Henare Tau: Road User Charges Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Henare Tau: Road User Charges Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 04 October 2011. Volume:676;Page:21698. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 First of all can I express a token of appreciation to the Hon Shane Jones for that little cameo performance in this respect. One of the issues that we should all have in the back of our minds when we introduce legislation to the House is what my colleague and cousin has termed getting rid of a couple of regulations at the same time as introducing a new piece of legislation. I actually think it is a very very good discipline to get into. 
However clause 3 of the Road User Charges Bill specifically says that its purpose is to charge vehicles for “their use of the roads that are in proportion to the costs that the vehicles generate:”. I think that is something we have to spell out in big letters. That is why we have a road-user charge system. It is not to tax not to be mean but to actually pay for the roads that diesel vehicles use. 
I just want to run through some of the words that I think are important in this bill. They are all based on our plan Building a Brighter Future; all based around having a brighter future for our nation. [ 
Interruption 
] I know that the lady from Dunedin would love to mock me but here are some of those words and maybe she can mock me later on after she has heard these words. 
The bill simplifies the regime of road-user charges. It modernises our system it is cost-effective it is efficient it is fair it is balanced and it is well managed. Now when we look at achieving a brighter future we see that those are all things that a company as Mr Jones says looks at to get that company going and to get that company moving so it actually can add to the total sum of our economy. 
Labour members can mock Building a Brighter Future but I tell members that people out there will not mock a brighter future for their companies and this nation. This bill is about simplifying it is about modernising and it is about bringing our road-user charge regime into the 21st century instead of having it lie in the past. There are so many things going on—[ 
Interruption 
] I will just wait for those fellows to finish their little talk. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: We’re trying to amuse ourselves. It’s so boring. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: It is so boring? Well I do not think that brighter futures are boring. I do not think that brighter futures are anywhere near boring I say to Mr Hide. I know he is getting out and so is his mate— 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: The member is. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —and so is Stuart. But I believe in a brighter future for this country and it is not just about education it is not about the fluffy stuff; it is also about the nuts and bolts. It is also about the road-user charges. It is also about the man out there who maybe has two or three trucks and wants to be able to run a business. [ 
Interruption 
] It just goes to show what is going to happen on 26 November—those three will not be here. 
I served on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and it is a good select committee well chaired by the member for Hamilton David Bennett.