10. Question No. 10—TransportHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 10—Transport10. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai) to the Minister of Transport: Does he consider the proposed road user charges for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids fair compared with road user charges and fuel excise duty for similarly sized vehicles; if so why?Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Transport): Yes. The Government has announced that electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will contribute towards the maintenance of our roads as other vehicles do. The changes proposed for electric vehicles will ensure that they pay the same amount as a road-user charge as those other light vehicles which pay a road-user charge. There are variances throughout the system and that is why the coalition agreement with ACT commits this Government to progress a fleet-wide transition to road-user charges that will result in a much fairer charging system based on how much people travel the roads and the weight of their vehicle.Hon Julie Anne Genter: How is it fair that the average electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid owner would pay more than double the tax of a similarly sized petrol vehicle for a return trip from Wellington to Auckland?Hon SIMEON BROWN: There are variances throughout the system as I acknowledged. That is why the coalition Government has agreed to progress a fleet-wide transition to road-user charges that will result in a much fairer charging system. This was an issue that was not addressed under the last Government and this is the first step towards ensuring that all vehicles who use the road pay towards contributing towards maintaining it.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Therefore I can confirm that the Minister acknowledges that an electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid as shown here would pay more than twice as much in road tax under his proposal on a trip from Wellington to Auckland?Hon SIMEON BROWN: There's a range of variables around how much based on the fuel usage. The problem with the current system is that it charges people based on how many litres of fuel they put into their car rather than how much they use the road. We want to move to a system which charges based on how many kilometres and the weight of that vehicle rather than what type of fuel motors that vehicle. That is the reform that we are progressing.Hon Julie Anne Genter: So his Government is happy to financially disincentivise electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles relative to polluting fossil fuel vehicles in the interim while we wait for his alternative road-user charges proposal?Hon SIMEON BROWN: No. This Government has confirmed that the exemption which would run out on 1 April this year—which was actually by the way put in place by the last National Government to help incentivise electric vehicle uptake—will end now that 2 percent of the fleet is electric. What we're saying is all users of our road should pay and contribute towards maintaining it.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Is he concerned about the combined disincentive effect of charging electric vehicles more tax given the Ministry of Transport's advice that scrapping the Clean Car Discount means transport may fail to meet its third emissions budget?Hon SIMEON BROWN: No. The issue that the member continues to raise is she's just simply looking at how much tax is paid based on the number of litres or the type of fuel used. We want to move it to being a distance and weight change and that member's graph that she continues to raise doesn't take into account the full running costs of those vehicles. As everyone knows electric vehicles are far cheaper to use and drive as many members of this House know but that graph that she uses misinforms the House.Ricardo Menéndez March: Point of order. The Minister just made a comment regarding my colleague misinforming the House effectively accusing her of lying.SPEAKER: No he said—[Interruption] Firstly if a point of order is being taken the House is silent and listens to it. What he said is that the graphic misinformed the House—quite a different matter.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Is the Minister aware that the running charges for efficient petrol vehicles would also be lower therefore their contribution to tax is lower than less efficient vehicles and therefore what is the logical connection between cars having lower running costs and contributing less to the roads on a per-kilometre basis?Hon SIMEON BROWN: Well I really enjoyed the co-leadership bid from the member opposite and if she would like to table a copy of that document I'd be very happy to have a read.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Point of order. It would be great if the Minister would attempt to address the question.SPEAKER: It would also be great if questions were asked. With all due respect if you have a look at your Hansard several of your questions have started as a statement. So I think the interchange here has been one-on-one. Feel free to ask your question again.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Is the Minister aware that vehicles that run on petrol that have lower running costs would also contribute less to the roads on a per-kilometre basis and therefore on what basis is he saying that electric vehicles have lower running costs and therefore should pay more to run on the roads when that's not the case for petrol vehicles?Hon SIMEON BROWN: As I've said to the House a number of times there are variances throughout the system and that is why we have started work to move all vehicles to the road-user charges system so people pay based on distance travelled and vehicle weight rather than the type of fuel that is used. We think that is a far fairer way to charge and that is where we are heading.Ricardo Menéndez March: Point of order—yeah just at the earliest opportunity that I was able to bring it up but my understanding with Speaker's ruling 205/5(1) is that Ministers should not commence an answer to a question with a political attack on the person asking the question." and there were incidents where that was the case. So I'm just asking the Speaker to just reflect on the fact that we've got Ministers starting those answers with political attacks not addressing the question.SPEAKER: I didn't pick it up that way; if that's the way the member's party has seen it I'll take a look at that and come back to you."