Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take a call on this piece of legislation the Road User Charges (Temporary RUC Reduction Scheme) Amendment Bill (No 2)—the temporary RUC reduction which is temporary for ever it seems! I saw the Minister the Hon Michael Wood speaking on the bill. He really didn't want to be speaking on this bill. He really didn't want to be speaking on the bill because he has continued to issue press releases saying that this temporary road-user charge (RUC) reduction is about to end. He has been continually saying This will be ending"—well firstly it was only to be in place for three months and then another three months and then another three months. Then he finally issued a press release on 14 December along with Grant Robertson where they said "The Government has invested over $1 billion over the past year to reduce fuel prices. However it is not sustainable to continue to subsidise the cost of petrol indefinitely for everyone [for ever]. We have to strike a balance between broad ongoing support and careful management of the Government accounts. That's why we are transitioning to more targeted support for those most feeling the pinch." It said then "The Road User Charges (RUC) discount will end on January 31 2023. RUC is not being extended because it is pre-purchased". That was the Minister of Finance back on 14 December. Then Michael Wood said "It is important to get the balance right though as these policies are not without significant costs. We've got to make sure they are sustainable when that duty and fares help make up the funding we use to fix our roads and invest in public transport cycling and walking infrastructure." That was last year and this is now: "The petrol excise … cut will be 25 cents per litre until the end of June." So now it's been extended and that is of course the Minister standing up and giving a speech which I'm sure he did not want to give.But the point here—this piece of legislation—is not to do necessarily with the broad-based policy decision around whether the extension should have been done or not; that's obviously the politics that this Government has realised. It still has not addressed the cost of living crisis that New Zealanders are facing. That's the reason why we're here: because this Government has still not actually dealt with the underlying causes of inflation. It hasn't dealt with the fact that New Zealanders are paying too much tax; that we are being pushed into higher and higher income tax brackets meaning Kiwi working families are paying more tax under this Government. They are still wasting hundreds of millions of dollars every single year. They're continuing with a whole range of policy programmes like three waters which is costing enormous amounts of money which—Simon Watts: It's been reset!SIMEON BROWN: Well it's had a name change. I don't know what its new name is but it's having a name change. It's having a reset.Chris Penk: "Five waters."SIMEON BROWN: It's going to be "five waters" says Mr Penk. The point is though that this Government is not dealing with the underlying causes of inflation. All they've got is to put in place and to extend this policy. That's the only idea they've got: to extend this policy.But this bill does do an important thing and that is why we will be supporting it. It's because what it does is it ensures that our diesel drivers and our truck drivers get the cut as well as our petrol car users. Currently people who drive a truck or a diesel vehicle are having to pay the full rate again because this Government last year said "We're going to finish this at the end of January and that's it." Of course on 1 February which is the day afterwards—they didn't decide maybe to think about doing this before that announcement before the actual RUC finished!—they decided "Well actually we're going to extend it on the first." And they decided to make that announcement on 1 February. So of course our diesel vehicle users our tradies our farmers our truck drivers the people who move our goods our exports to ports are having to pay the higher rate now. So what this bill does is extend that same reduction in road-user charge—the 36 percent reduction that the Minister spoke about—to those users as well. And that is important because ultimately this Government otherwise would just be giving the reduction to people who drive a petrol vehicle and that would be completely unfair—completely unfair to give the reduction to people who use petrol but not to pass on that reduction to people who use diesel.So what this piece of legislation does is it creates that fairness and we are glad the Government's finally bringing it to the House—a couple of weeks after it was actually announced—but I think what that speaks to is that this is ad hoc policy on the fly by a Government which doesn't actually have a plan to deal with inflation. It doesn't have a plan to deal with inflation because it doesn't actually know how it's going to fix inflation in New Zealand. It's a Government which knows how to spend big. It's a Government which knows how to dream up new taxes. I heard about a flood tax today. They're now thinking about a flood tax. In terms of when it comes to actually trying to deal with these issues the only idea they've actually had is to put in place a temporary—which I'm sure has been welcomed by many people. Everyone who drives these vehicles has welcomed some relief because it's the only relief that this Government has ever given.Let me just make another point: the 25c reduction in petrol excise—this Government might say "Well we're reducing petrol excise by 25c." Well that sounds really interesting but if you're an Auckland motorist you've had your excise increase by 12c under this Government and you've had the Auckland regional fuel tax put in place meaning you're paying 23.5c per litre more in excise. So actually all this Government is doing for Aucklanders is just taking the excise back to what it was before they came to office. This Government is a Government which knows how to tax it knows how to waste but it doesn't know how to actually deliver and fix the problems that New Zealanders are facing. There's one other point that I just want to make which is in this bill and the Minister only touched on this very very briefly—very briefly. This bill includes a five-year extension for the Government to be able to continue to keep the temporary reduction in RUC in place; a five-year extension. So when the Minister of Finance said on 1 February "This extension takes us to the end of the financial year. We have already indicated that the Budget will have a cost of living focus"—well they should have thought about that last year—"and this extension covers the time until that comes into force"—which is of course the end of June—well I'm sorry but my prediction is this will be extended again because that's what this legislation does provide for. What we're saying to the Government is that we need a real plan to deal with the underlying causes of inflation. The National Land Transport Fund is a hypothecated fund to help build and maintain our roading networks. This Government has absolutely stripped the funding from that fund. It has poured it into pet projects. It has taken it away from our State highways and our local roads. It has let our roads be deteriorated. Potholes are peppering our highways and we actually need to make sure we do restore the integrity of that fund. But what this Government is doing is effectively giving themselves a blank cheque.So what we're saying is yes we support this piece of legislation—it aligns the temporary excise reduction with the temporary RUC reduction which is critically important to our farmers our tradies our truckies those who are moving goods around New Zealand getting our goods to market; it's critically important to doing that—but what this Government desperately needs to bring is actually a real plan to deal with inflation get the cost of living under control so that New Zealanders aren't faced with higher and higher interest rates higher costs of living. Their incomes are going up slower than inflation. Those are the issues that really matter to hard-working Kiwis and we're wanting a plan from this Government to address it. And guess what! If they don't we will. On 14 October New Zealanders will have a choice and we will deliver a plan to actually deal with these issues get the cost of living under control and actually get New Zealanders back in the driving seat of their own lives."