O'Rourke Denis: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 10 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17169. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]4.DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First)to the Minister of Transport: Does he agree with the conclusion in the 2012 New Zealand Transport Agency commissioned report by Opus International that coastal shipping followed by rail are the most cost effective modes of transporting freight over long distances in New Zealand?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Transport):The statement included in that question comes from a very simplistic reading of that report as it depends on which item is being freighted at any one time. What that report did was take one container and send it on five different modes around New Zealand and it concluded that that was an exhaustive way of working out what was the best way to transport any goods around this country. So I do not agree with the statement in its entirety.Denis O’Rourke: Why has he rejected the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s initiative to invest $5.5 million of ratepayers’ money over 5 years to re-establish a rail service on the mothballed Napier-Gisborne line if the Government makes a similar modest investment of $3 million to $4 million in repairs to the damaged track and other infrastructure so that a locally established company can lease the restored line and purchase the rolling stock from KiwiRail?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Because I have great respect for the ratepayers of that district. Secondly what I would tell the member is that if you look at the freight demand coming out of the area right now for 2 months of the year it puts an extra 17 trucks on the road per day and that is all that is in the increase. We have looked at that proposal. It comes from a group of people who are very keen on the idea but it simply does not stack up. If we supported it it would be a tragedy for the New Zealand taxpayer and it would be a bigger tragedy for the ratepayers of the Hawke’s Bay.Denis O’Rourke: Is the Minister aware that the council and the Napier Gisborne Rail Establishment Group consider that his ill-considered rejection of the initiative is based on a significant misunderstanding of their proposal; if so will he now reconsider it in the comprehensive manner that it actually deserves?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: We have considered that proposal in a very comprehensive way. What I would say to the member is that if the Hawke’s Bay people are so keen on funding that rail line why do they need the relatively modest part from the Government as he suggests? If it is so good and it is going to work so well why do they not just come along and say: “Let us have the track so that we can make it all work.”?Denis O’Rourke: Does the Minister accept that this region cannot depend solely on a narrow winding State highway when the log harvest alone heading for the Port of Napier is expected to go from 90000 tonnes per annum at present to around 900000 tonnes within a few years adding at least 180 more logging truck movements 6 days a week on a road that is already congested with heavy vehicles; if not why not?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: It will not matter how emphatic the member is in asking a question loaded with bogus facts. The reality is that no logs have travelled on that line at any point. Secondly the so-called wall of wood has been promised for decades. Thirdly until it does materialise until it is there why on earth would you expect the Government to put the head of the ratepayers in that district in the noose for some people who in the end will not accept that their figures are not good enough to make it work?Denis O’Rourke: Does the Minister confirm that the creation recently of nine new passing areas on State Highway 2 between Napier and Gisborne at a cost of $4 million made possible by a special Crown contribution and the National Land Transport Programme allocation of $9 million to $10 million over a 3-year period to improve the condition of that highway for a large increase in truck movements means that the Government will continue to favour expensive but relatively minor road improvements over a rail restoration proposal with a much better cost-benefit ratio in both the short and long terms?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: If this member keeps on putting these figures in front of us David Cunliffe is going to reconsider his coalition options. There is no way that anything he has said makes any sense. Yes we put more money into making that road safer because surprisingly 97 percent of all the freight coming out of that area has always gone on the road.Denis O’Rourke: Are there any plans to extend electrification of the rail network and in doing so retain the valuable human resource of the expert and skilled team that is undertaking the Auckland rail network electrification; if not why not?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Certainly not on the Gisborne to Napier line.Denis O’Rourke: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: This is a point of order and I want to hear it in silence.Denis O’Rourke: The question had nothing to do with the Napier-Gisborne line and was a general question—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am going to on this occasion ask the member to repeat the question.Denis O’Rourke: The question was this: are there any plans to extend electrification of the rail network and in doing so retain the valuable human resource of the expert and skilled team that is undertaking the Auckland rail network electrification; if not why not?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Not at this point.