King MattMATT KING (National—Northland): It's a pleasure to speak on the Land Transport Management (Regional Fuel Tax) Amendment Bill. We oppose it strongly because they don't work. Yet another tax by this Government—let's be honest: this Government loves tax and they love taxing us. Look out: there're more coming—rest assured there's more coming.No taxes." they said but they've given us four. It's available only in the Auckland region—until January 2021 and then all hell breaks loose: Hamilton Waikato Tauranga Wellington and Christchurch—even Northland might want one. Local Government New Zealand chair Dave Cull wants it available to all councils. Can you imagine any council not wanting one? And it's going to be subject to GST—tax on tax. They can review the regional fuel tax at any time. Now that's scary.There were 520 submissions from interested groups and individuals at the Finance and Expenditure Committee and 89 percent were opposed. Public opinion is dead against this form of taxation and I'll quote: A One News Colmar Brunton poll in May: 58 percent opposed; 36 percent in favour. In May Auckland Council's final consultation on the draft proposal: 51 percent opposed; 42 percent in support. Auckland Council Facebook poll: 74 percent against—Hon Member: How many? MATT KING: —74 percent against 26 percent in favour and 10600 people voted in it—that's a fair few. In April the 10-year budget plan consultation: 48 percent opposed and 46 percent for and 21000 people voted in that one. In the April Colmar Brunton poll for Auckland Council the poll shows that 52 percent supported it and 43 percent opposed it but that was prior to the announcement. When they announced the actual fuel tax opposition rose to 58 percent.So this bill imposes steep costs on New Zealanders especially in Auckland. It is an unnecessary burden on motorists and taxpayers. The impact of this should not be understated. It will cost households hundreds of dollars a year in order to project this $150 million. Businesses will simply pass that cost on to consumers in higher prices. Anyone that runs businesses knows that. On this side of the Chamber we've run a few.Regional fuel taxes must be viewed in the wider context of national fuel tax increases. This Government has proposed increases in fuel tax of 12c a litre which taken with this increase means a 25.3 percent a litre tax increase for motorists and businesses. This will drive up living costs of many of those in the region but the burden of this new tax will disproportionately fall upon the lower-income New Zealanders. It's a higher percentage of their income—a larger percentage of their income. Lower-income families generally have older more less fuel-efficient cars—that's a fact—and they usually live further away from the CBD so they'll be affected more.But we've got to talk about price spreading. Like it's occurred in the past fuel companies will likely spread the cost across their national network. It happened in the 1990s and it's the reason why we repealed this legislation in 2009. There is evidence that price spreading is already occurring in anticipation of this regional fuel tax. Fuel prices are rising in the South Island much faster than in Auckland. For example fuel companies could charge 3c a litre nationally to cover a 10c per litre regional fuel tax in Auckland. Auckland Council only needs to find around 4 percent savings in its budget to fund this tax. That's not a difficult task.We also would not have gutted $5 billion out of the State highway budget which could have been used to fund the likes of the East-West Link and the Mill Road corridor and my beloved Northland motorway. I'm very sad to see that bite the dust. National remains opposed to the use of regional fuel taxes in any instance so we oppose this."