7. H V ROSS ROBERTSON (Labour—Manukau East) Link to this
to the Minister of Transport
What reports has she received on the improvement of public transport in Auckland?
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Transport) Link to this
I have received the 2006-07 annual report on the Auckland regional land transport strategy. It states that many achievements have been made possible from central and local government funding. Highlights of the report include the fact that a million passengers use the northern busway and the Albany park-and-ride; the opening of the Esmonde Road interchange; the construction and opening of eight new railway stations; and the completion of the upgrade of the Birkenhead ferry terminal, with work progressing on Bayswater and Beachhaven. All these projects show the progress being made due to the Government’s investment in partnership in Auckland’s public transport. That was not possible under a National Government, as National invested no more than around $40 million a year in public transport across the whole of New Zealand.
H V Ross Robertson Link to this
What legislation that the Minister has just introduced will further improve public transport in Auckland?
That is a very good question, because on Tuesday I introduced the Public Transport Management Bill, which will give the Auckland Regional Transport Authority new tools to improve public transport in Auckland, and I was pleased that the bill received unanimous cross-party support to go to the select committee. Today I tabled the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill 2007. This legislation, among other things, will allow regions to introduce a regional fuel tax if they want to. One of the things that it would be used for in Auckland is the electrification of its railway network. It will also enable us to be able to hypothecate, or dedicate, all fuel excise duties to the National Land Transport Fund—something the National Party talked about, said it might do, but never got round to doing.
Peter BrownIs the Minister in a position to advise when, she believes, sufficient numbers of people will be using public transport and the roads in Auckland will become much less congested—certainly in off-peak times—or does she believe that to achieve that, even with our current population, we will need to build more roads?
There is no doubt that a greater emphasis is being put on public transport today than ever has been before, but it will take a number of years before we have a sufficient number of people travelling on public transport. The great sadness, I suppose, for that member is that we would not have to have quite the same amount of congestion we have now if some emphasis had been put on public transport in the 9 years when National had the opportunity to do that, and maybe we would not have so much congestion if National had invested in roads as well, instead of starving and underfunding places like Auckland. We know that in transport there has to be a balance. There have to be roads for buses to travel on, and there have to be buses, trains, and ferries that are reliable, safe, and affordable. That is what we are committed to, in our land transport strategy, but all we have from the Opposition is the ability to hold up little bits of newspaper and make plaintive cries about what National might have done but never got round to doing.