6. PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Transport
Does he accept any responsibility for the failure of the train services in Auckland on Friday night?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) Link to this
No. The Minister of Transport has roles in the provision of infrastructure, funding, policy, and legislative matters. The Minister of Transport’s remit does not extend to transport operations, although there are some days when I wish that it did. As members will be aware, the issues that occurred on Friday were the result of operational matters. They are currently being addressed by the operator, Auckland Transport, and its contractors.
Does section 50 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act prohibit Auckland Council from public transport management and vest that power in Auckland Transport, and did his Government pass that Act?
Did he see any warnings about establishing an autonomous body to run Auckland transport instead of making Auckland Council responsible, and did he ignore those warnings?
No. If the member thinks that that would be the issue, then obviously we would not allow Air New Zealand to run air transport, we would not allow KiwiRail to run rail transport, we would not allow road freighting companies to run road transport, and we would not allow bus companies to run bus transport. That premise obviously does not apply.
Does he take responsibility for creating the structure and appointing the people, and for the subsequent debacle produced by the structure he created and the people he appointed?
No, for the points that I have just made in answer to the previous supplementary question. The member seems to suggest that only elected bodies can run transport operations. I suggest that the evidence worldwide is that that is not the case. If he thinks that, for example, Councillor Mike Lee would be better to run it, that is entirely up to him.
Does he agree with the statement of Nikki Kaye that due to his Government reorganising Auckland local government and splitting Auckland Transport off as an autonomous organisation, “We will be able to get rid of those transport bottlenecks.”; if so, why was he not able to get rid of the transport bottlenecks in Auckland last Friday?
The Government has had considerable success in improving the transport situation in Auckland, but the issues last Friday, as I explained to the member yesterday, were, to be fair, at least in part the result of much, much higher transport loadings than were anticipated by any party that considered the matter over the last 4 or 5 years—
Hon Trevor Mallard
Jacinda ArdernDoes he intend to reconsider and take into account any factors in addition to his ministry’s cost-benefit ratio when considering funding of the city rail link, such as our inability to manage international events without it?
I must say I find amusing the suggestion that somehow the answer to the question is a $2.4 billion central business district rail link through the middle of town. If that is what is required to move people from downtown Auckland to Eden Park, then we have a very big issue indeed. I am sure we can find a slightly more economical way of doing that. But it is important to point out that Auckland Council and Auckland Transport are meeting pretty much as we speak to address those issues, and will be making announcements later on this afternoon on both the causes of what happened last Friday and their mitigating actions, and I think we should give them the opportunity to do that.