Brooking RachelLAND TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT (REGULATION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon RACHEL BROOKING (Minister for Oceans and Fisheries) on behalf of the Minister of Transport: I present a legislative statement on the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill. DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website. Hon RACHEL BROOKING: I move That the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. This bill is part of the Government's commitment to improve public transport in Aotearoa New Zealand and in turn strengthen employee welfare and improve environmental and health outcomes. This bill aims to align the framework governing public transport planning and provision with Government objectives through the establishment of the Sustainable Public Transport Framework or SPTF addressing issues identified by the PTOM review which is the Public Transport Operating Model review. The bill does this is several ways including establishing new governing principles; creating greater flexibility around asset ownership and service provision models; enabling innovation in the types of services that can be provided including supporting the provision of on-demand public transport services; creating new transparency and planning requirements; and altering and clarifying the regulation of exempt services. We have already taken important steps to reduce our public transport emissions through requiring that only zero-emission buses are purchased from 2025 and we have provided funding to decarbonise the bus fleet through Budget 2022. Through Budget 2022 and 2023 we have also funded improved bus driver wages and conditions. The SPTF is the next step towards embedding improved workforce and environmental outcomes in the public transport system. This bill amends the Land Transport Management Act 2003 replacing PTOM with the Sustainable Public Transport Framework. This framework will place workers and public transport users at the heart of public transport procurement planning and provision while retaining successful components of PTOM. It will support workforce recruitment and retention and will prioritise fair and equitable treatment of employees mode shift and environmental and health outcomes. It will enable on-demand public transport services and enable public transport authorities to own assets and operate services allowing tailored solutions for communities and greater service flexibility. New notice requirements for the withdrawal of integral exempt services will provide surety to regional councils and users. It also introduces new transparency and planning requirements strengthening collaboration between regional councils and operators. Overall this bill brings us a step closer to delivering positive environmental social and public transport specific outcomes. Thank you to the Transport and Infrastructure Committee which has done a lot of work on this—so thank you to that select committee—and also thank you to the 54 organisations and individuals who submitted on this bill. The diverse range of expertise shared by these submitters has been integral to getting the bill to this stage today. The recommendations made by the committee are supported and I will touch briefly on several changes to the bill. The first change removes the automatic exemption for inter-regional services. This change was among the most advocated for changes by submitters. It amends the treatment of inter-regional services making it so they are treated the same as services within a region. With this change inter-regional services will only be exempt if they are not identified as integral and they operate without subsidy. This change reflects the inter-regional services that are already a critical part of the public transport system and it makes it clear that there should be collaboration across regional boundaries to plan and deliver these services. I also note that a transitional provision has been included to ensure this change does not affect funding arrangements for existing subsidised but exempt inter-regional services. This will prevent current services from being negatively impacted and will provide more flexibility for regional councils. The second change clarifies which exempt services do not need to be registered limited to certain unscheduled services and shuttle services. This is necessary to ensure scheduled public transport services continue to be registered enabling continued regional council oversight of the public transport system. A third change will ensure sufficient regional council funding is available before the Minister recommends the removal of a service exemption. We agree with the committee that consideration needs to be given to regional councils' ability to fund services if an exemption is removed. Changes have been made to the guiding principles. Specific mention of supporting equitable access and coordination of public transport services with land use have been included. It makes sense that these two vital components of an effective public transport system are directly mentioned. Following feedback from submitters the committee has recommended a sensible clarification to the transparency requirements. The change clarifies that if information is requested it does not need to be disclosed by a regional council or Waka Kotahi if there are grounds to withhold it under other relevant legislation. This ensures improved transparency between operators regional councils and Waka Kotahi while protecting commercially sensitive information. Finally the committee recommended changes to regional public transport plan—or RPTP—requirements. Changes to RPTP requirements will ensure consistency with the guiding principles. Removing commercially and competition-based requirements reflects the shift towards a more holistic approach to public transport provision. Meanwhile requiring regional council consideration of public transport worker and representative union views when preparing RPTPs supports a fair and equitable workforce treatment. Again thank you to the select committee and to all those who submitted on the bill. We would always like to acknowledge your participation in the democratic process. This bill is another milestone in the Government's emissions reduction plan. The establishment of the Sustainable Public Transport Framework which will replace PTOM is necessary to lay the foundations to achieve emissions reductions through mode shift and decarbonising public transport. The reforms also address systematic issues in the sector and improve the regulation of public transport services. I commend the Land Transport Management (Regulation of Public Transport) Amendment Bill to this House.