Brown Peter: Rodney District Council (PENLINK Toll Road) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
Brown Peter: Rodney District Council (PENLINK Toll Road) Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:614;Page:10413] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 A few days ago I think on 21 November to be precise the Minister of Transport went before a local government forum and asked it to please come up with a road he could toll so as to prove his critics wrong. He is in dire straits. He needs some roads to toll because he wants the Land Transport Management Act to work. I notice that there was no speaker from the Government in the Chamber initially in this debate. I sat back and refrained from taking an earlier call waiting for a Government member to explain the Government’s view on this bill. 
This bill has been effectively sabotaged by the Greens and we are not prepared to support it. I heard Paul Adams talk about his colleague the expert on transport—the man who is so dedicated to transport he did not even want to get on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and is not on that committee as a permanent member. He just appeals to go on the committee time and time again. He is known—[ 
Interruption 
] The member is throwing a little back to me. I remind the Hon Harry Duynhoven that when I had to go on the committee as a voluntary member we had only 5 members of Parliament and I just could not afford the time to go there all the time. United Future is a party that has come in and bragged about transport. Larry Baldock is a reasonable guy but he is known in Tauranga— 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: This is Paul Adams. 
PETER BROWN 
: This is Paul Adams? But he was talking about Larry Baldock. I want to tell Paul Adams that Larry Baldock is known as “Toll Road Baldock.” Actually he is not known as “Toll Road Baldock” but I will not tell the member what “Baldock” is changed to when it gets into Tauranga. 
New Zealand First is opposed in principle to toll roading; we are opposed to the concept of toll roading. We basically believe that every dollar spent by the motorist should be spent as effectively as possible. There is no advantage to the motorist to be had from building huge toll plazas. It is not the best use of the motorist’s dollar to pay for people to man toll road plazas 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It is not the best use of the motorist’s dollar to pay for administration costs and it is not the best use of the motorist’s dollar to pay the profit on toll roading. Toll roading is no good to the community unless the tolls from a particular road can be spread on to other roads. It absolutely fails to address the core problem with regard to roading. 
Auckland roads are in a mess and Auckland transport is a mess. I was talking to transport operators the other day. They told me about some of the problems and they are significant. 
Hon Taito Phillip Field 
: What did the member do about it when he was in Government? 
PETER BROWN 
: That is a good question and I will tell the Minister because he wants to understand exactly how a political party is committed to transport issues. We transferred some of the money from petrol that goes into the consolidated account into the roading account and that was to have been done on an ongoing basis. Had that been continued right now a lot more money would be going into roading than there is currently and we would not be putting on the 4.7c per litre or whatever it was that Labour put on petrol the other day. 
Hon Taito Phillip Field 
: Father Christmas too! 
PETER BROWN 
: The Minister asked me a question and I gave him an answer—and a Merry Christmas to him. If the Government is serious about addressing the Auckland congestion problem in particular then it should take time out to talk to New Zealand First. We are a political party that regards transport and roading as a high priority in terms of the development of our economy. But the Government is talking to United Future and the Greens. With due respect to those parties we can get what United Future knows about transport and roading on the back of a postage stamp in block capital letters and still leave space for the Greens to get their contribution on it too. 
New Zealand First opposes this bill but we will not support the Government or even give the impression we will support its Land Transport Management Act. We think that Act is totally wrong. The Government knows that it is totally wrong and it will come up with something new on 12 December or some time like that. Harry Duynhoven knows that Act is wrong; he knows that it does not work. He is one member of the Government who at least knows something about transport and he knows the Government has to do a lot more in that area. We are in the invidious position of not supporting this bill and not supporting the alternative. 
Before I conclude I will just say that the people of Rodney want the Penlink roading project to be put on Transit’s 10-year plan and I believe that they are entitled to that. That is a reasonable entitlement. New Zealand First opposes this bill. We know that throws the matter into the lap of the alternative which we also oppose so we have no alternative but to abstain from voting on this bill.