Lubeck MarjaMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Tēnā koe Madam Assistant Speaker. I'm delighted to take a call on this Land Transport Management (Regional Fuel Tax) Amendment Bill 2018. A regional fuel tax is the quickest most efficient way to raise funds to invest in Auckland's transport. It will provide additional funds to a region to pay for transport projects that would not otherwise be funded or would be delayed. The previous speaker the member for Botany mentioned the joy in our eyes when we talk about tax. We actually have joy in our eyes when we talk about making things better for New Zealanders and sitting on the road for hours on end definitely does not bring joy to their eyes.This bill is the first step in tackling Auckland's congestion crisis. Now we know the other side of the House doesn't like fuel taxes. They've made it abundantly clear. It's exactly the same story—like a broken record—as their story in 2009. I'll come back to that later. Lots of promises were made on funding projects differently other than putting a fuel tax in—except that they never did.So there's lots of rhetoric about wanting businesses and people to thrive. They're making you know promises about making things better for people except for the fact that they don't have the funding and they don't have any answers on how to fix that massive deep hole.So we said in 2017 in the election campaign that we would implement a regional fuel tax in Auckland. So the member for Botany is wrong that we said we wouldn't; that was part of our election campaign. And we won't be able to invest as needed otherwise. We can't rely on the tax through the National Land Transport Programme. This bill sets up a process to establish a regional fuel tax and provides that until 2021 Auckland will be the only region to have a regional fuel tax.The Land Transport Management (Regional Fuel Tax) Amendment Bill will enable Auckland Council to raise funds for specific transport-related projects as investment in infrastructure is well overdue. Auckland's current infrastructure simply can no longer support the city and to be a world-class city as we've heard before Auckland needs world-class transport infrastructure.Auckland Council understands the frustration of ratepayers who spend so many hours of their lives stuck in traffic whether it is people just getting to work or school or businesses struggling with access for their staff their suppliers and their customers.The member Mr Hudson mentioned people not being able to do the things they want to do because they have to pay a fuel tax. We are saying they can't do the things they want to do because they're sitting in traffic and the amount of time spent in traffic is a huge financial toll on people using these roads. So there's a financial toll and there's a personal toll. Everyone leads busy lives and on top of having our busy lives we now spend time watching the traffic lights watching the cars in front of us waiting and waiting for that traffic jam to start moving. There's a loss of quality time in our lives. When you think about workers quite often doing several shifts in a day they are actually now stuck at their place of work because they can't get home to spend a few hours with their families. They are basically stuck at the place that they spent the shift in.So on top of Auckland's traffic gridlock we've heard from members previously that the gridlock has cost our economy about $1.3 billion per year in lost productivity. There was another quite incredible fact that I learnt reading through the material and it said that if Auckland traffic were to move a mere 6 kilometres faster during weekdays 6 kilometres per hour—so from an average of 50.5 kilometres per hour they move to 56.8 km an hour—that benefits the economy by $3.5 million per day—$3.5 million per day by going 6 kilometres an hour faster. Now we acknowledge that Auckland is not the only region where there's a critical and urgent need for transport infrastructure but at this time the focus is on Auckland. We also don't believe that people will travel out of Auckland to get the fuel because Auckland has large boundaries and you wouldn't sit in a traffic jam for hours just to go somewhere else and save five dollars on filling up your tank. People need access to the things they need whether it's jobs education or community.I talked about the businesses and how without access to the market without access to customers it's impossible for existing businesses to thrive. The other side of the House talks about not implementing taxes but wanting businesses to thrive but how is the other side of the House proposing to get the customers to the businesses and to get the suppliers to deliver the goods to the businesses if they can't get through the gridlock? And what about new businesses? Why would any new businesses choose to go and locate in an area that has known issues?I would like to talk about my own electorate of Rodney to give an example of some of the horrendous traffic congestion that makes this bill so necessary. The Whangaparāoa peninsula has huge problems with businesses getting their products to the market. There's a massive lack of access to get the goods they need to their businesses and on top of that like many other areas in Rodney the area of Whangaparāoa peninsula including Millwater Dairy Flat and Whanganui is earmarked for extensive residential as well as business development and once that's finished there will be another 147000 more people with access to State Highway 1 but solely through the State Highway 1 Silverdale / Hibiscus Coast Highway intersection. It will make that really bad congestion issue even worse and the traffic is already not coping as it is. It will heavily impact not only on the residents but also on that Silverdale peninsula business community because of that difficulty of access and delivery firms restricting service.Now there's a project that could potentially be funded by this fuel bill and I think it's important to mention because the member for Botany mentioned the tram-set. This is not just about the tram-set; this is about roads that will get people moving. It is a project that will make a huge difference in the lives of so many people and quite frankly it's crucial to the economic development of the district.Simeon Brown: What road? What road?MARJA LUBECK: The residents of the area of Whangaparāoa peninsula and Silverdale have for a long time advocated for the need to ease congestion on that peninsula. There's a very important health and safety issue as well because there's only one way to get in and out of that peninsula. If the road is blocked everyone is trapped. The project is called—the member for Pakuranga was asking—Penlink. It's a 7-kilometre long road to link the Whangaparāoa peninsula to State Highway 1 at Redvale. It would include a bridge across the river. It will provide a second access road. It will help boost the roading capacity of an area with growing employment and a growing population. It would unlock the economic advantages of the area which currently have no way of flourishing and I'll tell you why. Labour was going to build that Penlink road with a regional fuel tax—guess what—in 2008 but they were voted out and what do you think? The National Government in 2008 did not like that fuel tax so they took over and nine years later nothing happened except that the regional fuel tax was cancelled by the National Government and Penlink was taken off the national roads register—nine long years and nothing happened for the people and the businesses of Whangaparāoa peninsula and Silverdale who continue to struggle with the congestion that the National Government never did anything about for nine long years.Then came the election in 2017 and guess what? The then National Government made another election bribe and it announced it would pick up Penlink in a new funding package only it hadn't allocated that funding and it also didn't have a defined timeline. It sort of makes me think back to the 10 bridges up in Northland. I don't think any of those bridges were built ever were they? Not one. Was it also an election promise? That's right; it was a by-election promise in 2015: We'll build you the bridges—except that we never did."I just want to read for context this press release headed: "National Party Commits to Penlink". It says "The National Party has announced it is committed to building the Weiti River crossing commonly known as Penlink within 10 years of becoming government."—from National shadow Minister for Transport Maurice Williamson. It goes on "National reiterated the party's commitment made during the 2005 election that the Penlink project is to be completed within 10 years."—this was 2005. It goes on "It describes the project as vitally important to [the] economic development of the district."—except they took the fuel tax away they had no money to build it they shelved it and the people are struggling.So anyway what we are doing with this bill is we are providing the mechanism to establish the fuel tax so regions have the ability to fund these important projects. The bill will ensure Aucklanders will get action in resolving the congestion. The cost of doing nothing has been incurred for far too long. I support this bill and commend it to the House."