Genter Julie Anne; Brownlee GerryHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I heard the Minister say in his speech that the previous Government had done no work on this and I have to say that is patently untrue because obviously they'd all gone out and done some consultation on it firstly. Secondly I think it's really important for this House to consider the outcome of bringing in this particular legislation at this time. Now obviously it was a previous National Government who removed road-user charges for electric vehicles (EVs) as a kind of incentive tool. It didn't really have the desired effect; our uptake of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids was very very low. Back in the day when Simon Bridges was the transport Minister who brought in that incentive at the time I as transport spokesperson for the Greens brought up the fact that Treasury had given advice that if you are to provide a financial incentive to increase the number of electric and low-emissions vehicles coming into the country that it would make more sense for that incentive to be at the point of purchase or registration of the vehicle. Which is why later on we developed the policy—alongside best practice international evidence about what works—of the Clean Car Discount and Clean Car Standard. And the reasons for this are really kind of clear and obvious right? Once people have the sunk cost of the car they have an incentive to use it as much as possible. And what really makes the difference is the upfront purchase price of the car. So if we can provide a rebate at the point of purchase then that has a much bigger impact not only on what consumers choose but on what is on the market here in New Zealand.We saw a huge transformation when the Clean Car Discount was brought in massive increase in import registrations and use of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids and that has a positive consequence for our overall emissions as a country and the amount of oil we rely on to get around.Now obviously this Government had campaigned on ending that policy. They don't and still do not have—they did not at the time have an alternative policy to support the increase of electric vehicles into the country and on top of that now they're bringing in road-user charges for electric vehicles. Now the Minister's statement claimed this was fair and balanced and people paying their fair share yet in answers to written questions to me he makes it very clear that what is proposed in this bill is not electric vehicles paying their fair share it's electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids paying significantly more—more than double a comparable car—for the use of the roads.So in answers to written questions—and members opposite can look up the New Zealand Herald article reporting on this which links to the answers to the questions—I asked: if you were driving a pure electric vehicle on a return trip between Wellington and Auckland how much would they pay in road-user charges under this proposal? It's $98.80. How much would a plug-in hybrid Prius pay? So that's a plug-in electric vehicle one that also uses fossil fuels when the electric battery runs out. That vehicle on the same exact trip would pay $94.78. The proportion of road-user charges would be $72.80 and $21.98 in petrol tax. So they're paying both petrol tax and road-user charges because they'd be using petrol as well as paying the road-user charges.So we have a pure EV and a plug-in hybrid Prius paying $98.80 for a trip $94.78—nearly $100—and a conventional fossil fuel Prius would pay in fuel excise duty $42.92 for the exact same trip. So that is less than half the price. So there's clearly problems with the current road-user charges categories that they don't take into account that light vehicles—light diesel vehicles and light pure electric hybrid vehicles—should be paying the same as a comparable petrol car and yet they'll be paying more than twice that.So the combination of this Government's policies and actions—to get rid of the Clean Car Discount to probably water down the Clean Car Standard they've indicated they will do that and to now overcharge electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles—will be that we will get fewer low-emissions and zero-emissions vehicles into the country—SPEAKER: The member's time has expired.