Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Madam Chair. When we come to talk about legislation—Hon Member: Give someone else a turn.CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): The member has a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP); so he takes some precedence over the—thank you. Just to quieten down the grumbles.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Thank you colleagues. CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): And it would be helpful if the member spoke to his SOP.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Thank you I will come to my SOP in just a moment because when we talk about legislation that brings in new taxes or excises one of the fundamental questions that we have to grapple with is: upon whom does the burden of this new tax fall? You might think it's obvious—it's the motorist who goes up to the petrol station and pays to put the petrol or the diesel into their car. But indeed it is much broader than that because everything that New Zealanders buy whether it's a cup of coffee a banana a bunch of grapes a new phone everything that they purchase has to be transported and if it's transported it relies on the petrol and diesel that is included. So what we're talking about here is a 5 percent increase this year in the road user charges and the petrol prices. It's year on year for three years so all up it's an over 15 percent increase. We all know everybody knows that the price of petrol and diesel fluctuates enormously because of international prices but one thing that doesn't fluctuate is the tax—the tax stays the same and it keeps on rising.So all Kiwis in all walks of life—the ones that don't drive around a great deal still pay for it in every tub of ice cream that they buy and everything that they get from the supermarket; every time they want to buy a pair of jeans. It's all added into the overall cost of living. This excise tax that we're talking about today is another reason why Kiwis are finding it hard to get ahead and that's another reason why the young woman on the front cover of the Wellbeing Budget happens to no longer be in New Zealand because of the cost of living. This Minister needs to take stock of that and recognise that even though it might just on the surface of it be at the petrol pump where people feel this pain you do need to recognise that it filters through to the rest of society.A second question that I have for the Minister is in relation to this. Of course the increased excise tax on motorists is designed to—they pay that tax because they want to have good transport infrastructure. But the question that has arisen is under the Minister's Government policy statement. His signal is that the biggest project that will be bought with this money is the slow tram down Dominion Road. That has been described and justified as an urban regeneration project. Chris Bishop: Sorry say that again?Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: An urban regeneration project. So what I want an answer from the Minister on is: is urban regeneration a legal and appropriate thing to spend road taxes on—taxes that have gone into the National Land Transport Fund? I want to know from the Minister whether it is legal to spend that money on an urban regeneration project. If the slow tram is one part transport and nine parts urban regeneration is that legal? Or if it's two parts transport and eight parts urban regeneration is that legal? I want to have a clear and concise answer from him on that point.Finally my SOP was a simple one which is to say that in Part 1 this tax should not come in on 1 July; it should come in on 1 October like it did last year when everybody was expecting it to come in before this Government brought in a sneaky change to bring it in on 1 July and crib an extra three months' tax out of New Zealanders who weren't expecting it. I'd like to know and so that SOP suggests that and I would be grateful if the committee could consider that SOP carefully and give it due thought. Thank you Madam Chair.