bridges will be fixed up and we will see a far happier, local
Government in New Zealand than we
have seen over the last nine years. Let
me assure you of that, Mr Speaker.
over the last nine years. Let me assure you of that, Mr Speaker. The
Hon
Hon Julie Anne Genter.
I am very proud, like the previous member, of the transport policy we
announced yesterday. It is
finally announced yesterday. It is
finally going to deliver the 21st
century transport system that New
Zealanders have been asking for,
for decades. Of course the last nine years,
unfortunately, while they
had petrol taxes and road user charges being
taxes and road user charges being increased, the lion's
share of the investment was going into a
few areas mainly in urban areas. Where
investment was going into a few were the Roads
of National
Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Tauranga. That must
Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, why there was such a massive decline
in the funding available for
local roads and regional roads over the
roads and regional roads over the
last nine years because
there was. There was a massive decline in
the funding in regions like Bay of
Plenty,
funding in regions like Bay of
Northland, Chatham Islands, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Southland,
Taranaki, West Coast. So all of
those regions,
those regions, producing regions, those regions, producing
regions, where they have milk tankers
and other important freight and tourism
going on local and regional roads
were completely neglected
under the National Government's policy
of pouring all of the money into a few
uneconomic highway projects
and the worst part is they actually
made traffic worse in the urban area as
we knew that they would. So we
could have spent that money
across the entire nation.
have spent that money across the
saying a little bit earlier that saying a little bit earlier that
there was a
saying a little bit earlier that
category over 10 years and that would have been
spent in the regions. About half
of that was going to go on a fewkms in Auckland,
the East West Link and yet
for half the cost of the East West Link we
would afford to put median barriers
on every kilometre of State Highway
in this country. I know
the Opposition struggles with
analytical analysis, reasoning, quantitative
analysis so I've done some numbers
for them because clearly
they read their little talking notes and they
get all outraged but
if they actually looked at the budget that
we are proposing, they would see
that their constituents are
going to benefit much more because we have a
road maintenance. Almost a doubling over 10 years of investment in local
roads and why
over 10 years of investment in local
truck journeys, all vehicle kilometres travelled in
the country are on local roads. Yet, over the
last nine years, that National
Government was spending three
to four times as much on State
Highways as on local roads. How
can that make
spend three to four times as much on State Highways when half of
all the trips are on local
State Highways when half of all the
local roads have to be subsidised by ratepayers. No wonder we have
ratepayers. No wonder we have
country. Nond wonder we have wash outs up in Northland. No wonder
we have a
have a disastrous, catastrophic, number of serious injuries and
deaths on our
roads increasing every year for the last five years
because there was a reduction in road
policing, a reduction in
road safety improvements on roads all over the
country just to pay for a few
kilometres of upgraded highway in
kilometres of upgraded highway in
Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch,
Tauranga and Hamilton which
hasn't even given people what they actually
even given people what they actually
want. I can tell the Opposition that
the people of Hamilton are
absolutely thrilled that we are
finally pursuing a passenger rail
service between Hamilton
and Auckland that might enable
people to get to Auckland in a
reasonable amount of time
because after the more than
amount of time because after the
the Waikato Expressway, it just gets people driving to the queue in South
they can wait in traffic in Auckland longer. Finally we have
a smart investment in transport. I
don't doubt that all New
Zealanders will see the benefit. Let's talk about
our road user charge and
fuel tax increases because you know how much
they are going to
one cup of coffee a week for the average
average household, even in Auckland. After three years I think that is a
great deal to finally have a
21st century transport system that gives
real choices to people, safe walking
and cycling to school for our kids,
and cycling to school for our kids,
which is good for their health, good
for traffic, real public
transport and rapid transit options between
our towns and cities. Kia
Ora, Mr Speaker. That's
Speaker. That's what a transport engineer sounds like! The
Hon Paul Goldsmith. I have
been wondering for Goldsmith. I have been wondering for
quite a while now why
this Government's policy seems
so incoherent and failed to make
any coherent sense and if you think
about the first thing they did was
cancel the
about the first thing they did was
adjustment because they were worried that wealthy families
would receive too much of that. Then the second