Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:16987] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 There are parts of the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill that we are delighted with and there are parts that we will endeavour to change. 
Let me first explain the parts we are more than happy with. We are happy with the merger of Land Transport New Zealand and Transit. Providing that there is the right governance structure in place the right management structure in place and the right amount of transparency and accountability we are more than happy with that. We are more than happy with the planning arrangements that this bill provides. We are delighted—absolutely delighted—that money will go into maritime search and rescue from the excise tax taken on the fuel that boat users purchase. We have advocated this for a long time and the Minister was gracious enough to tell me sometime ago that this is a direct extract from New Zealand First policy. We are—and indeed I personally am—also delighted with the hypothecation of the excise tax into road and transport funding. 
As I listened to the Hon Maurice Williamson I was thinking that in 1989 I went to the Rt Hon Winston Peters when he was shadow Minister of Transport or the transport spokesperson. At the time I was working for port companies on port reform and we were trying to get ships to work 7 days a week 24 hours a day and with modern equipment. That would make a huge impact on shipping and the export of our commodities. It would also make a huge impact on cargo—freight—travelling to and from ports in a timely managed manner. I told the Rt Hon Winston Peters that our roading and rail networks would not keep pace with the port network. That was long before I even thought of becoming an MP. Sometime later when New Zealand First was formed I reinforced those concerns to Winston Peters again before I was an MP even before I put my hat in the ring I think. 
He put into the ballot for members’ bills a bill that would hypothecate all the excise tax into the transport account. The bill came out of the ballot and I have here the  
Hansard 
 of the then Minister of Transport. Much of what he said is childish. He said: “I want to start by saying right from the very beginning that the Government is totally opposed to this Bill.” He went on to say: “we disagree with … ‘all duties and taxes’ because it is just a nonsense. The first thing is there would not be enough roading projects out there to do or enough contractors out there to do them”. This was 6 years after I went to Winston Peters in a professional capacity and told him that roading was not keeping pace with the freight on the roads. The honourable Minister went on to say: “Even at conservative estimates with the doubling of the current annual road expenditure and present levels of charge Transit New Zealand has identified no more than $500 million worth of projects that are worth doing in the future.” With that the bill was voted down. The Minister of course was the Hon Maurice Williamson. 
Winston Peters had a second go at this when as Treasurer of this country he started the scheme to transfer money across to the roading account on an annual basis—an extra 2.1c a year. By now it would all have been done. One year after New Zealand First started that we got dumped—we were in coalition at that time. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: You walked away. 
PETER BROWN 
: We were dumped by the National Party. Months after that the transfer ceased—it was a no-no. We have heard for the last 3 years from the Hon Maurice Williamson who in particular has been on the road to Damascus that all the money must be put into the roading account yet he told us tonight that he will walk away from it again. 
Having said that I also have to say that we have some major concerns with this bill. I want to outline our concerns—first and foremost in respect of clause 5 which describes the new section 4 “Treaty of Waitangi”. The new section begins: “In order to recognise and respect the Crown’s responsibility to take appropriate account of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and to maintain and improve opportunities for Maori to contribute to land transport decision-making processes”. In other words it does not say what the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi set out to achieve. Nobody knows. We will put up a Supplementary Order Paper to amend that clause—at least two amendments possibly three—and we hope the House will vote for them because we want every clause in this bill to make sense to any New Zealander reading it. Nobody can tell us what that clause means when it refers to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and I invite subsequent speakers to tell me if they know. 
Another concern that New Zealand First has relates to the regional fuel tax. We think it is unnecessary and we think it is another imposition that will be put on to motorists—the truck motorists the diesel motorists and the petrol motorists—in an unfair and unnecessary way. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: But you’re going to vote for it. 
PETER BROWN 
: I say to Mr Williamson that we will put up a Supplementary Order Paper to address this; we will not just abdicate from the situation. I am certain that the member will support our efforts to do that. 
There is a better and fairer way to use some of this GST windfall that the Government is collecting due to the price of petrol and fuel going through the roof. I have figures that show that the current cost of a litre of petrol is 212.9c. Of that figure the Government collects 23.65c in GST. Pansy Wong just reminded the House that the accident compensation levy will go up by 2c or so in July and there will be GST on top of that. So the price of a litre of petrol will go up even more. A year ago or thereabouts the cost of a litre of petrol was 155.9c and the GST component was 17.322c. At current levels that is a windfall gain in excess of 6c—nearly 6.5c. 
Dr Cullen’s argument is that if people buy petrol they will not buy butter or cheese and they will not go to the movies—areas where he would collect GST. There is an element of truth in that but it does not apply to every New Zealander. Some New Zealanders put their money into the bank some put their money into shares some go out and spend it leisurely—there would be a GST component there—and some probably put their banknotes or coins under the bed; I do not know. Those people have the ability to spend their dollars in a discretionary manner. They spend it use it or invest it for their social and economic well-being. We say that 4c of this 6c windfall should be put into a regional fund for the economic well-being of the whole country and that regions should be allowed to bid for it. It will work and it should be given a go. We must get away from the idea that every time we have a problem we should charge the motorists more. We must move away from that. 
Let me just briefly comment on public-private partnerships. We do not believe in them because they will mean paying tolls. There are two or three areas of concern. Firstly the Government can borrow money more cheaply than private enterprises. Secondly there must be a profit motive when private enterprises are invited into building or doing any enterprise. If people agree with that so be it. Thirdly and more important when a member of Parliament gets into his or her car and travels here and there he or she gets refunded by the taxpayer as do the businessman and the person servicing the community. But the average Joe pays his toll from his net income—he has paid tax before he has to pay his toll and that is unfair. That is why we are against tolling this country and raising petrol costs above what is reasonable and fair. This bill needs to address the concerns that New Zealand First has raised. Thank you very much.