PENNY WEBSTER

(ACT NZ): I rise in support of this bill. The Rodney district is one of the fastest growing areas in New Zealand, and the East Coast, especially between Albany and Warkworth is under particular pressure from the growth of commuters. The area of the Whangaparaoa, that includes Red Beach, Stanmore Bay, Manly, and Gulf Harbour has, over the past decade, changed from a series of beach houses and beach batches to a suburb of Auckland. The peninsula is served by one road that runs from Silverdale on *State Highway 1 to the regional park. The narrow entrance to the peninsula has meant that it is difficult to build a second road the length of the peninsula. However, for many years there has been talk about a road that links the end of the peninsula by the shopping centre to the main road south towards Auckland. Because of the growth in this area, as I have mentioned before, the pressure on roads throughout the region is considerable. Rodney has a large rural area to the north and west, with landowners paying much of the rates for very little return. Many of the roads in that part of the region are narrow and unsealed. In fact, some of these roads that have milk tankers and logging trucks competing with school buses, make those roads often unsafe. The roads in the southern part of Rodney have been upgraded as the traffic pressure throughout development has demanded. For these reasons there is little or no money to build the road from the end of Whangaparaoa, even though it has been recognised, for some time, that it is needed. Therefore, the council moved to investigate the possibility of a toll road to be built. After much consultation with the community, this has now been introduced to Parliament by Dr Smith. There appears to be several main criteria for the building of a toll road to be agreed by Government, and this project meets all those criteria. The Weiti project, as it is known, is definitely agreed to by the local community. There is definitely, also, an alternative road to the toll road and the road is financially viable. The siting of this project has minimal environmental impact, and it can be built as a *``bootstrap'' scheme. Investors have already expressed interest. The preparatory work has been done. It now only needs for the bill to go through the select committee and parliamentary process, and work to start. However, here we are again--I agree with Judith Tizard--debating a local bill when what we need is enabling legislation. This is not the first situation where a local bill has been brought to this House to enable a toll road, and it will not be the last. I recommend this bill to the House. ACT will be supporting it.

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