Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Bill — Second Reading 
Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9322] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Let me start by expressing on behalf of New Zealand First our sympathies to Helen Duncan and we wish her all the best. I know she would have liked to be here to debate this bill as it has been reported back but she cannot. So on behalf of my colleagues I express our best wishes to her. 
I am disappointed in Mr Gosche’s speech. As a former Minister he did not touch on this bill at all. He told members what the National Government did not do—he was correct—and he told us what he has done but it does not apply to this bill. This bill is about generic road tolling: establishing road tolls wherever whenever. This bill is not about what National did not do. Although it might possibly address some of the shortfall it is not aimed at the National Government in particular. It is aimed at establishing road tolls wherever whenever. 
New Zealand First will not support a generic road-tolling regime nor will average New Zealanders. They do not want to see road tolls established here there and everywhere. But I do not think that that will occur if one examines the bill. I think this is a phoney bill about generic road tolling. The only area where I believe there is a strong chance of a road toll being established is in Tauranga the city where I come from. There will be a road toll on the harbour bridge where only about a year ago it was taken off. Now it will go back on on the harbour bridge link project. That link project qualifies by all the criteria to be a State-funded road—a State highway. Indeed Transit executive management recommended to the board that the project become a State highway and should therefore be funded out of petrol taxes but the Transit board refused. The board overruled its management it refused and it will not give one reason why it will not recommend that the road become a State highway. 
This bill is setting up Tauranga for road tolling in a most unfair manner. I am disappointed that Larry Baldock is supporting the bill. He is telling the people of Tauranga to support road tolls—never mind that the road should be a State highway and should qualify for State funding. He is saying: “Support road tolls. If you do not you are a whinger.” Larry Baldock is telling people not to be whingers. 
Larry Baldock 
: Just giving them a choice. 
PETER BROWN 
: I say to Mr Baldock that they should not have to have a choice. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Hobson’s choice it’s called. 
PETER BROWN 
: Hobson’s choice—that is what it is called. The harbour bridge link project in Tauranga should be funded—all $140 million of it—by petrol tax road-user charges and what have you. The people of Tauranga should not be asked to pay again. 
There is an old saying: “Do it once do it properly.” This bill does not do anything once and it certainly does not do it properly. What we should be doing in this country now is identifying the total cost that is needed to bring our roads up to par; identify the areas and identify the total cost of what is required to bring them up to par. There are various estimates on this ranging from $6 billion through to $10 billion or even $11 billion. New Zealand First believes we should look at borrowing the funding to address the issue in a meaningful manner and in a reasonable time frame. 
It is absolutely disgraceful for the Prime Minister to come out and say that Transmission Gully is 10 years away before it can even be contemplated. That is absolutely disgraceful. I recognise as Mr Gosche appeared to state that the roads in this country have been starved of funds for years. Motor-vehicle levies have been used for the wrong reasons. Eighteen and a half cents per litre of petrol goes into the consolidated account. The consolidated account is almost awash with money but the motorist is paying 18.5c per litre of petrol into the consolidated account. That is something like $600 million a year—very close to $600 million a year. 
Despite what the Minister said I believe the other day in the House petrol consumption is going up in this country. Vehicle numbers are going up and notwithstanding that the modern vehicle is more economic in fuel use petrol consumption is going up. So there are more and more payments of 18.5c per litre per year being collected by the Government. Some of that money should go back to the road users—some of it. Eventually it is our belief that all of it should go back but in the initial instance to address the shortfall and the problems we have in roading we should be borrowing money. We should be funding that debt to get our roads up to speed and up to the level that the motorist requires. People are dying almost every weekend every year on the roads in New Zealand because road design is not up to par. The roads in this country are not adequate. 
We have 92000 kilometres of roading in New Zealand and only 60-plus percent is tar-sealed. Mark Gosche referred to a new road going between Tauranga and Rotorua. That is not a new road; it is a stretch of road that has just been tar-sealed. It has been waiting for tar-seal for years. It has been progressively tar-sealed bit by bit and been waiting for years to be completed. The car is here to stay. 
Hon Paul Swain 
: Oh no! 
PETER BROWN 
: The Minister disbelieves that. Does he think that because he is going to pay $3 million to people to get on their bicycles or go walking—as the Greens want—people will get out of their cars in any meaningful numbers? I tell the Minister that if they do there will be more people killed on the roads than ever. There will be more pedestrians and cyclists killed right away if they are put to walking and cycling. 
Brent Catchpole 
: They’re certainly not going to use the trains in Auckland. 
PETER BROWN 
: That is another issue but for the short term we have to address the issue of roading in this country. In my view we should have motorways going the whole length of the country. Motorists pay and we should have a motorway from Auckland through to Wellington and southwards. Indeed there should be other motorways crossing the country both in the North Island and the South Island. 
Roading and roading costs have been seen as a cash cow to fund other ventures. Now we can afford it so we should be putting more back into roading. We cannot do it in one hit by using the petrol fund money but we can borrow the money and use the petrol fund money to pay the debt. In a relatively few years we could pay off some major projects in this country. The Minister knows it. That is why he is bringing in another bill to address Auckland issues. In another bill I believe he will announce something in December or early in the New Year. He knows that this bill does not go anywhere near addressing Auckland issues. He is nodding. This is just a sop to let people know that he is trying to do something. The only thing that is likely to result from this bill—and if I have my way it will not—is another toll being put on the Tauranga bridge. 
The Minister had to have a provision inserted in this bill—I think it is part of clause 53—to say that tolling can now apply in exceptional circumstances when there is no alternative route. The legislation when first brought to the House was quite firm—there had to be an alternative route. But now it is weakened to the degree that in exceptional circumstances an existing route can be tolled whether or not there is an alternative route. This bill will result—and I believe it is the Minister’s intention—in a new toll being imposed on the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. Let me say to members that New Zealand First will oppose that all the way. I do not know how Margaret Wilson will front up and say she is supporting this bill when she tried to claim a lot of credit for taking off the last toll.