10. Question No. 10—TransportSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 10—Transport10. SIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga) to the Minister of Transport: Does he stand by the Government's record on the delivery of light rail?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Transport): A light-rail connection from the Auckland city centre to the airport is Government policy as is progressing mass transit in Wellington and that's what we've been doing. The planning of these major infrastructure projects is critically important. I'm told that his own party now regrets that they didn't plan for a public transport corridor when they widened State Highway 16 making the job of now adding the much-needed north-western busway both more difficult more time consuming and more expensive.Simeon Brown: Has he seen reports that zero metres of Auckland Light Rail have been built in the last six years despite this Government spending over $140 million on this programme and will he stand next to a giant red zero to celebrate this success?Hon DAVID PARKER: Sometimes that member puts a giant red target on himself. I mean the member is facile in his assertions that everything is built under National and nothing is built under Labour. It was a Labour Government that planned the Waterview Tunnel; that did most of the work on State Highway 20. It was the National Government that finished it. It was the National Government that started the City Rail Link (CRL) after pressure from Opposition parties. The CRL has largely been completed under this Government. This Government has made major improvements to the State highway network. We finished Transmission Gully the planning for which started under the prior Labour Government. The construction commenced under the National Government and finished under the Labour Government. These big projects take time and are in duration longer than any one Government and the member needs to concede that.Simeon Brown: Was he aware that on the day that he announced light rail to Albany that—to the day—exactly six years earlier Phil Twyford announced light rail to Mount Roskill and considering the outcome of that light-rail project what confidence does he have in delivering light rail to Albany?Hon DAVID PARKER: What I know is that State Highway 16 which is eight-lanes wide now close to Auckland—eight-lanes wide—has been expanded to six-lanes wide further out and is already getting clogged up because the last incompetent National Government didn't design the public transport corridor didn't provide for it around the Waterview connection notwithstanding that they were spending hundreds of millions of dollars on that connection and as a consequence gridlock in Auckland down that corridor is getting worse. And we on this side of House have a plan to fix it.Hon Damien O'Connor: Has the Minister received any reports on the utilisation of large amounts of foreign capital to build our roading infrastructure?Hon DAVID PARKER: I have seen reports of both funding holes in how other parties are going to fund their proposals which amount to many billions of dollars and that overseas capital will be brought in to do it. Of course the idea that overseas capital is cheaper than Government borrowing is illusory because the private sector expectations of rate of return are higher. As to where that capital comes from overseas some people are suggesting Belt and Road but we're not.Simeon Brown: When will he concede that Auckland Light Rail is a failed transport project that is going nowhere has no funding and instead invest in the real transport infrastructure projects New Zealand needs like new roads of national significance?Hon DAVID PARKER: There are some new roads that are necessary. The Brynderwyns improvement is one good example that this Government is committed to. A major highway project in Tauranga has also been committed to that is necessary to enable more housing. But the member's assertion that essentially roads are the answer is not true in metro areas like Auckland. We have spent billions and billions and billions of dollars on the likes of eight-laning parts of the north-western motorway and because of that member's party not planning for it we've already got clogging up of that network and fixing it with decent busway down that is much more expensive because of the incompetence of that side of the House.