Henare Tau: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Henare Tau: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3795] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I want to make a couple of comments especially directed at Darien Fenton. You see the problem is— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: What’s he doing for westies? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh that is right—the member of Parliament for New Lynn yelled out: “Look at that westie!”. Well at least I am a westie. At least I do not pretend to be a westie; at least I do not go home at 5 o’clock clock off and bugger off to somewhere in Ponsonby. But that is all right; we are not here to do that. 
I want to ask how anyone can come up with an idea of a three-lane tunnel that will cost $3.5 billion then forget to figure out where the money is going to come from. How does that work? I mean Labour was in Government for 9 years. Just before it went out it came up with a figure but it did not come up with a method of paying for it. Labour expected the people of Waterview and the people of Auckland to fall for that. Well if they had fallen for it we would still have a Labour Government but—thank God—we have a National Government instead. The National Government has looked at Labour’s dodgy figures from last time it was in Government. Then it has looked at what we can afford. I tell members that most red-blooded—or blue-blooded—Kiwis out there would have looked in their wallet or bank account and said that they have $1.5 billion so they will go and buy a house worth $1.5 billion. But they would not go and buy a $3 billion house when they do not know how much is in the kitty. And that is the big difference between those members and us. 
Yes people will be moved from their houses—unfortunately. But let us look at history as well. When there are big projects to be done people always have to be moved and I am confident that our Government and our Minister of Transport will look after those people as well as they can be looked after. Let us not forget that out of the 300 houses in line— 
Hon Member 
: 365. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I apologise for getting my figures wrong but let us not forget that 160 of the houses are already owned by the Government—already owned by the Government. So what does that mean? It means that there are 160-odd houses that we do not own and the people who live in them are the ones we should be concerned about. 
I say that the merger of Land Transport New Zealand and Transit New Zealand has been a good thing—a very very good thing. Those two organisations were faced with a $28 million deficit in 2008-09 so I am glad to see that their merging has seen some significant savings found. I think that as the New Zealand Transport Agency goes forward it will do a far better job as one organisation than as the two former organisations. 
I say in closing that I think it is a brilliant move to come up with seven roads of national significance. That says that somebody is thinking about the problems of transport in this country. Somebody finally is thinking about the most significant job of public works we have to get done in the next 15 or 20 years. That job is not only about Waterview; it is about Hastings the Waikato and all the other little blocks we have to put together.