Eckhoff Gerrard: Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:623;Page:18618] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT) 
: 
 I will respond to the previous speaker who asked a question—a rhetorical question perhaps—about why we are not spending the money now available on the roads. Well there is an extraordinarily simple reason why that is not happening. It is called the Resource Management Act. They are three of the most despised words—[ 
Interruption 
] Yes we should all make the sign of the cross. The Resource Management Act is the Dracula of all the appalling legislation under which this country is suffering. We can confidently predict that there will be no substantial roads built in this country as long as the Resource Management Act exists in its present form. 
 I live in Coal Creek near Roxburgh in Central Otago. I can go to Auckland and object to Aucklanders having decent roads I can quite legitimately object to the construction of highways in Auckland that would allow for the free flow of traffic up and down through that massive infrastructure. I can do that. That is an absolute nonsense. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: You don’t even have to go there. You can do it from where you live. 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: Exactly. I might even try that one of these days. But that is the nonsense of this whole bill. We are collecting a tax to spend so that “Scrooge McCullen” can wallow in his massive— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No the member cannot refer to members by nicknames or Christian names. He should look at Speakers’ rulings 26/7 and 26/8. He will use the member’s full name or title. 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: Thank you for that direction on the subject of the correct title for the Minister of Finance Mr Chairman. As has been previously alluded to there are massive sums of money available right now. It is really a question of whether the Government wants to prioritise its spending. Does it think the movement of traffic throughout the country especially Auckland is important? If it does think that is important there is one thing it must do: it must amend the Resource Management Act and make it workable. I am only too willing to help the Government on that subject. 
But there is no need to whack the productive sector the people who get out of bed in the morning and go to work in their cars or even jump on the bus from time to time I guess. There is especially no need to whack the people of rural New Zealand whom I represent in this House who fill their trucks the old Toyota or the Nissan or whatever it might be with petrol—yes they use petrol not just diesel—and use their own farm tracks and their own infrastructure. The money from their petrol tax goes somewhere else. That is a nonsense and it appals the people of rural New Zealand. 
The capital that the Government will accumulate under this tax will sit there and accumulate interest. The Government will take a whack on that interest as well—it will take tax on that interest. The capital will sit there for years to come because in fact we will not be able to spend the money on the roads due to the Resource Management Act. 
There is another point I would like to make on the issue of indexing this tax to inflation. If the Government stopped spending—if it held its expenditure to say the last Budget’s expenditure—then inflation would drop to virtually zero. It is Governments that cause inflation in this country not the public. If Government expenditure was held to previous levels inflation would not be a problem in this country. So we have the dual scourge of Government spending and Government taxation which will destroy ultimately the infrastructure in this country. There have been no significant developments in this country since the Resource Management Act was passed—that is no developments worth over $300 million to $500 million have occurred in the last 10 years. So how on earth will the roads be built with this tax that will be imposed?