Boscawen John: Infrastructure Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Boscawen John: Infrastructure Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:9807. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JOHN BOSCAWEN (ACT) 
: 
 I was not intending to take a call on the Infrastructure Bill but the speech we have just heard from Gareth Hughes has motivated me to do so. The ACT Party will be supporting this bill which according to the commentary on the bill “provides for a new Utilities Access Act and makes a number of amendments to several Acts to remove a number of legislative barriers to infrastructure development.”—and certainly do we not need those barriers to infrastructure development to be lifted? This is an omnibus bill of four parts and it covers three areas. It covers changes to utilities’ access arrangements to transport corridors makes changes to the New Zealand Railways Corporation Act 1981 and repeals certain aspects of the Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Act 2008. 
As I said I want to comment on Mr Hughes’ speech because he preceded the main part of his speech by making some general comments on infrastructure and those comments cannot go unanswered. It always fascinates me when people stand up in this House and criticise the Government’s decision to build roads because by far the most common form of public transport is the bus. The last time I checked buses travelled on roads. 
David Bennett 
: No way! 
JOHN BOSCAWEN 
: Yes absolutely; buses travel on roads. Where I live in the Tamaki electorate Mr Peachey’s electorate some special bus transit lanes have just been put in along Tamaki Drive to make very efficient use of those roads. As I walk along Tamaki Drive taking my daily exercise I ask myself why that was not done 20 years ago. 
In commenting further on what Mr Hughes said I note that he criticised the Government’s decision to build roads. I find that quite fascinating because I stood in the Mt Albert by-election against Mr Hughes’ co-leader Mr Norman who advocated the building of a $3 billion tunnel under Mt Albert. 
Catherine Delahunty 
: No he didn’t. 
JOHN BOSCAWEN 
: Yes he did. I shared many platforms with Mr Norman from which he criticised the Government for not building the full 3-kilometre tunnel under Mt Albert but the great tragedy is that that is exactly what the National Government is now doing; it is spending $2 billion to put a 4-kilometre road under Mt Albert when a $500 million surface highway would have done. 
Mr Hughes also made the point that the Government was doing very little to address climate change. That is also demonstrably untrue. The reason I say so is that on 1 July this year this country New Zealand will be the first to conduct an experiment. We will conduct an experiment on 4 million New Zealanders by putting taxes on our electricity—which is another form of infrastructure—and from 1 July the price of electricity will go up by 5 percent and the price of petrol will go up by 4c a litre. These are not my words and assumptions; these are the assumptions of the New Zealand Treasury adopted by Mr Alan Bollard in his inflation forecast less than 2 weeks ago. If that is not enough Mr Richard Bentley chief executive of Meridian Energy said to the Finance and Expenditure Committee last Wednesday that Meridian Energy would certainly be adding the cost of its carbon taxes to the cost of its electricity. 
Moving on to the issues of housing affordability and the need to put infrastructure in place to ensure we can have affordable houses I ask why houses are unaffordable. There are probably a couple of reasons for that. The first is that they cost too much and let us look in a moment at why they cost too much. The second reason is that New Zealanders’ incomes are too low and I ask why New Zealanders’ incomes are too low. 
When it comes to the cost of housing I point out that in Auckland there is the Auckland Regional Council and that has put a barrier around Auckland. It has put an artificial barrier around Auckland such that land which is inside the Auckland urban limits is some ten times more expensive than land that is immediately outside. If Auckland were allowed to grow I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the price of sub-dividable land on which people now cannot put affordable housing would be so much cheaper. Secondly in relation to the level of incomes I say that if New Zealand incomes were 25 percent higher and if they were at the same level as Australia’s houses in New Zealand just might be that little bit more affordable. 
The ACT Party will be voting for and supporting the Infrastructure Bill but let me repeat that I totally refute the claim that this Government is doing very little to address climate change. It is conducting a massive experiment with the people of New Zealand. The five ACT Party MPs are the only members of Parliament who are standing up for regular New Zealanders who will face a 5 percent increase in electricity from 1 July. 
The only thing sadder than the price of electricity going up on 1 July when it need not go up is the fact that if we had had a Labour Government the price of electricity would have gone up not by 5 percent but by 10 percent. The previous Labour Government intended to introduce an emissions trading scheme that would already have increased the price of electricity by 10 percent if that Government had been re-elected. As I said to the House this afternoon we heard overnight that the French Government through President Sarkozy has announced in the last 24 hours that France will not be proceeding with its carbon tax. I say to John Key to the Ministers of the National Government and to all National members that it is not too late to abandon the expensive experiment of an emissions trading scheme tax which none of our top three trading partners—Australia the United States and China—are pursuing. 
The ACT Party will support the Infrastructure Bill. Thank you.