Ross Jami-LeeJAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany): I was sitting there thinking to myself How do we know that the country has a Labour Government in charge?"—sorry a Labour - New Zealand First - Greens Government. The way in which we know that we have a Labour Government in charge is that you have Minister after Minister and I'm sure more MPs too excited about taxing people more. The pure joy in their eyes that they're going to have to put another tax on Aucklanders put another tax on New Zealanders and show the country how they can raise money to do all of these great things that they're going to do—Phil Twyford is the Messiah. He's delivering thousands of houses apparently in Mount Albert. He's about to deliver apparently light rail into Mount Roskill—I'm sure Michael Wood will be happy. He's going to deliver us to the promised land but it's going to cost us a huge amount more money and we know that the Labour Government that we have in charge despite the fact that they went into the election opposed to any tax increases this term are going to be delivering that.This is a bill that we are seeing where the Labour Government is putting more tax on Aucklanders. Don't be ashamed in looking into the detail of this I say fellow members because when you do look into the detail of this bill what we see is that it's going to mean more money for Aucklanders to have to pay over and above what they already do. The council won't be accountable I'm sorry David Clark because actually what message this sends to the council is that they don't need to tighten up their spending they don't need to rein in their costs. The fuel tax will be an additional amount of money that they can spend on transport and they won't tighten up their budget further which is what they should be pushed towards doing.I say to the Minister of Transport that this tax isn't actually necessary. The reason why it's not necessary is that this tax will raise less per annum than the Auckland Council's costs have been going up year on year. For the past four years the Auckland Council's costs have been going up by on average $200 million a year. This tax will raise about $150 to $170 million a year. That's less than the council's costs are even going up. So if the Government was wanting to send a message to Aucklanders and send a message to the council about what they should be doing with transport and prioritising their budgets they'd be saying "Mr Mayor you went into the election promising to tighten up the council's budgets to get the costs under control. We expect you to deliver those savings for Aucklanders before we're going to give you another opportunity to tax." But the first opportunity that they've had to pass transport legislation in this House is to reach in for another tax.Here's the other big revelation with this bill. This isn't just about Auckland. I heard David Clark talking about his deep dark past growing up in Beachlands and being an Aucklander. He talked in his speech a lot about Auckland. But actually this bill impacts on the rest of the country. The new revelation for New Zealanders out there is a regional fuel tax isn't just going to be constrained to Auckland. The Labour Government's coming after your fuel taxes for the rest of the country as well—because by 2021 this bill shows us very clearly that there are going to be fuel taxes in the future for other parts of the country.So not only is Auckland being told they can let their budgets go—they'll have the ability to tax and spend more—other councils are going to be lining up for that too. So I say to ratepayers around the country you should be afraid of this bill because it's going to lead to more taxes on motorists around the country as well.So the question will be: what's this regional fuel tax going to be spent on? There's one area on which there is a bit of detail and it's a good thing to see. It's the fact that there is quite a stringent requirement on councils to outline what the projects are the costs and benefits when it's going to be delivered and apparently according to David Clark that's going to cause them to be quite accountable.But the interesting process we have going on right now is that the Auckland Council is consulting on the fuel tax right now. In their budgets right now—the consultation closes tomorrow—the Auckland Council is consulting on whether there should be a regional fuel tax. Apparently 50 percent of people are saying there should be; 40 percent of people are saying there should not. But what the council's not doing is telling anyone what the regional fuel tax is going to be spent on. They're asking Aucklanders to fly blind and just blindly sign up to this new tax without even telling people what the regional fuel tax is going to be spent on.I say that the Minister's endorsement of that process and the council's way in which they're going about it—it is a way in which they are misleading Aucklanders that they're going to deliver them to the promised land with the transport projects but they're not even telling them what it's going to be. I want to know as an Auckland ratepayer as an Auckland MP what are Phil Goff and Phil Twyford going to spending this additional money on? They haven't told us.JAMI-LEE ROSS: They haven't fronted up with the details.Hon Phil Twyford: ATAP—ATAP.JAMI-LEE ROSS: Well you haven't even delivered the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) yet. He's been a Minister for about six months—hasn't delivered a Government policy statement yet hasn't seen any regional land transport projects being delivered and hasn't seen ATAP change yet. They're still operating off the old plans that we put in place.So I think the Minister should front up with the projects. The Minister should front up and tell Aucklanders what he's going to be spending on and go out there around the country and tell New Zealanders about how important roading projects that are going to deliver economic development that are going to deliver time savings and actually keep people safer—go around the country and be honest and tell New Zealanders about the roading projects that he's cancelling.Because he's not only going to tax Aucklanders more; he's going to tax the rest of the country more in 2021 if he's still around. He's going to cancel a huge number of important projects all to deliver the tram-set down Dominion Road—the tram-set which in today's dollars is $3 billion. I guarantee you by the time that's finished that's going to cost you a huge amount more—closer to $5 billion $6 billion $7 billion maybe even $10 billion.This fuel tax is going to hurt those who can least afford it as well. Because when we delve into the regulatory impact statement—when we delve into the detail—we also see that the people most impacted by this are those living furthest away from the city centre. Typically according to the data that we have the people living furthest away—say in South Auckland—are the ones that will have to pay the most and they can afford it the least. They're also the people that typically if they are renters don't currently pay the interim transport levy.So those people are going to be taxed more. They're the ones that can't afford it as much as others and they're the ones that'll probably see the least benefit because I have to tell you light rail a tram-set running down Dominion Road is going to do nothing for the people living in South Auckland.So those MPs that are going to be standing up in this House telling us about the great transport levy and tax that's going to be put in place that live in South Auckland or live in North Auckland—go and have an honest conversation with your constituents.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order!JAMI-LEE ROSS: You can have an honest conversation if you want too Madam Assistant Speaker. But those MPs should have an honest conversation with their constituents because they're putting more taxes on those constituents all to fund that tram-set down Dominion Road.I also want to talk about the fact that in new section 65D inserted by clause 5—and I want to see us delve into this more in the select committee—there are words in there where this regional fuel tax should only come into force if the capital projects "cannot reasonably be fully funded from sources other than a regional fuel tax within the time frame desired by the council." Those are very interesting words. And I wonder if the Minister's actually considered the words that he's used in that particular section. Because what that particular section says is that the regional fuel tax should be the option of last resort. And I actually agree with that. Taxing people more should be an option of last resort.So if that wording continues in the bill and the Minister's going to be sitting there honestly assessing whether the regional fuel tax should be implemented after the people of Auckland have been properly consulted with—because they haven't been at the moment—is he going to honestly assess whether these projects cannot reasonably be fully funded from other sources other than a regional fuel tax?Because I submit that councils around the country including the Auckland Council have the ability to fund transport without needing this tax. They just need to tighten their budgets. In fact they already have a transport levy in place. One cannot say that these capital projects cannot reasonably be funded from other sources when there's already another source in place. So I hope the select committee delves into that properly as well.I hope the select committee delves into price spreading because we know from experience in the 1990s that price spreading does happen and it will happen in this case as well. New Zealanders around the country probably closest to the borders of Auckland will be paying more in petrol prices because there's a fuel tax in Auckland. If you live in Huntly or live in Waikato there's a higher likelihood that you'll be paying more in fuel as well because there'll be price spreading from the companies. We also know that there'll be avoidance happening as well and the regulatory impact statement suggests there's about $20 million lost.Finally my final point is that I think this should go to the Transport and Infrastructure Committee. It is a transport matter. I'm sorry that Darroch Ball the chair of that committee has no confidence from the Minister. That committee should be looking at this because it's a transport issue. It shouldn't be going to the Finance and Expenditure Committee—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member. Your time has expired."