What percentage of the transport budget is currently being spent specifically on ensuring that children can walk or cycle to school safely, and does he consider that is adequate?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Transport):De lighted to answer this question. The National Land Transport Fund currently allocates $53 million, or 0.6 percent, to the walking and cycling activity class. This includes all types of walking and cycling activities, not just travel to school. This, however, does not show the whole picture. The Government invests in walking and cycling—[Interruption] Someone get the medics.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Would the Minister continue his answer.
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: This does not show the whole picture. The Government invests in walking and cycling throughout the transport budget, be it via the roads of national significance programme or Safer Journeys. All up this represents at least $96 million a year of dedicated walking and cycling spending from central government. As to the adequacy, although this is good, there is always more that can be done.
Julie Anne Genter: Does the total amount being spent on walking and cycling, including that spent on the roads of national significance, add up to be more or less than the hundreds of millions of dollars a year he is spending on projects that the Transport Agency classifies as having low benefits?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: A transport network is going to have all sorts of benefits spread across it. It remains a network. What is important is that alongside the drivers of our economy, which are, effectively, good infrastructure as well as good economic management, we take care of social needs as well. This large spend—almost $100 million a year—on walking and cycling is a very good spend.
Julie Anne Genter: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. My question was pretty straightforward. It was—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The difficulty really was that the question was not that straightforward, but for the benefit of the House today, I will ask the member to repeat the question to the Minister.
Julie Anne Genter: Is the amount being spent on walking and cycling more or less than the hundreds of millions of dollars a year he is spending on projects that the Transport Agency classifies as having low benefits?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The Transport Agency will have its classification for benefit as it sees it, but any community that is having that money spent on its roads will see it as very high priority. So although, in dollar terms, it may well be something less, it is none the less a very good benefit. Almost $100 million is spent on walking and cycling programmes by the New Zealand Government annually.
Julie Anne Genter: Does he accept that under-investment in walking and cycling infrastructure has contributed to a decline in children walking and cycling to school from over 50 percent in 1989 to less than a third now, and that that has a corresponding rise in car journeys to school during peak travel times?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: No, I do not. I think that one of the most significant contributors to children being delivered to, and picked up from, school probably has been parental worry over some of the crime statistics that ran rampant in this country for a number of years. It was not until our Minister of Justice and our Minister of Police in recent times got on top of it that we could start to confidently enable children to get back into walking and cycling to and from school.
Julie Anne Genter: Has the Minister read the report undertaken for the New Zealand Transport Agency, which clearly states that the No.1 reason for children not walking and cycling to school is a lack of appropriate infrastructure and a lack of safety on the road due to the traffic environment?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: That is the very reason we are spending $100 million a year on programmes to make cycling and walking more accessible and safer.
Julie Anne Genter: For the benefit of the Minister, I seek leave to table this report called Improving School Travel Systems. It was published in November 2010. It was written for the New Zealand Transport Agency.
Mr SPEAKER: On the basis that it is not easy to find for some reason, I will put the leave. Leave is sought to table this particular report. Is there any objection? There is none. It can be tabled.
Document, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.
Julie Anne Genter: Given that during school holidays traffic is often free flowing and one in three car trips in the morning rush hour are education-related, why will he not invest more in safe walking and cycling for schools to reduce congestion?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: I will say it again. We are spending almost $100 million a year on improving cycling and walking access for New Zealanders—and that is excluding the national cycleways programme, which is also a great enabler of people's fitness and enjoyment of the outdoors.
Julie Anne Genter: Does the Minister consider that the walking and cycling improvements associated with the roads of national significance and the national cycleways will help children walk and cycle safely to school; if so, how?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Yes, I do. If the member took some time to go on a road of national significance, which I know she would find a sacrilegious thing to do given her political views, she would see alongside a number of those roads numerous kilometres of cycleways with children cycling on them, and I am quite confident—I am quite confident—most of them go to school.
Julie Anne Genter: Has the Minister read the recent University of Auckland paper The Societal Costs and Benefits of Commuter Bicycling, which finds that investing in cycling infrastructure can have benefits worth $20 for every dollar spent, primarily because it means people are healthy and live longer, but also because it reduces congestion and saves billions of dollars in imported oil?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Although I have not read that report page to page, I am aware of it, and I am almost as excited as the member about the prospects for increasing the capacity for people to cycle around this country.
Julie Anne Genter: Given the overwhelming benefits in terms of improved health, improved learning, and reduced congestion, will he back the Green Party's plan to make it safer for kids to walk and cycle to school; if not, why not?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: No, I am a member of the National Party.
Julie Anne Genter: I seek leave to table, from Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal article entitled The Societal Costs and Benefits of Commuter Bicycling.
Mr SPEAKER: What is the source of the article?
Julie Anne Genter: It is from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. It is an academic journal. It is a research paper that demonstrates the benefits of cycling—
Mr SPEAKER: On the basis that it may be informative to members and may be hard to get hold of, I will put the leave. It is in the hands of the House. Leave is sought to table it. Is there any objection? There is objection.
ULIE ANNE GENTER (Green) to the Minister of Transport: What percentage of the transport budget is currently being spent specifically on ensuring that children can walk or cycle to school safely, and does he consider that is adequate?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Transport):De lighted to answer this question. The National Land Transport Fund currently allocates $53 million, or 0.6 percent, to the walking and cycling activity class. This includes all types of walking and cycling activities, not just travel to school. This, however, does not show the whole picture. The Government invests in walking and cycling—[Interruption] Someone get the medics.