Twyford PhilEXCISE AND EXCISE-EQUIVALENT DUTIES TABLE (BUDGET MEASURES—MOTOR SPIRITS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Transport): I move That the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill be now read a first time.This Government is committed to tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand challenges both across society and the economy. To do this we are prioritising initiatives that improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders. This bill will provide funding for transport projects that meet the needs of New Zealanders now and into the future. We are focused on delivering transport projects that provide real benefits to New Zealanders.The previous Government's policy prioritised travel times often saving a few minutes on a few kilometres of road on a few hand-picked motorways. Meanwhile deaths and serious injuries blew out and congestion in our major cities got worse every year. Our Government is taking a balanced approach to transport policy. We're investing in road rail public transport walking and cycling and motorways rather than just focusing on eye-wateringly expensive motorways that carried 4 percent only of vehicle journeys.The Government's transport agenda is set out in the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport 2018 and under the Government policy statement released in 2018 the purpose of transport policy is to give New Zealanders access to the things that they need like work education and community a safer transport system free of death and serious injury reduced carbon emissions and of course value for money. To achieve this agenda this bill implements increases to excise duty set out in the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport. The bill increases the rate for petrol by 3.5c a litre with effect from 1 July 2019 and again on 1 July 2020. These increases to excise duty along with the equivalent increases in road user charges were announced on 28 June 2018 in the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport. This bill gives effect to that announcement.Our Government inherited a mess in the transport sector. Despite cars getting safer the number of deaths and serious injuries increased by 55 percent between 2013 and 2018. The rail network was in a state of managed decline but as the Deputy Prime Minister said in the debate we've just had rail is back on track under this Government. Forty percent of the transport budget was being spent on a few hand-picked motorways that carried only 4 percent of vehicle journeys. Our cities were getting congested every year. Our biggest city's transport plan had a $5.9 billion hole in it with no plan on how to fix it and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) was not carrying out its regulatory function which meant that cowboy operators were signing off on unsafe vehicles.Well our Government has already started tackling the long-term issues and fixing up that mess. We've rebalanced investment away from a handful of expensive motorway projects and put it towards saving lives and getting our cities moving. Last year 377 people died on our roads. Why should we accept neglected and dangerous roads? Unlike the last Government we've committed to improving thousands of kilometres of dangerous roads with interventions that are proven to prevent deaths and serious injuries like side and median barriers and wider shoulders and intersection upgrades. I make no apology in this policy for putting safety first. New Zealanders are sick and tired of seeing their loved ones die on the roads.We've recognised the benefits that investing in rail can have. Rail makes a major contribution to national and regional economic growth reduces emissions and congestion reduces road deaths and injuries and connects communities. One of the first things that I did as transport Minister was allow KiwiRail to publicly release the report they had had commissioned in the last term of the former National Government that that Government suppressed and refused to allow them to release a report—Hon Kris Faafoi: Who did that—who did that?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Oh it was Simon Bridges the former transport Minister who suppressed a report that showed that the rail system in New Zealand delivers $1.5 billion of economic value to this country every single year.Since we've been in Government we've instigated the Future of Rail project to make sure that we are taking a long-term joined-up approach and today we have started making funding available for rail projects on a huge scale—$1 billion committed in the Budget today to get rail back on track—but we have also committed to bringing rail into the National Land Transport Programme. There are a number of significant rail projects—$200 million upgrading the Wellington and Wairarapa rail lines a commitment to do the third main in Auckland and electrification to Pukekohe—under the National Land Transport Programme and funded as it should be alongside road and all other transport projects.We've also reopened the Napier to Wairoa line and I want to acknowledge the leadership of Shane Jones responsible for rail and regional economic development. We've made huge steps forward with New Zealand First championing the role of rail as a driver of economic development in our regions. We have futureproofed the City Rail Link in Auckland and we've invested in upgrading the Wellington and Wairarapa regional commuter line.We're making a record investment in public transport across New Zealand over the next three years to get Kiwis out of the traffic jams and get our cities moving again. This Government understands that if you don't invest in modern transport systems that allow people to move around our major cities to get to work to get education then you get a drag on productivity that drags down that city that drags down the prosperity of the people who live in it and drags down the rest of the country. That is why fundamentally we are committed to building modern transport systems in our major cities. It's not going to happen overnight but we are committed to unclogging our roads and making public transport quicker cheaper and more reliable.Improved public transport and rapid transit are vital parts of the Let's Get Wellington Moving indicative package that our Government released only a couple of weeks ago. I'm looking forward to the councils in the greater Wellington region signing up to that package that will see them commit 40 percent of the funding of that programme—40 percent of the programme—because they know they understand that Let's Get Wellington Moving is about investing in the economic powerhouse that is Wellington City. That's why the mayors of this region have all committed including Ray Wallace in the Hutt—including Ray Wallace—to supporting this project.Together we have worked alongside Auckland Council to close the $5.9 billion funding gap that Simon Bridges left when he was the transport Minister. We've committed to a 10-year $28 billion funding programme to rescue the country's biggest city from the mire of gridlock and falling productivity that the National Government left that we've inherited. We will build vital projects including the light rail project Penlink and Mill Road heavy rail bus upgrades safety improvements and more dedicated cycle lanes. The only way that we can do that is by Auckland Council paying their share—one third of the programme—and by increasing the fuel tax as we are doing with this bill.The systemic failures at NZTA have been uncovered and addressed. This Government was not prepared to allow our country's transport agency to fall down on the job to fail in its job as a safety regulator like that party did for nine years. We put safety first and that's why we have turned around NZTA's performance and they are back on the road to doing their job properly as a safety regulator.Parts 1 and 2 of this bill amend the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table made under the Customs and Excise Act. The bill makes a number of consequential amendments to regulations to increase the rate at which duties are refunded to allow people who use the motor spirits for off-road commercial and other purposes. Every year we invest around $4 billion in transport with about two-thirds of that from the National Land Transport Fund. Because of inflation if we don't periodically raise the excise we will be making real cuts to our transport spend. That would be bad for the economy and bad for the country.Governments of both stripes have used the excise to fund our transport system since 1927. This increase will deliver $120 million extra a year and allow us to make the investments this country needs.