Russell Deborah; Brown SimeonHon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair. I'm very grateful to have only my second call on this bill. I want to go to clause 7 to discuss some of the things that would probably have been discussed in a select committee process had we been able to have one. I know we're doing this under urgency but the fact that it's under urgency doesn't mean we shouldn't examine this as thoroughly as we can in the committee stage. I don't think it was the choice of this side of the Chamber to go into urgency so—consequences.I just want to take one issue with the Minister. One of the things that the Minister says is We won the election." and so on and "Therefore we don't need to discuss." Indeed that is quite clear but that doesn't mean that the Government is still not responsible for discussing these matters. Just saying that repeatedly when we are raising concerns from our local communities kind of does amount to going "Nyah nyah na-nyah nyah!" so it would be helpful if we got some responses.Having said all that I do want to go to a very specific project which is missing from my area and it matters. So it relates to project 13; it's one of the items in clause 7 where we've got Schedule 2 being amended and Project 13 is now taken out. That's a real shame because it was about improving the capability of the network and the particular set of projects I was interested in is the one around dynamic lanes which is really interesting—dynamic traffic lanes.Now I have a good friend who lives out in Whangaparāoa out on Vipond Road out there. So I go and visit him every now and again and there's a really fantastic dynamic lane there and it works really well to ensure that we've got effective traffic flows that the road is being used to capacity so two lanes out in the morning then it gets swapped over and you get two lanes back in in the evening with the dynamic lane.Project 13 has dynamic lanes included and there were to be dynamic lanes along Great North Road and around Patiki Road and around Blockhouse Bay Road. Certainly Blockhouse Bay Road could do with that extra lane out in the morning and the extra lane in in the evening would have made quite a difference.But the road I want to really focus on is Patiki Road and the reason I want to focus on Patiki Road is it goes off State Highway 20 I think it is and leads up into Rosebank Road up through the Avondale Peninsula. That is an intense light—I was going to say "intense light industrial area"; it's a light industrial area—CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): Does the member have a question for the Minister?Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: Yes I do—I do. I'm going to get to it I promise. There are a lot of businesses there and the traffic gets incredibly congested there. It is hard for businesses to operate there because the traffic is inadequate. Yet this project which would have been so beneficial to them has been taken off the drawing board.I want to know if the Minister consulted the Rosebank Business Association. I mean they've been lobbying for years for better traffic on that road. They've lobbied and they really do need some improvements there. So has the Minister—in lieu of having a select committee stage where people like the Rosebank Business Association could have come and talked about this project—consulted with the Rosebank Business Association?That dynamic traffic flow would have made a huge difference not just to the local residents but to businesses in that area and it's a real shame that they haven't had that chance to come and make that case themselves so I'm making it for them. What consultation did the Minister undertake with the businesses operating along Rosebank Road? Those businesses are typically represented by the Rosebank Business Association.CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): Before I take the next call can I just reiterate what the former Chair said to members: not to now refer to specific projects but to the ones that remain as a consequence of this bill. She did say you could mention specific projects but the questioning to the Minister about those has been fairly well done—I've got a good record of them. So we're looking for new material and we are looking for specific questions to the Minister.Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Transport): Thank you Madam Chair and I thank the member for the question. Ultimately as I've outlined on a number of occasions the Government has been very clear around which of these projects will require the remaining funding to support. There were a number of members raising questions about particular projects. Obviously we've released the Government policy statement on transport this week and those issues will be dealt with through the council being able to continue to put forward projects. Ultimately this bill is about the Auckland regional fuel tax. We're removing the Auckland regional fuel tax and that's what this bill does."