Tizard Judith: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Tizard Judith: Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:618;Page:14002] 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD (Minister with responsibility for Auckland Issues) 
: 
I want to thank United Future New Zealand First the Greens and the Progressive Party which support this Local Government (Auckland) Amendment Bill. What on earth do National Party members think they are doing? They have said that they will not support this legislation. According to Don Brash petrol taxes are unnecessary but also essential rates funding for roads is awful but necessary road tolls will help to pay for new roads but will not raise any money and public transport is good but there is no reason to fund it. The complete two-facedness of National Party members on all that will land them in incredible trouble. It reminds me of a former Minister of Local Government Warren Cooper. When he started the mauling of Auckland’s regional local government arrangements in 1992 he said to me: “What you’ve got to understand girlie is that if Auckland ever gets its act together it will be a serious threat to central government.” So what are National Party members doing? They are continuing to say that no one should raise any extra money and no one should actually have the power to do anything in Auckland. But they will go on moaning about the fact that Auckland is not working and that a dollar wasted in Auckland is 66c that is not available to the rest of the country. 
According to Deborah Coddington we are wasting $2 billion; she has doubled Maurice Williamson’s apocryphal number. We now have $2 billion being wasted in Auckland but at the same time ACT will not support this bill. ACT members tell us there is no reason why more money from the consolidated account cannot go into Auckland. Presumably they want to take money from the consolidated account that they are also giving away in taxation cuts spending on defence and all the other Mickey Mouse Budget arrangements they are trying to pull out of a top hat—rabbits or anything else they can find to try to confuse New Zealanders with. 
I am delighted to support this bill. I want to thank the officials from the Ministry of Transport the local government section of the Department of Internal Affairs the Ministry for the Environment Treasury and from Auckland local government—the territorial local authorities as well as the regional council—who have worked so hard to bring the best partnership and the best solutions for Auckland’s transport needs together. It is the first time ever in history we have seen central government and local government work in partnership to solve a problem—not by grandstanding not by saying that it can be solved overnight and not by putting out outrageous proposals with outrageous costs associated to them but by a clear strategy and vision with funding and practical rearrangements of organisations so that we can implement it. In fact the goodwill that we have seen in terms of Auckland’s transport needs over the last 5 years should be commended as a first in history. 
In 1992 Warren Cooper in the then National Government introduced the Auckland Regional Services Trust which expropriated Auckland’s regional assets. Auckland was the only region in New Zealand that had its assets stolen from public use and put into the Auckland Regional Services Trust. Why was that? It was because that National Government said that all our regional assets should be flogged off. Warren Cooper said they would be sold for so little that whatever was left could go to the arts because they did not matter either. What did we have? We had about $1 billion worth of assets and revenue. In 1998 the National Government suddenly decided that that should not go to the arts. We had Maurice Williamson leaping about like a whirling dervish—but without the spiritual interest of a dervish—and he said he would give all that money away to Auckland. He was still going to flog off the port company but he was going to give about $1000 to $1500 to every Aucklander. His own colleagues said: “For God’s sake Maurice don’t be so bloody stupid. Pull your head in and get on.” 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Only Christine Fletcher and John Banks! 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: I notice that all the rest of his colleagues voted for that. So the National Government set up Auckland Infrastructure which was another attempt to put in a barrier to Auckland solving its own problems. At the same time Maurice Williamson as the then Minister of Transport was to put in better transport and better roads. What did we get? We got neither. Maurice Williamson spent the whole of the time of the Ministry of Transport and a big chunk of the time of the Ministry of Commerce and of Treasury but he did not build one centimetre of road in Auckland. Nor did he put one seat on one bus in Auckland. He did nothing for Auckland in respect of better transport and roads. 
What has this Government done? We have worked constructively with Auckland with regard to the present chaotic system that it has. In the last 5 years we have built the Puhinui interchange on State Highway 20. We have seen the Grafton project finished. We have started the huge project in the central business district to put in the links that are necessary so that we can actually get from the harbour bridge to the western motorway which the National Government did not bother to do. We have put the work in on State Highway 18. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: What about the Albany to Puhoi realignment (ALPURT)? 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: Yes certainly the National Government built the ALPURT one but what did it have left in 1999 to do after that? It had absolutely nothing left! Did it put the North Shore busway in? Did it heck! Who kept public transport funding capped? 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Me! 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: Maurice Williams proudly says: “Me!”. We have seen a trebling of the public money going into buses and a huge increase—over 30 percent—in public transport use across Auckland. We have seen walking school buses and the start of the refurbishment of the rail network in Auckland with the start of the double-tracking of the western corridor and the upgrading of the stations. That has all led to the investment in growth that this legislation will put into place. 
It is absolutely wonderful to see everybody working together in Auckland. This bill links up the organisations that have planned the solutions. Transit and Transit have put their 10-year capital indicative plans out there. We have the growth strategy the regional land transport strategy and the partnerships. Now we will have the organisations with the power to make the links and we have put the funding in place. I am delighted to support this excellent legislation which for the first time will establish one agency with the clear responsibility the power and the funding to carry out the projects that Auckland needs. It is about time that Auckland received its fair share of the fundingand got the Government’s foot off its neck—which was put there for the whole of the 9 years of the last National Government—so that we can get on and solve our problems get Auckland moving and make sure that Auckland— 
Opposition Members 
: Five long years! 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD 
: Are the Opposition members not tragic? One project in 9 years and they are chorusing: “Five long years!”. 
I am delighted to say that this bill has overwhelming support not only from all the agencies that work with Auckland but also from Auckland itself. It is about time! We will do the job. We have started it already and this legislation will continue it through. I congratulate the Minister of Local Government who introduced this legislation. I can see why the National and ACT members are so upset because not only would they not fund this work but they would not do it and Auckland has got that message. I endorse this bill and commend it to the House.