Public Transport Management Bill

This Bill couldn’t have come at a more opportune for the new Mayor of Auckland.

Six years ago in 2001, Banksie faced the people and said he would solve the city’s biggest problem, transport, with one thing: “Roads, roads, roads”.

But apparently, now in true Banksie bluster, he has admitted he has had a transmogrification - and if you were in any doubt as to what that means - it is to change the form in a grotesque or bizarre way.

So the transmogrification of the Ferrari driving mayor, is that he has gone from conspiring to build bigger and better roads, to declaring a commitment to creating a world-class public transport system. He campaigned on a platform of integrated ticketing across ferries, trains and buses; and a package that he is calling an excellent marriage between the train and the car, Park and Ride.

Whether or not the Auckland city will reap the benefits of this Banksie transmogrification will of course be a matter for the punters to ponder, but I am sure Mr Banks appreciates the efforts of Hon Annette King in getting the issue of public transport onto the national agenda so quickly.

Our country’s newly elected mayors and councils are essential to the aims of this Bill, which is to achieve an integrated, safe, responsive, and sustainable land transport system.

My reading of things is that the Bill responds to the two competing priorities of the regional infrastructure – one, to help regions obtain the best value for money in public transport, while also enabling fair competition for commercial operators by means of a competitive and efficient market for public transport services.

This tension between best value and the competitive market has been a long-standing issue for local government.

Regions want to have the flexibility, the commercial edge, to host innovative public transport services that would not otherwise be provided.

In my own region, Mr Speaker, we have BayBus, the Twin City Express, the Kati Coach, Call a Bus can take you direct from Tauranga to Auckland Airport; there’s the Bay Hopper, Supa Travel Express, just to name a few.

On the other hand, however, because councils have, up until this Bill, been limited in their ability to regulate commercial services, as a consequence, their capacity to plan and develop the necessary integrated, safe, responsive, and sustainable regional public transport systems across the region has been constrained.

So this Bill is about investing in sustainability while also providing opportunity for significant economic and mobility benefits to be generated.

But there is one particular benefit which is driving, excuse the pun, our decision, in the Māori Party, to support this Bill at its first reading.

The benefit of foresight in planning for a future in a low-energy sustainable world.

The Māori Party from our early days, since our establishment, about the urgent need to reduce government, personal and business dependence on oil. In 2005 we called for a cross-party parliamentary commission to look sensibly and collaboratively at addressing the challenge of Peak Oil.

We have talked about the need to become ‘energy literate’ to properly evaluate energy options. If we are faced with a menu of renewable sources, such as windfarm generation, solar power or wave energy how might we best determine whether or not it will actually be energy efficient to invest in new infrastructure or to stay with the status quo?

Mr Speaker, what we know in New Zealand is that our own non-renewable sources have been declining, mainly as a result of the declines in the Maui field, and so there has been a re-turn by government to coal - despite its known disastrous environmental and human health effects.

Rather than looking at non-renewable sources to maintain our current unsustainable modern society, however - we need to be urgently considering renewable energy production and, significantly, altering the way in which we consume.

Unfortunately, not one of the political parties of this Parliament was prepared to work with us in the proposal we first put up in 2005; the invitation to work collaboratively was obviously a little bit too challenging at that time.

But the issue is, of course, as US Peak Oil expert, Richard Heinberg told us last week, the challenge of peak oil is very definitely upon us now.

When peaking of oil production happens, a decline in availability and supply follows. The discovery of new fields and new extraction technology is not offsetting declines because the global demand for oil continues to increase. In fact, for every new barrel of oil discovered – five or six barrels are being used.

It’s too late for quibbling over whether the peak was 2005, 2006, 2010 – the undeniable fact is that world oil production is peaking now.

33 out of the 48 largest oil producing countries, have declining oil production and yet demand is still steadily rising.

The Maori Party supports the further development of public transport systems to reduce road traffic as a key means to lessen the nation’s dependency on oil. We support these initiatives to lessen carbon emissions as an important component of acting to address the global warming crisis.

And in the process, we also say, let’s look to Māori operators for ideas about how to achieve an integrated, safe, responsive, and sustainable land transport system.

Māori have always been key players in the public transport system of our nation. The special relationship between tangata whenua and our ancestral lands and resources must take into account the Crown’s obligations as a partner to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. As such, the governance, management and administration of transport decision making must involve Māori at all stages.

Māori have, and will continue to provide options as individual operators of public transport systems.

Again from my own electorate, in Waiariki, I think about the precedent established by the legendary Sam Emery.

Sam, born at Kakepuku, near Te Awamutu, in 1885 is one of those amazing self-made success stories we love in Aotearoa. Without a single day of schooling, and unable to read or write, he went on to pioneer motor transport, become a transport operator and a launch owner.

He eventually served on the Rotorua County Council for eighteen years, and never forgot his people, playing a key role in the financing and construction of five meeting houses, including one in his birthplace for Ngāti Kahu.

Our more recent history as tangata whenua, has seen Māori involvement in transport sector increase as a result of collective aspirations and projects initiated by whānau, hapū and iwi.

In the decade 1991 to 2001 Māori participation rates in tourism have increased by 72 percent, and we believe that our Māori operators give us good reason for optimism in responding to the twin challenge of peak oil and climate change.

Again in the fine electorate of Waiariki, Tauranga Moana Maori Tourism Inc advances cultural tourism that is environmentally responsible and economically sustainable. Their initiatives are not only about supporting Māori tourism, but also about recognising and protecting the spiritual, physical and cultural values of the peoples of the region.

Indeed it is the ultimate expression of tangata whenua-tanga by Mäori, te käkano i ruia mai i Rangiätea, that we do all we can to protect, restore and enhance mauri within our natural environments.

Mr Speaker, our aspirations to create a clean, safe and healthy environment is tied up in the development of cheap, free, regular, reliable and frequent public transport.

Our party supports any policy initiatives for the rail infrastructure to deliver a better service and reduce the number of cars on the road.

And of course there are many other ways of reducing road traffic.

In Rotorua, the number of people cycling to work has been declining and out of that context, Bike Rotorua aims to get more people cycling, more often. The project recommends amongst other thing a cycle-way network, so watch this space - Rotorua will be leading the way once again.

In terms of leading the way, we are interested in the debate around the electrification of public transport, including electric car technology. We believe that reducing our dependence on oil makes both good economic sense and environmental sense.

Finally, Mr Speaker I am reminded of the whakatauaki:

Ruia taitea kia tū ko taikaka anake.

Cast off the sap and leave only the heart

It reminds us to clear away the irrelevant stuff, and concentrate on the essential components.

The essential component in this Bill for the Māori Party, is to support initiatives to improve our public transport systems in ways which both serve to lessen the nation’s dependency on oil in the face of the peak oil crisis; and to lessen carbon emissions in the face of the global warming crisis.

This Bill is a positive step in that direction, and we will support it.