Key John: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Key John: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:618;Page:14018] 
JOHN KEY (National—Helensville) 
: 
 The Labour Government thinks it knows a lot about land transport because it is good at giving out traffic tickets. That has been its contribution to land transport in New Zealand—it is good at stopping law-abiding citizens and giving them traffic tickets but not too good at fixing Auckland’s problems or the motorway network. Aucklanders are not asking for a miracle or some wonderful thing. Members were talking before about the objectives of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority as they are listed in Part 2 “Auckland Region land transport and stormwater” and the fact that fixing those roads is an impossible dream. Aucklanders have been waiting 40 long years for this network to be finished. In the 5 years this Government has been in office it has achieved absolutely nothing and this bill will continue to fail. 
The Government has shown scant regard for this bill. The members who have so far spoken on the bill are the Hon Rick Barker from Tukituki Damien O’Connor from the West Coast and Harry Duynhoven from New Plymouth. They are not Auckland members. Where are the Auckland members? Those members are trying to close down the debate and a couple of provincial members were also trying to close it down. Aucklanders care passionately about this issue. They want a resolution but the Government does not. The Government does not care about fixing Auckland’s problems. What it cares about is snuggling up to the Greens and its coalition partner arrangements. That is what made the Land Transport Management Bill a complete and utter failure and that is what will make the Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill a similar failure. 
For anyone who needs more clarification of that point Iurge that person to look at Part 2 of the bill and in particular at clause 8(1A) which provides that the Auckland Regional Transport Authority “… must exhibit a sense of social and environmental responsibility …”. That clause must have been drafted by the Green Party. [ 
Interruption 
] I hear the Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons and she is nodding in approval of that statement. When she went to Heather Simpson on the ninth floor in the dark she said: “This is the bottom line. I want these things in the bill. Let’s make this one as unworkable as the Land Transport Management Bill. That is my aim.” and Heather Simpson quietly said to her: “Yes. Don’t worry Jeanette Fitzsimons we’ll take care of it. We’ll make this an unworkable piece of legislation just the way the Land Transport Management Bill was.” 
Then we look at consultation as it is set out in clause 8(1A)(b)(i): “ensuring … that the views of affected communities are taken into account;”. What is an affected community? For instance looking at the Albany to Puhoi realignment B2 (ALPURT B2) the motorway north of Auckland is the affected community someone who is paying the toll someone living in the local area someone trying to use that road to go to Northland or someone in the south of Auckland or in Wellington who is currently travelling through? Affected communities are very difficult things to define. When the select committee was discussing the Land Transport Management Bill—which I might say in hindsight is really a subset of this bill—we asked officials about affected communities and the exact conclusion they drew was that affected communities were quite difficult to define. 
I want also to make specific reference to Part 3 “Amendments repeals and revocations” which again talks about the number of people who are required to be consulted. I want to draw members’ attention back to why attempts to solve the problems have failed and why it is likely that this legislation will continue to fail to deliver results for Aucklanders. That is the very important point that Don Brash made in his speech on roading which I would encourage members to read because it was a very good speech. It pointed out that the real problems in Auckland are the problems not addressed in these issues. The real problems are the Resource Management Act the failure to have the private sector in any way engaged in road building in Auckland and the inability to produce one seamless decision-making body. 
What the press release of the Minister in the chair the Hon Chris Carter said was that this would be one body to solve Auckland’s problems. What he forgot to tell the people of New Zealand was that this was not one body but one more body to add on to all those other bodies out there. That is right—he meant more bureaucracy. My prediction is that if Aucklanders are waiting for the Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority to fix their problems with no changes they will be waiting a very long time indeed. The tragedy of that situation of course is that motorways in Auckland are at 95 percent capacity as we speak today. We cannot afford to wait. We cannot afford to have thousands of Aucklanders migrating into Auckland.