van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's encouraging actually to hear the other side finally acknowledging that there is a cost of living crisis. Unfortunately they have contributed to it through the Government's policies and this is a band-aid solution for something that quite frankly shouldn't have been happening anyway. The reality is we are here and we are on this side of the House supporting this piece of legislation as Mr Brown previously outlined because ultimately it brings back a level of fairness. Those who are operating petrol vehicles at the moment already enjoy this rebate—enjoy" is perhaps a loose term for it. But irrespective aligning diesel vehicles at that same level is an appropriate change to make. Ultimately though the question is: well what are our long-term solutions to these challenges? And we're simply not seeing that from the Government.There is no focus on cutting the unnecessary expenditure out of the Government Budget and that is a key driver of inflation. We've seen inflation sitting at 7.2 percent well outside the target 1 to 3 percent band—more than double and not expected to come back within that for a couple of years. That's simply not good enough because it's letting Kiwis down putting pressure on them at a time when quite frankly it is tough out there. As the previous speaker Shanan Halbert noted things change—and yes we've seen that over the last few weeks with these terrible weather events that have occurred—and actually that's why it's so important to have prudent fiscal management when times are good; so that when they are not actually you have a bit more flexibility and you aren't having to take these sorts of knee-jerk reactions and put band-aids in place where actually good legislation should have prevailed in the first instance and reduced the costs for New Zealanders whilst growing our economy. We're simply not seeing that sort of a focus from this Government and it's quite disappointing because there has been a lot of opportunity for New Zealand over the last few years and quite frankly it's been squandered.So look as I said we are supporting it. As I say as well though it takes $700-odd million in this instance off the potential revenue in terms of the National Land Transport Fund at a time when we have a critical shortage of infrastructure. We're not seeing strong investment in maintaining our road network and certainly no new projects being built under this Government in terms of transport and a key link between the Waikato and the Bay of Plenty region—you can't get away from talking about that as the MP for Waikato! It's critical that we see improved infrastructure connecting those regions. We've got two major cities there in terms of Hamilton and Tauranga and yet they were completely cut off recently. The road through Karangahake Gorge State Highway 2; State Highway 29 over the Kaimai Range. It's simply not good enough that we don't have this sort of infrastructure resilience in our country. And of course now State Highway 25A over the Coromandel as well was another road. All of those were cut off and there are real challenges around that. When we're robbing our National Land Transport Fund of the ability to I guess fund these projects over the longer term we're really not taking an appropriate view to managing the needs of our country longer term.So it is disappointing that we are having to do that. But at the same time it is appropriate that we do line up both the diesel and petrol mechanisms. If one is getting a rebate the other should as well. And certainly for those trucking companies freight providers in particular when you think about that cost flowing through as it does it will potentially help to reduce some of the costs for the end consumer. And unfortunately that's a key contributor to the cost of living impact: these aspects of the system—the supply chain—that flow through to those end consumers. We've seen that just the other week as well now with the Government proposing a $1.50 per hour increase to the minimum wage. Like their fuel charges that's going to flow through to the end consumer and ultimately it doesn't help reduce that cost of living impact. So this is one measure that may help to alleviate some of that for a period of time. But ultimately as I've said it is a band-aid. We need better solutions from the Government more focused on the longer-term economic prosperity of our country and on the daily impact for New Zealanders. And frankly we're not seeing that at this stage which is disappointing. But to our earlier points we are supporting this bill to ensure there is consistency across those fuel types. Thank you."