United Future
Larry Baldock

House speech on land transport legislation

 It really is one further part in the process of reform and the expedition, really, of our land transport system in New Zealand. Although it is not to be seen as the silver bullet that will solve all of our problems, it is an important part of making sure that our transport network and system functions to the best of their ability and is not overburdened by unnecessary bureaucracy, and that ultimately, we will build a network that serves our economy and residents efficiently. The Transport Legislation Bill gives effect to elements of the New Zealand Transport Strategy*, and is the Government transport sector review. The Ministry of Transport* will be strengthened to take over the policy functions currently undertaken by the Land Transport Safety Authority* and Transfund*. Both the Land Transport Safety Authority and Transfund are to be abolished. It has been United Future’s policy that the Land Transport Safety Authority would be abolished for some time. In fact, when Peter Dunne was here on his own as the sole member of the United Party, he campaigned strongly for the Land Transport Safety Authority to be dissolved. Since that time we have seen an improvement in the authority’s functions, because of new leadership in that organisation. However, we still believe that there were too many policy people in the authority, and it will be a wise move to transfer them to this new organisation. A new slimmed-down Crown entity called Land Transport New Zealand will be established to carry out the residual operation functions currently undertaken by both the Land Transport Safety Authority and Transfund. Several efficiencies will be gained from the restructuring of the Government transport sector—in particular, by clarifying that the Ministry of Transport is the lead transport agency. By giving it the necessary policy-making resources the duplications and contradictions caused by having policy functions distributed among more than one agency should be eliminated. Also, merging the two current land transport funding programmes—the national and transport programme currently administered by Transfund, and the safety administration programme* currently administered by the Land Transport Safety Authority—will streamline funding allocations and better align such allocations with the New Zealand Transport Strategy. The bill also resolves a longstanding issue over which agency should have primary responsibility for undertaking search and rescue coordination. Currently, the Civil Aviation Authority alone has legislative authority, but this bill gives that authority to the Minister of Transport so that integrated coordination can occur between more than one agency. The select committee has done a very fine job with the submission process in recommending the bill back to the House with some changes and most of the changes being largely technical in nature. When one reads the committee’s report one does get the sense that it was largely unanimous in its deliberations, except for the issue surrounding safety at reasonable cost, which is mentioned by some of the speakers before me. It is important to see the amendments recommended by the committee to strengthen the emphasis on safety, and United Future welcomes that, because all New Zealanders I believe want to see travel around New Zealand carried out as safely as possible. Too many New Zealanders still suffer unnecessary tragedies as a result of accidents with regard to our transport network, so we are pleased to see that emphasis is being placed on safety. I believe that that will ultimately move the Minister to be more active in building better roads within New Zealand, because only so much can be done to improve safety on our roads by enforcement of rules and by better driver education, without also the building of better roads. Ultimately, it is only as we have First World* standard roads with divided highways, less curves, bumps, hollows, and so on, that we will be able to travel more safely. One can never prevent someone drunk from getting behind the wheel, but he or she will not be able to cross the centre median if a decent amount of concrete, or at least a wire barrier is there to stop him or her from hitting oncoming vehicles. So we welcome the strengthening of this emphasis on safety. We understand the concerns expressed by some submitters, particularly those in the transport industry, who wanted to see the wording “safety at reasonable cost” held within this new legislation. We know their concerns about how perhaps it is possible to impose rules upon the transport industry without necessarily having a decent analysis of how the cost benefit of that will flow on into real safety gains. However, I have to say, that on looking at the bill, and at the requirement for the Minister and the agencies to consider safety in the light of how any proposed rule will assist economic development, does, I believe, give assurance, or at least some satisfaction, that they will not be able to run amok with rules that do not consider the effect of those rules on the economic development of our nation and the economic efficiency of transport organisations operating in New Zealand.

Hon Harry Duynhoven: And the rules process itself requires significant consultation with the industry involved.

LARRY BALDOCK: That is correct as the Minister adds for my benefit. I thank him. We will not be making that a die-in-the-ditch issue over this legislation. It is understandable that they, being assured by the officials that, in fact, it was contained within the bill, then their question was why could they not just see it in the legislation to be sure. However, things have moved on in our transport legislation. We now have adopted new wording and new phrases within our transport legislation, and it is important to keep that consistent throughout the theme of all of the reforms that are taking place within the transport sector. We will be happy to support this legislation through its second reading and it will move on to the Committee stage. I believe that all New Zealanders can be encouraged by the progress that has been made in this term of Parliament in so many different areas to address the needs that New Zealand motorists and the New Zealand transport industry as a whole have been longing for for the last couple of decades, which is that we will build a better transport network that we would operate safely and efficiently, assist economic development, and improve access and mobility around the country.

A number of speakers have mentioned issues such as busses and the ongoing debate about whether the country needs more roads. I will conclude my speech with a few remarks about roading, because we must not lose sight of the overall goal of dealing with the congestion that is creeping up on us in many areas around the nation, particularly Auckland and cities like Tauranga and Wellington. The Greens harp on in saying the problem can be solved without building more roads, and one almost gets sick of hearing it. We all accept their point that just building more roads will not address the transport problems. We all accept that a *multimodal approach is needed. We all accept—

Hon Richard Prebble Don’t speak for us.

LARRY BALDOCK : —except the ACT party. We all accept there is a need for looking at public transport. Busses have their place, but, of course, they run on roads. It is clear that we need to improve the roading network, we need to continue to expand our motorway network, and our State highway system does need constant upgrading. United Future is committed to working with the Government to see that end accomplished, and we consider that this legislation takes us one step further in that direction.