Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:9671] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 The Minister well knows that this bill is not going to do the job on a nationwide basis and it most certainly is not going to do the job for Auckland. He knows that. 
Hon Paul Swain 
: It’s a start. 
PETER BROWN 
: It is hardly going to be a start. Little or nothing will occur before he has to bring in more legislation to address the Auckland problem. This is just farcical. The Government has bought into the Greens—lock stock and barrel. I think someone said earlier that this bill should be called the “Traffic Reduction Bill” that the Greens had. It would have been more honest to use the title of Jeanette Fitzsimons’ member’s bill. 
This bill produces a framework for road tolling. I do not know where Paul Swain the Minister in the chair is on this. He looks as if he is all at sea and is quite clearly out of his depth when it comes to road traffic management. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
PETER BROWN 
: Just before the dinner break I was endeavouring to emphasise the huge importance of roading in this country. We need more roads and we need better roads. There can be no argument on that. The influence the Greens have had on this bill is dramatic unnecessary and will be to the detriment of New Zealand as a whole for quite some time. The key to developing our roading is funding. New Zealand First will not support a generic tolling regime. I want to make that quite clear. That is not necessarily saying that we are against tolling per se but we will not accept a generic tolling regime. That is what this bill does. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: No it doesn’t. 
PETER BROWN 
: Yes it does. I invite the member to read the commentary and then she will understand a little bit more about it. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Read the bill. 
PETER BROWN 
: I would be curious to know what that member knows about this bill. 
John Carter 
: Or any bill. 
PETER BROWN 
: Or probably any bill but I could write in block capitals on the back of a postage stamp what that member knows about this bill. 
We believe that the motorist in this country has been paying unnecessarily for other things when the funding should have gone into roading. First and foremost we would like to see that 18.5c back into roading—not on a one-hit basis but on a gradual basis. 
Larry Baldock 
: How gradual? 
PETER BROWN 
: I think we could do it over 5 years. That is my opinion but I am not talking about one-hit stuff. I am aware that some time ago the Minister of Finance—I think it was mid-September—told this Chamber that an economic report was being compiled presumably by the Treasury that would say why this 18.5c was essential to the Government’s coffers. In answer to a question he made reference to the Minister of Transport saying that he would consult with the Minister. 
Larry Baldock 
: I asked the question. 
PETER BROWN 
: I think Mr Baldock asked the supplementary question and I followed up with a point of order. As I recall he was going to consult the Minister of Transport about releasing this report to all MPs. That was my point of order and he assured the Chamber that he would. I have not seen it. Has Mr Baldock seen it? 
Larry Baldock 
: It’s still coming. 
PETER BROWN 
: I know that the officials have not seen it. When I asked the officials at the select committee they were not aware of this economic report about the 18.5c. But on the basis that there is some substance to that—I want to make this quite clear because the Prime Minister was confused in an answer to the Rt Hon Winston Peters earlier on this afternoon—New Zealand First would look at a different regime of funding. We would look at funding based on a regional fuel tax. It is far better than tolling. Look at the latest toll road in Tauranga.