Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take a call on the second reading of this Road User Chargers (Temporary RUC Reduction Scheme) Amendment Bill. I just want to acknowledge some members from the other side of House for some of their contributions. Before we had Team White": I thought it was a great contribution from "Team White" telling us to stop asking the pesky questions. [Interruption] That's right stop asking the pesky questions because apparently we now live under a dictatorship in New Zealand—it's no longer a democracy. In fact actually what we should be doing here in this Parliament is simply whenever the Government announces something wait for the legislation and then just rush it through and don't ask any single question. But I did note "Team McAnulty" the chief whip did give her a little telling off. She spoke for a little bit longer because she was unfortunately making too many points. Too many points. And that wasn't to be had. I'm sure that "Team Wood" the Minister of Transport down at the front would not have been impressed with that contribution in that way.But this has been a rushed process and it comes back to the point that this Government says in the explanatory note of this piece of legislation: that this bill has been brought through to try to offset some of the costs which New Zealanders are facing due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the impact that is having on fuel prices. I come back to my point: the invasion into Ukraine started on 24 February the Government announced this policy on 14 March and in-between that time they hadn't even had a workshop with the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA). The workshop happened on 23 March.So what actually happened was something which happened on 10 March and we all know what that was: it was a 1News poll which came out and said National was ahead of Labour for the first time in two years and that Government panicked. They thought "Well we better do something. What are New Zealanders worried about? They're worried about the cost of living. We better do something. We better do something." They couldn't acknowledge it as a crisis. It wasn't a crisis; just a challenge just an issue. But we had to do something. And so they quickly made an announcement—and this Government is very good at announcements. In fact they are very very good at announcements of an announcement. And what we got on 14 March was an announcement that excise would be reduced and an announcement of an announcement that at some point in the future people who have diesel vehicles would get a reduction in their road-user charges (RUC). And that is eventually what we're doing here.But again I come back to the point: the legislation says that the Minister can through regulation change road-user charges if he or she would give 42 days' notice. Well we're debating a piece of legislation here which will give effect to a reduction in RUC rates within only 38 days after the announcement. That's right: this legislation is only reducing the period of time between the announcement and when it actually comes into effect by four days—four days. The time frame the legislation requires notice be given of a change to road-user charges is 42 days. This legislation will effectively cut that by four days and mean that the road-user charge reduction comes into effect 38 days following the announcement. So we're spending the night here debating this legislation that saves four days. If this Government was actually truly serious and was actually addressing the cost of living pressures that were building well before the war in Ukraine—well before that time period and certainly before the poll came out on 10 March—they would have been thinking and would have been working on this piece of legislation quite some time ago so they could have actually acted with urgency at the time when they made that announcement.So the National Party is looking forward to the committee of the whole House because there are a number of questions which do need to be asked about this legislation. We do need to tease out some of those issues around people who have purchased RUC prior to this coming into force; whether that applies to light vehicles as well as heavy vehicles; the cost of purchasing those overlapped licences—there is a cost involved in doing that and we need to ask some questions around what those costs are and then what is the burden that therefore puts upon people doing that. I'd like to know whether the Minister is prepared to actually waive that fee for people who happened to get those overlapped licences because—I understand it may be a small amount of money but in terms of the actual benefit if someone's going to be only benefiting by $130 and the overlapped licence is going to cost them 10 bucks well that actually substantially reduces the benefit that they then get through this piece of legislation. And so we need to interrogate that.We also need to look at the provision in this piece of legislation around the possible extinction because this piece of legislation—the Minister hasn't touched on it but it effectively gives the Minister the ability to extend this temporary reduction at a different rate. And so we need to ask some questions around how that works and what the Government's intentions are in terms of having that provision in this piece of legislation. Is the Government actually considering extending the reduction in RUC rates? I think that's something that New Zealanders would like to know and should know particularly when they are going to potentially be going out and purchasing large numbers of kilometres of RUC when this reduction comes into force. Is it going to be extended for another three months six months? Will it not be extended? Why is that provision put into this bill and what is the Government's intention by putting that piece into this bill?The final point that I'd like to make is that New Zealanders aren't just focused here on the cost of living but when we start talking about RUC—road-user charges—and petrol excise they actually want to see a Government which delivers. And what we've seen under this Government is the money which is being paid in billions of dollars every year—billions of dollars every year in road-user charges and petrol excise—isn't going anywhere. We've had Mill Road cancelled. East West Link cancelled. Ōtaki to Levin cancelled. The Tauranga Northern Link cancelled and then started again. We've had Whangārei to Marsden Point cancelled. Cambridge to Piarere cancelled. All of these roads important pieces of infrastructure and the Minister goes on television and he says "We've got an infrastructure deficit in New Zealand."Well I tell you Minister it's your Government which has created it because you're spending all this time writing reports millions of dollars—$100 million at Te Huia. We've got $50 million for a cycle bridge which has been cancelled but he's still trying to get it across the line if he can. Thirty-five million dollars on consultants for Let's Get Wellington Moving which is actually just slowing Wellington down. Tens of millions hundreds of millions of dollars being wasted and nothing being built. This Government's responsible for the infrastructure deficit which he crows about on the television over the weekend. And so Minister I say that the money that New Zealanders are paying into the land transport fund needs to be spent responsibly needs to be spent wisely and actually needs to deliver the roads and the infrastructure which New Zealanders need. We're sick and tired of the reports. We're sick and tired of the money going on consultants. We're sick and tired of the absolute waste of money that is happening and the announcements of announcements over years.And so it's time to actually get things done. In this Government the National Government which is coming in next year we will get things done. So we will support this bill but we will also ask the questions which need to be asked to hold this Government to account. Thank you."