Brown Peter: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Brown Peter: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1310] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 I would like to commence by assisting Bob Clarkson. I can understand his frustration—somebody said something about him he did not agree with it and he does not have the opportunity to correct it. But I say to Mr Clarkson that as I recall the judges determined that he spent $18000-plus whilst he had told them when he appeared that he spent $10000. That is an error of 80 percent. 
Bob Clarkson 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Under Standing Order 116—I have some facts this time—I am deeply offended again. That is not true. I will not allow him to say that because it is just not factual. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Can I say to the member again that it is a case of misrepresentation. If he looks at Speaker’s rulings 36/4 and 37/4 he will see that at the end of Mr Brown’s speech he can raise a point of order. He should have a look at the Speaker’s rulings. 
PETER BROWN 
: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I will alert you to the point that I said I was recalling as best as my memory tells me that the judges ruled that he spent $18000-plus and Mr Clarkson submitted that he spent $10000. That is an error in my book of 80 percent. [ 
Interruption 
] It might be reasonable for National Party members but it certainly would not be reasonable for New Zealand First. I have to say whilst I am on the subject that I have some real concerns about the account from Toby Hill to which reference was made because in 1993 Toby Hill made a sandwich board for me that cost more than painting Mr Clarkson’s van as I recall. But I want to move on from there. I just thought I would help the member understand the situation. 
National members seem hell-bent on pinching—that is the only word I can use—New Zealand First policies and the latest policy they have pinched is our roading policy. We have advocated for a long long time that the amount of petrol tax taken from petrol motorists should fully go into the land transport account and be spent on roading and those sorts of matters. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: You’ll get more than you’d get from them. 
PETER BROWN 
: No I am not going to acknowledge that but I acknowledge that the Labour Party has increased expenditure on roads which pleases us no end because had the Greens had their way—and they did for a while with the last Labour Government—the Government would have been spending less. It pleases me that Maurice Williamson has taken this on board. He now has the gall—and that is the only word I can use—to attack a person by way of media release who said that he supported all the petrol tax going into the land transport account. The Hon Maurice Williamson said he was just stealing National Party policy. But there was a time in 1995 when a bill called the Road Transport Revenues Fund Bill came before Parliament. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: I remember that. 
PETER BROWN 
: The Hon Harry Duynhoven remembers that. The Minister of Transport at the time was the Hon Maurice Williamson. This is what he had to say in the House: “Let us not try to be derogatory. The member for Tauranga who introduced the Bill and New Zealand First are clearly seeing it as a chance to win some votes.” So 12 or 13 years later is he doing exactly the same? Is he as genuine as he makes out? I doubt it. He goes on to say and I find this appalling for a Minister of Transport to say: “The first thing is there would not be enough roading projects out there to do or enough contractors out there to do them”. He says further: “To say that taking some general tax from a road user is wrong is like saying that because someone buys a loaf of bread they should not pay tax on it.” Now the National Party has finally recognised that roading would be better if it had more funding injected into it. [ 
Interruption 
] I say to the honourable members there that they should listen. If that bill had passed in 1995 there would have been something like $6 billion or $7 billion invested in roading additionally and I have to say that economically we would be a lot better off. Further to that a lot more people who have been killed on our roads would be alive in New Zealand today. 
We applaud the Labour Government for disowning the Greens and putting more revenue into roading. It is not enough and they should look at the actual system—the funding mechanism—because we fund roads on a “pay as you go” system and that is not good enough.