previous National Government said they'd put money aside for Penlink. In 2005 they said "We'll do Penlink—yes we will." It was an election promise. Did it happen? No. In 2017 they popped up again "Oh yeah that's right Penlink. Yep we're going to do it." But they didn't budget any money for it. Whereas this Government we are putting our money where our mouth is. So yes we are saying that we will fix the transport issues but we will pay for it.We heard from the Rt Hon David Carter earlier tonight with his contribution. And as an esteemed gentleman—a very intelligent gentleman—but I wonder what is his plan? He gave us a speech for 10 minutes which was full of excitement and rhetoric but there was no plan. And that's the point; this Government does have a plan. And I do wonder if the Rt Hon David Carter—maybe he might be looking to jump off a sinking ship but that's up to him. He mentioned the Northcote by-election. I was up at the Northcote by-election on the weekend and when I was talking to people up there the people up there were telling me "We need a plan. We need a plan. We've heard for years that they're going to fix these gridlocked streets but we need a plan." Hon Member: And who did they vote for?JAMIE STRANGE: In the Northcote by-election the majority was cut from 6000 to 1000. I would see that as a failure. If I had 6000 and it dropped to 1000 I'd be very disappointed with that result.I'd like to speak for a moment about the Eastern Busway. So the Eastern Busway is one of the projects that this regional fuel tax will fund. The Eastern Busway will not happen without this policy—it will not happen. And the member for Botany who shares two-thirds of my name he is against this policy but when the Eastern Busway is built and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern cuts the ribbon the member for Botany will become very quiet because he knows that this was a good idea. And the reason this is a good idea is because Auckland is paying for Auckland's infrastructure.So just to summarise we have huge issues in Auckland. It's at a standstill. We understand the frustration of its ratepayers who are spending hours of their day stuck in traffic. There's a huge loss of productivity when you're sitting behind the wheel stuck in traffic. Maybe in a few years we might have driverless cars and people will be able to do some work on there but at the moment the reality is that productivity is being lost. And Aucklanders want action. They've been talking about this for years. They want action and they want it quickly. Congestion is a handbrake on the New Zealand economy.So what's the solution? This bill is the solution. This bill is about taking personal responsibility—which is something that I know the member's opposite believe very strongly in. It's about Aucklanders taking personal responsibility for their transport challenges and for them paying for it. And people in Hamilton people in Masterton and people down in Southland—we're going to chip in a little bit OK? We're going to chip in as well but the Aucklanders should pay for their challenges. So Madam Deputy Speaker thank you for the opportunity to speak on this and I commend this bill to the House."