I thought it was very interesting that Jeanette Fitzsimons asked a question. She said if ever there was a time to make our transport system efficient, it is surely now. I could not agree with her more. There is no better time than the present to make our transport system efficient. I campaigned for the ACT Party on our 20-point plan. One of the most important parts of that 20-point plan was the need for spending on infrastructure.
Hon Darren Hughes: Putting up taxes?
JOHN BOSCAWEN: Well, the taxes on people in Auckland, who Jeanette Fitzsimons tells me have been paying more than their share and subsidising the country, have just been put down.
Mr Hughes called for an urgent debate. I listened to what he had to say, and I really found it very hard to accept what he contributed.
What did he contribute? He said he could not believe that Aucklanders would actually vote for a regional tax. He said the Minister was looking a gift horse in the mouth, because Aucklanders had voted for a regional tax. Then, when the Minister was speaking, Mr Hughes interjected to say the regional tax was Aucklanders’ idea. Well, Mr Hughes comes from Ōtaki, so let me explain to him why Aucklanders voted for a regional tax. I know something about this, because I am an Aucklander. The reason Aucklanders voted for a regional petrol tax was that the transport system in Auckland is shocking. It is shocking. If we want to have a world-class transport system in Auckland, then we have to have a system that does not close down at peak hour or when there is a motor vehicle accident on the southern motorway.
We have had 9 years of a Labour Government and, to Labour’s credit, it had started to spend on infrastructure in the last 3 or 4 years. Labour started to do that then, but for the first 3 or 4 years of its 9-year term we had very little spending on transport in Auckland. Work has been going on in linking the south-western motorway to Manukau City and the southern motorway, and one can see that if one drives down the southern motorway today. But I ask why that was not done 15 years ago. The road that was put through from Onehunga to Auckland Airport was so successful that the length of it is now being doubled. Once again, that road could have been built 10 years before it was built.
Mr Hughes said the whole country will pay for this transport spending—the infrastructure that is going into Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, and Christchurch.
Hon Darren Hughes: No.
JOHN BOSCAWEN: I tell Mr Hughes that he said the whole country will pay, but what he does not realise is that the whole country is already paying. Auckland is the powerhouse of this country. Auckland is the powerhouse that generates employment, income, and taxes, and Auckland is not operating efficiently. Who pays for that inefficiency and its effect on our productivity? The whole country pays.
One of the fundamental things in ACT’s 20-point plan that we highlighted was the fact that living standards in New Zealand have fallen 20 percent below living standards in Australia. I ask why that is. If one goes to Australia, if one flies into Sydney, one sees some of the world’s best motorways. One can go right into the city on an express road—straight through. What does one have in Auckland? If one tries to drive from Auckland Airport into the city in the peak-hour traffic, it takes an hour. I doubt whether there would be a single member in this House who, when he or she goes to Auckland, does not base his or her travel plans around the traffic on Auckland’s motorways. That situation is a huge cost. It is a cost not just to Aucklanders but to all New Zealanders.
Mr Hughes said the National Government will leave Transmission Gully hanging. Well, that member’s Government was in power for 9 years, so I ask who left Transmission Gully hanging. The article that I read in the Dominion Post last week told me that National has committed itself to make a decision on Transmission Gully in the next 12 months, and if this Government can achieve that in 12 months, then that is more than Mr Hughes’ Government achieved in 9 years. Mr Hughes also said that National is leaving the Waterview Connection project hanging. I ask why it would not.
Jeanette Fitzsimons talked about spending money on cycleways and busways. New Zealand spent $1 billion on buying a railway system that Treasury had virtually written down to zero, and what did the previous Labour Government propose? It proposed the building of a 4.5 kilometre tunnel under the electorate of Mt Albert—a 4.5 kilometre tunnel. That tunnel was forecast to cost $2.5 billion, but that is not the cost, because that tunnel was to be two lanes in one direction and two lanes in the other. It was to be a four-lane tunnel. If it was to be anything like the Auckland Harbour Bridge, which was built over the Waitematā Harbour in the 1950s, then it would not be 5 years before the tunnel would have to be widened and extended. Mr Joyce said that if we are committed to building that tunnel, then it will have to be built with at least three lanes in each direction. That ignores the fact that the motorway from Onehunga, which will be linking into it, is currently being extended to four lanes in each direction. So the reality is that building a 4.5 kilometre tunnel under Mt Albert would cost all of the taxpayers of this country over $3 billion.
If we are serious about building infrastructure, about making Auckland a world-class city and about making New Zealand a world-class country, then we need to complete the transport system in Auckland, and if we are to build a tunnel under anything in Auckland, then we should build it under the Waitematā Harbour. Right now, accidents on the southern motorway can bring the city to a standstill—and if members have not seen that, I invite them to come to Auckland and I will show them around—on any afternoon from 3.30 to 6.30 in the evening, and from 6 o’clock until 9 o’clock in the morning. People used to leave their homes on the North Shore at 6.30 a.m. to avoid the traffic. The reality is that they now do so at 6 o’clock in the morning if they want to be efficient and productive. As a city and as a country, we cannot afford to have an inefficient transport system.
I would like to see the National Government come to the conclusion that building a 4.5 kilometre tunnel under Mt Albert is folly. It is a waste of taxpayers’ money. We should be building that road and linking it up with the Waterview Connection as quickly as possible, and we should then continue that road from Waterview through to Point Chevalier and link it to a tunnel underneath the Waitematā Harbour, so that if there is an accident on the southern motorway or at “Spaghetti Junction”, there are alternative ways for people to move around the city.
Mr Hughes talked about having an integrated ticketing system. He said one of the factors that make a world-class city is having an integrated ticketing system. I have also had the privilege of travelling round the world. I have been to lots of cities—New York, London. I have been very privileged to travel and yes, I too have seen integrated ticketing systems. Mr Hughes said the National Government is not committed to having such a system. Once again I ask the member why, when his Government had 9 years in office, it did not implement that system. The deputy leader of the Labour Party is sitting over there, nodding her head. She knows full well that Labour had the opportunity to put an integrated ticketing system in place. I congratulate Mr Joyce, because he said that we should look at where the problem is, we should spend the money efficiently, and we should spend it where it will have the most benefit.
I was particularly interested in the admission of Jeanette Fitzsimons, when she said that the cost-benefit analysis for electrifying the Auckland railway system would be only $1 for $1. She said, essentially, that we cannot justify the electrification of the Auckland railway system on a cost-benefit analysis. It is all very well for the Opposition parties to criticise spending on roads—[Interruption] I do not mean to imply that Jeanette Fitzsimons is an imbecile, as that member suggested, but the reality is that buses are a fundamental part of our transport system. Buses work all around the world, and there is no reason why they cannot work in Auckland. If we want to have an integrated system, we have to have roads that the buses can run on, and that is why I say that if we are to build a tunnel anywhere in Auckland, we should build it under the Waitamatā Harbour.
Mr Hughes talked about the people of Auckland perhaps feeling ripped off, as they finally had the chance to build a world-class transport system. Well, I am in no doubt whatsoever that Mr Joyce has his eyes firmly set on building a world-class transport system. The ACT Party will be supporting him in that. We say it is folly to spend $3 billion or more on a tunnel 4.5 kilometres long through the heart of the Mt Albert electorate. Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker.