Financial Review Debate — Ministry of Transport

One of the promises National made before the last election was to continue to fund the SuperGold card. This comes within the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport in the appropriation period, and, indeed, of the Minister of Transport, Steven Joyce. In fact, a year ago John Key went further when he said he supported the scheme and would be funding any increase if it became more popular than was budgeted for. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the Minister of Transport—and it is good to see the Minister here—and the ministry, and a week ago there was a big “Oops!” when the Minister announced a review of the SuperGold card.

The ministry’s discussion document is still on its website. It was released on the website and by the media, and it states: “After the first 12 months of operation it has become clear that in its present form, the scheme will not be financially sustainable with the funding available.” So the scheme is not financially sustainable with the funding available. What did we see in the next 24 hours? We saw a huge U-turn, a huge flip-flop, from the Minister. The Dominion Post got it right on Monday 15 March when it stated that Minister of Transport, Steven Joyce, had been acting strangely before he did “a screaming U-turn” and reversed his decision to review the SuperGold scheme for the over 65s.

Now, we have to wonder why this happened. It was pretty strange of Mr Joyce to alarm more than 500,000 SuperGold card holders by even suggesting he wanted a review. As the public knows, and is increasingly learning, a review by this National Government really means a cut. We need only ask all the public servants this Government has sent down the road. They thought they were having a review, but it turned into a cut. I have to ask the Minister why he would make such a mistake. Could it be that for just one moment he let his true colours show?

Everyone knows that National does not agree with the SuperGold card policy. Secondly, we know that it can never say that publicly, because that would be so unpopular. But if we unpack what National believes, we find that it thinks everyone over 65 should have been so successful with their investments that no special arrangements, such as a SuperGold card, should even be necessary. National also believes that because the scheme is not means-tested, plenty of over-65s who could afford the price of a bus fare are riding the bus for free.

Then we had the spectacle of the discussion about older New Zealanders in Auckland, where I and some National MPs live, who have the cheek to get on the train and then get on the ferry to go to Waiheke Island. That has meant a lot to those people. It has meant that they get out of their homes and have an outing, and why should they not? As I have said, that is the whole point, and that is why Labour and New Zealand First worked together to establish the SuperGold card. We believed that the SuperGold card should be available to everyone who was 65 and older, irrespective of income.

The policy was about respecting the older generation and the contribution they have made to the standard of living we all enjoy today. It honours the contribution older New Zealanders have made and continue to make to New Zealand. It is an acknowledgement of the respect they deserve. It is a physical reminder—and maybe this is the reason why the Minister does not like it—of Labour’s commitment to seniors and veterans, and it improves their standard of living through the discounts it provides.

But the Minister of Transport slipped up. He showed older New Zealanders his real agenda. It was obvious that the Prime Minister got involved—probably when he remembered that in March 2009 he described the SuperGold card as a successful programme and said that the Government would provide any necessary increase in funding. What we saw after that was the bizarre behaviour of Minister Joyce at the opening of the Bell Block Bypass in New Plymouth. He was seen hiding behind a bush and texting, and then getting on a truck and texting there, as well. Now, we know what really happened. John Key remembered that he had said he would fund any extra costs for the SuperGold card, and he was on the phone, texting the Minister and embarrassing him.

It is a tremendous yarn that the member opposite has been running. It is an interesting one, because there are a range of things in transport that she could talk about. There are some very big issues. Road safety is an important issue. The Government is making major investments in roading, which we know members of the Opposition sometimes do not like. There is also the big job in turning round KiwiRail, for which way, way too much money was paid by the previous Government. There are other issues that we have to clean up, including the shortfalls the previous Government left in the driver-licensing and driver-testing accounts, which we are now trying to settle and solve. But, of course, none of those things are all that important to members of the Opposition. They are focusing on one particular issue. I think it would be wise to have a look at that issue, because it points to something about Labour. I think it is a physical reminder of Labour’s lack of fiscal concern for anything.

What we decided last week to do, which we are now doing, is to test whether the providers of transport services to SuperGold Card recipients are being paid the right amount for the services they provide. That is the purpose of the review. The people who run the ferry out to Waiheke Island are paid around $2 million a year to carry those with SuperGold Cards free of charge. Nobody is arguing about whether they should be going out there. As we have said all the way through, we have accepted the policy, but the question we have to ask, in testing everything from a fiscal point of view, is whether that is value for money in terms of what is being paid to the operator. It is not about the people who are using the cards; it is about what is being paid to the operator.

I think that Labour members are telling us that we should never test those things; that once we have voted money for something, we should never look at it again. Of course, we have stacks of examples of that. We have examples in my own portfolios of transport and communications, where they have said write the cheque and, whatever we do later, do not look. In fact, we should never test whether the money is being spent well, because we do not really care. Money just comes from the taxpayers—just bring some more money in, and it will be fine. Fortunately, we now have a fiscally responsible Government that does care and that is prepared to test the assumptions and to maintain the services, but to constantly test whether we are getting value for money from the people who are providing the services. That is what this Government does, and this issue is another example of that. That was what this thing was about last week. It showed once again the Government’s concern for the money that belongs to taxpayers of this country.

I would have thought that Labour members would be very interested to find out what is happening with KiwiRail. After all, the Labour Government spent about a billion bucks on it, but Labour members do not seem to have any concern about where that money went. They have not raised it tonight. They have no concern about where the money for KiwiRail has gone or whether the business is in good shape. They could have taken calls and popped up to say that it is a big issue, that this was $1 billion that they threw away in the dying months of their administration. I thought they might have a little bit of an interest as to whether that money is going well, but there was no interest whatsoever.

There was also no interest in the rest of the rather large transport portfolio, in terms of expenditure, as to what is going on with it. That is fine. That is their approach, and I am sure they will criticise everything we as a Government do to check whether expenditure is at the appropriate level for the service that is being provided. We are happy for them to do that, because I can tell members that taxpayers, and, in fact, Grey Power, want us to do that. Grey Power endorsed our approach on Friday—

💬 Hon Annette King: Ha!

They did. They endorsed our approach and said that they supported the Minister in his attempts to ensure value for money from the passenger transport operators, so that the scheme could be kept sustainable and continued into the future. That is what they said on Friday. So the Grey Power people are in favour and every other taxpayer is in favour, and all members opposite can say is that they like to write the cheques, and that once the cheque is gone, they do not care any more. Well, I do not think that will be an approach for this Government, as long as it occupies these benches. Thank you.

I will touch on a few things. This review is looking at the Ministry of Transport, and we have just heard from the Minister of Transport some of the wonderful things he has done in the last 12 months.

I will touch on one thing in particular. We heard from Darien Fenton, who talked about what I would call the cents, but we are interested in the dollars and in particular the $1 billion that has been put into funding for new State highways over the next few years. I will talk about one special project: the new Christchurch Southern Motorway. It is a $730 million project—$730 million. It is the single biggest roading project that has been built in the South Island since anyone can remember. It is a wonderful project. I had the absolute pleasure of sitting there on the first sod-turning day with the Minister of Transport, and with a large number of the community who were ecstatic that they would have the ability to get to their homes, businesses, and schools just that little bit faster because of the roads of national significance. The Christchurch Southern Motorway is one of the lynchpin projects of the roads of national significance.

On that opening day, with that first sod-turning ceremony, a large group of people were there. There were National MPs and a few National Ministers, but I ask members how many Labour MPs were there to celebrate the most significant roading project in the South Island’s history.

💬 Colin King: I don’t know. You tell me.

Zero. There were zero Labour MPs were there to celebrate. That just shows us what little they see of the importance of roading to unclog the clogged arteries we have in New Zealand.

You see, we have a problem in Christchurch. People think that the only roading projects to solve a problem are in Auckland, but I can tell them that if they drive down either of the major current entries into Christchurch, from the north or from the south, they will wonder what they have run into in terms of congestion. We have that in Christchurch. This is not just about the Christchurch Southern Motorway; it is the first project in a collection of roading projects. We will have an upgrade of the western bypass, which will go around the outskirts of the city to the west. In time we will have the new northern motorway, which will come through to my community in northern Christchurch. Our people are screaming out for those projects, and they will be possible only with the extra billion dollars that we have put into the State highway network for the next 3 years. What a wonderful thing that is. The important thing is getting mums and dads and people to work and school faster.

We should not be worrying about some small issues around a $10 million SuperGold card; this is a billion dollars that the Minister has here. I tell members to put it into context. I have touched on my favourite pet project, the Christchurch Southern Motorway, but I know that my colleagues have others like the Waikato Expressway and the Caversham Bypass. There is a collection of projects up and down the country. People want the arteries unclogged and to have the ability to get to home, work, and school much faster. These are wonderful projects, but what do Labour members want to talk about? They do not want to talk about those. They could talk about public transport, but they do not want to talk about that either. They want to talk about the SuperGold Card, and that is remarkable.

We can talk for hours on this whole issue of the roads of national significance and the importance of it for the Christchurch community, the Dunedin community, and the Hamilton and wider Waikato community. But what do we hear from Opposition members? This is the typical thing about Opposition members. They do not care about the big dollars, they do not care about the big picture, and they do not care about the economy.

💬 Michael Woodhouse: They can’t count that high, basically.

That may be the case, but I would not possibly want to comment. I could not possibly stand up here and not talk about the other major project in our roads of national significance. It is the great big project that has occurred of bringing forward the Victoria Park roading project by 1 year—that is, a year sooner for people in Auckland to have the ability to access that roading and be able to get to where they want to go better, faster, and sooner.

💬 Hon Member: More conveniently.

More conveniently.

But the jewel in the crown is the announcement for the long-suffering people in Wellington of the $2.2 billion strategic upgrade of State Highway 1 into Wellington Airport, including Transmission Gully. When I was a long-suffering public servant, this project was on the books 15 years ago. However, this Minister has brought forward the Transmission Gully project. He has taken it from the ether in the distance and brought it on to the paperwork of progress. What a wonderful thing that is. There is $2.2 billion so that people from Wellington can get to Porirua and others can come into Wellington in a much faster way. What a wonderful thing that is. Thank you.

Report noted.

Ministry of Social Development