From Wednesday 26th August 2015 in Parliament:

“Mr Speaker, like many residents of Wellington, I was delighted last Friday when the High Court ruled that the appeal by NZTA against the flyover around the Basin Reserve was to be rejected.  And I want to say to the New Zealand Transport Authority, right now, that this is the time to drop this crazy idea …

“… not even the NZTA can hold itself above the law in this regard … we do have an agency here that, in my view is now out of control, … I want to say to the Minister that I think this creates an opportunity to restructure the NZTA, to make sure it becomes far less of an arrogant “we know best” organisation, that works closely with the local authorities and the people that it represents and serves, and implements solutions that meet the community’s needs, not the aspirations of the engineers within the NZTA …

“… What the flyover decision showed in Wellington was that the presumption that this phenomenon built around the edge of the Basin Reserve could resolve all our problems was completely ill-founded. In fact the city council’s proposition some time ago of looking at a light rail link with a tunnel through the Mount Victoria area linking through to the airport, makes far more sense, and I believe that the rejection of the flyover now opens the door to reconsidering that proposition, along with the spine approach that the regional and city councils have previously put in place for transport in Wellington … they need NZTA to be an effective partner in that process, not the independent “we know all” arbitrator, that decides from its lofty status what the best solution could be. When you have an agency that loses so consistently in the court of public opinion, now in the courts of law, now with local authorities, and yet still seems to think that its view is right and needs to be proceeded with, then Mr Speaker, you have an Agency in crisis …””