Utikere Tangi; Brown SimeonTANGI UTIKERE (Labour—Palmerston North): Thank you Madam Chair. I still haven't heard from the Minister whether or not he accepts that the Clean Car Discount's initiative did increase the uptake of electric vehicles—that was the question that I asked and he still has neglected to address that.Can I just turn to this issue of congestion charging because it is something the Minister has brought up in his contributions already. He did to be fair note it in the hearing that congestion was a particular challenge in front of the committee. I'm interested to hear what progress has been made with mechanisms that seek to address congestion reduction whether that's congestion charging or whether that's tolling; where the Minister sees these particular mechanisms might work where they would be applied and what rationale he might have for such locations at this stage. It's also pleasing to hear that he's certainly not pushing back on the fiscal hole of between $8 billion and $22 billion for him to deliver his National Party roads of significance there—so that's interesting to hear.The other is around rail. Now in the draft Government policy statement (GPS) there is little comment on rail—in particular inter-regional rail. Does the Minister agree that the investment in rail that's subject to this period needs to be sustained at the same or at an increased level of investment for the period that's under review? Does he also agree that the levels of projected funding to support the long-term future of what is the lower North Island rail package—for Manawatū Wairarapa and Kāpiti lines—are sufficient to ensure the completion of that package in its entirety; and whether he's committed to ensuring that that is tagged funding? And alongside that his commitment or otherwise around the Te Huia service between the Waikato and Auckland which is partway through a five-year funding opportunity.Can I just have one more question which is around the suggestion of moving things off the road and the Minister's view around coastal shipping particularly around freight? That's been the subject of questions in this House. It is still relevant to the draft GPS around land transport even though it is part of the blue highway; and whether or not he sees there is a role of support for coastal shipping in order to efficiently move freight off the roads off rail into other areas of the community provide some resilience capacity for communities as well.Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Transport): Oh thank you Madam Chair and I thank the member for the range of questions. I believe we've already answered the member's questions in regards to the Clean Car Discount. It's very good and effective at subsidising people's choices and ultimately they can make those choices themselves and actually—so I've already commented on that.In terms of congestion charge; time-of-use charging. As noted in the draft Government policy statement (GPS) there is work under way on that in a range of other revenue reforms.In terms of the lower North Island—the rail improvement—that is noted on page 13 of the draft GPS as being a priority for this Government and to be funded from a combination of Crown grants National Land Transport Fund and local share contributions.In regards to Te Huia that is a matter for the New Zealand Transport Agency board ultimately in terms of deciding what to do with that particular service. It was funded I think as a trial. Ultimately the board will make a decision as part of the midpoint review as to what should happen there next.In terms of coastal shipping I think I've had this question asked of me before and I think the clue's in the name. When you call something the National Land Transport Fund" you sort of think the "Land" part could be quite important—so the clue's in the name. So the coastal shipping is on the water—the coastal shipping's on the water—and this is the National Land Transport Fund. So I know the last Government was very keen—and there's a lot that can be done to support coastal shipping without simply—Tangi Utikere: Just not from your Government.Hon SIMEON BROWN: —well without just putting money to something. This is the problem the last Government had: everything needed to have money put into it. When ultimately actually if you look at one of one of the biggest challenges facing shipping in New Zealand right now is the fact that the Port of Tauranga can't get a consent for an additional berth. Because of that they have ships waiting to get into that port to be able to load and unload their cargo.So there are many other things we can be doing as a Government to actually make the ability to—for our supply chains to work more efficiently and most of it actually means getting the red and green tape out of the way rather than just simply throwing money at a problem. So that's the focus of our Government: let's fix the consenting framework let's actually make sure we're able to—for our ports to be able to operate efficiently. Those connections to our ports are really important: that's where the roads of national significance are really really important.Actually the market will determine what is the most efficient means in order to move that freight. I know there are a lot of companies which are looking at how they move their freight. There's an awful lot of freight which is moved on coastal shipping already via many of the foreign shipping lines which come in port and go down the country and back up again. So these are problems which we think that we need to do and take a different approach in order to achieve those outcomes rather than just simply throwing money at the problem."