﻿Mr SPEAKER: Question No 7, Phil Goff.
Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill)
to the Minister of Transport:
Why has he rejected Auckland City’s transport strategy
and its proposals to fund that strategy?
Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Transport):
It is tremendous to see “His Worship”
out of the starting blocks—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Just answer the question.
Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I wish him well.
We do not believe that Auckland Council’s current
transport strategy is good enough for Aucklanders.
It will deliver only very modest improvements in areas
that matter most to Aucklanders— namely, tackling congestion
and greater public transport use. That is why
the Minister of Finance and I have written to the mayor
to initiate an engagement process to do better
for Aucklanders and to improve alignment between
central government and the council. I confirm
that we will be OK working with “His Worship” Phil Goff
if that comes to pass.
Hon Phil Goff: Why did he wait until after Auckland Transport,
Auckland Council, and his own agency, the NZ Transport Agency,
had worked together over a long period to reach consensus
on a transport strategy, only then to reject it,
instead of working collaboratively with those groups on the problem
right from the outset?
Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I was very clear right from the get-go
that that was the time line we were working to
and when we would seek to formally engage.
I think it is an exaggeration to say that there is consensus
between those parties.
Hon Phil Goff: Why is he holding up
the implementation of this strategy to tackle
Auckland’s urgent transport problems by asking for yet
another report, which will take at least another year,
when Aucklanders have been widely consulted
on this strategy and when a Colmar Brunton survey
of 5,000 Aucklanders has shown that they strongly
support this strategy?
Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well, I reject nearly all of that.
Let us be very clear: in the face of decelerating investment
in transport by Auckland, this Government continues
to put the lion’s share of funding into Auckland transport.
We are getting on with the job while also engaging.
We can actually do two things at once, Mr Goff.
Whether it is the Victoria Park Tunnel, whether it is
the Waterview Connection,
whether it is the electrification of rail in Auckland, or whether
it is the announcement today of a preferred route
for the east-west connection, we are making the biggest
difference to transport in Auckland in a very long time.
We want to engage with the council to do an even better job.
Hon Phil Goff: Why has he ruled out road pricing
when the OECD last week, Auckland Council, the NZTA,
the national infrastructure unit within Treasury,
and tomorrow the Productivity Commission have all recommended it;
or are they all wrong and less informed about
resolving Auckland’s transport problems than he is?
Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Tolling is not our preferred strategy—
that is very clear. What is also clear
is that funding should follow good strategy.
We are trying hard to get alignment on these things
in Auckland. I would note that many of the stakeholders
that “His Worship” refers to actually think the plan
is fundamentally flawed and are praising the Government
for getting involved to try to get it back on track.
Hon Phil Goff: Will he bring forward funding
for the City Rail Link, given that projections show
that Auckland is now on track, well before 2020, to meet
the Government-imposed requirements of 20 million
rail passenger trips a year and thousands of new jobs
in the central business district, or will he accept
responsibility for Britomart having to turn away passengers
after 2018 because it will have reached full capacity
in the evening peak period?
Hon SIMON BRIDGES: If the member wants to be mayor,
he will have to have a better transport policy than that.
But be very clear that when he talks about
bringing it forward, this is the Government
that is providing the lion’s share of transport funding
in Auckland—some $1 billion a year. In terms of the City
Rail Link, we have been very clear that we support
a business case in 2017. There are set criteria
that will see it come forward, although they look
unlikely to be met. In 2020 construction will start.
Mr SPEAKER: Question No 8.
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