Smith Nick: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Smith Nick: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12461] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 If this is the answer it must have been one heck of a dumb question. Every member in this House knows that there is an enormous transport challenge in the city of Auckland. There is no disagreement on that. Where there is huge disagreement is over the answer and after 4½ years of a Labour Government we have this bill which will take us nowhere. 
Jill Pettis 
: Where are all the Auckland members? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: From the member for Whanganui I want to know why more bureaucracy will help Auckland’s problems. Why will establishing yet another public body make any difference to addressing the city’s transport issues? 
What is even more extraordinary is that if one asked the people of Auckland which local authority they had the least level of confidence in they would overwhelmingly say the Auckland Regional Council. Yet this Government in this bill will substantially increase the powers of the Auckland Regional Council. I say to members opposite that if they really believe that the Auckland Regional Council is the answer to all of Auckland’s woes the sooner they are kicked off the Government benches the better for the people of Auckland. 
I also want to say to members opposite that the kind of approach in this bill is all about plans strategies and talkfests when what the people of Auckland want is some action on the outstanding issues on which there has been so little progress over the last 4½ years. The timetable provided for in this bill is appalling. The bill states that a land transport programme will be prepared for Auckland on 1 July 2006. That is 2¼ years away! Can the people of Auckland put up with another plan on 1 July 2006? It is truly pathetic. It is acknowledged that Auckland’s transport problems are costing the economy of New Zealand a billion dollars a year yet members opposite are happy to sit around and wait to prepare a plan for 1 July 2006. I say that that is simply not good enough. 
Then we ask who will be responsible for the mess. Well we are to have a new body—the Auckland Regional Transport Authority. We will have Transfund TrackCo Transit the nine territorial authorities and the regional council as well. The idea that we will have progress on Auckland’s transport issues with 13 different bodies trying to make that progress is truly extraordinary. 
Then we have the Minister who believes in the power of general competence. That is the Minister who said we needed to give local authorities flexibility and trust them to make their own decisions. Yet this bill states that they must spend 85 percent of the money in a particular way. Does that sound like trusting local authorities? Why is it 85 percent? Why not 86 percent? Why not 81 percent? Given those provisions what sort of stupid arbitrary legislation is he proposing for Parliament? This legislation provides for nothing more than a dog’s breakfast in making decisions on one of the most important issues facing this country’s largest city. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Give us a policy! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Mr Clayton Cosgrove pipes up. I will tell him what was a damn good policy: 4½ years ago his Government dumped  
Better Transport Better Roads 
. That report had good intellectual thought and policy in it and it dumped that. It has taken 4½ years for it to deliver this policy which will do nothing for the people of Auckland. 
The other issue is that the Resource Management Act is a huge barrier to making progress on Auckland’s serious roading issues. 
Hon Judith Tizard 
: Which Government passed it? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Judith Tizard pipes up and asks who passed it. I put it to her that when she came to Government in 1999 there was a very substantive reform bill before the House and her Government rejected it. It must take responsibility for that and for the fact that those reforms have not been provided for. The Resource Management Act continues to be a major barrier to dealing with those Auckland issues. And what does this bill do? This bill extends the culture of planning and strategies and bureaucracy that is at the core of the problem of Auckland’s transport issues. 
This bill provides for piecemeal reform of the Resource Management Act. It provides for another round of regional and district plan reforms. Does the Government know how long it takes on average for reform of a district or regional plan? It takes 4 years and I ask members who represent Auckland particularly those on the Government benches whether we can wait around 4 years for progress on Auckland’s transport issues. Clearly we cannot wait that long. 
I also say it is ironic that in this bill we will see a raid on Infrastructure Auckland. I remember when Infrastructure Auckland was set up. Members opposite who are now in Government said it would be a financial disaster. In fact it was a stunning success. Such a large pot of money now exists in Infrastructure Auckland that this Government wants to raid it and we again raise questions about that. 
I also want to say that the timetable set down for this bill is ironic. It has taken 4½ years for the Government to get this bill to the House and it is going to rush it through in 3 months. Yes we do need a timely solution but that is treating this Parliament with contempt. 
I also want to address the important issues of funding. Despite increasing petrol taxes on all New Zealanders—not once but twice—this Government is spending less on road construction in real terms than in 1999. 
Jill Pettis 
: Rubbish! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The member says that is rubbish. I challenge her to produce the figures because that is absolutely the truth. This Government is sitting on $230 million in Transit’s bank account while the people of Auckland wake up every morning to huge congestion. That is a disgrace. 
National will oppose this bill because it is miles away from a solution. This bill is about talkfests about planning and about bureaucracy when we need leadership and decisive action. This Government has failed again and the patience of the people of Auckland has run out. The people of Auckland will not support the Auckland Regional Council the least competent body in Auckland to progress transport and the important issues in Auckland. 
The Minister has to do a damned sight better than this if he has any hope of dealing with the serious issues. We have to deal with funding issues and with Resource Management Act issues. We need less bureaucracy not more if we are going to solve Auckland’s transport problems.