Fitzsimons Jeanette: Climate Change (Transport Funding) Bill — First Reading 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Climate Change (Transport Funding) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:655;Page:4849] 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Green) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to celebrate Green Day where every bill on the Order Paper today is a Green Party member’s bill. I am proud of that. I thank the Maori Party for its support and I thank the Labour Party for its support for the Climate Change (Transport Funding) Bill. Last year I spoke to the then Labour Minister of Transport the Hon Annette King and we agreed that on the basis of this bill we would negotiate funding ratios and the financial assistance rate available for various kinds of projects to try to level the playing field somewhat which has been tilted very strongly in the direction of motorways for many many years. Unfortunately that is no longer possible. 
This bill provides choice for New Zealanders in how they travel. I am really disappointed that this Government is opposed to giving New Zealanders that choice. The Government says that because 85 percent of New Zealanders go to work by car we have to spend all the money on roads. Those 85 percent go by car because they have no choice. When we provide choice people use public transport. Figures in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 earlier this year showed that over the last year patronage on public transport in Auckland grew by 3.9 million trips. That is a growth rate of 10 percent in 1 year. Use of the Northern Express busway was up 77.5 percent because public transport was provided and people used it. The rail system was improved and its use grew by 14.7 percent in 1 year. The growth in the use of public transport has been phenomenal wherever investment has been provided in it. 
But the Government is stuck in the past. It does not recognise climate change as a serious issue and it does not recognise peak oil as a serious issue. It puts its faith in the idea that technology will provide. This technology is supposed to be electric cars. First of all electric cars which are much touted by members of the Government will look after a very small proportion of the elite. Electric cars will be very expensive so their penetration of the market will be small. The Ministry of Economic Development—which obviously the Government does not take any notice of—says the penetration of electric cars into the New Zealand market will be 5 percent by 2020. The International Energy Agency says there will be a major oil crunch by at least 2015. What are the other people going to do? The other 95 percent of people will need to have more efficient cars but the Government does not want to address that. They will need public transport but the Government does not want to address that either. 
The member Allan Peachey said that roads will stimulate the economy. Well roads are about the least job-intensive way to spend a dollar. In fact if we shifted funding out of motorways and into public transport services we would create 40 percent more jobs for the same money. I ask members whether that is something the Government is not interested in doing. The previous Government created the biggest road-building bonanza ever in New Zealand’s history. We have had years and years of building roads but not of rail or public transport. Towards the end of its term the Labour Government started to put more funding into public transport and that was good. Now we are back in the dark ages. It is time to level the playing field. It is time to recognise that no society anywhere in the world has motorway-ed its way out of congestion; only providing the alternatives will do that. 
I urge the Government to reconsider its position on this bill and to give us a way forward in the days of climate change and peak oil.