Moroney Sue: Road User Charges Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Moroney Sue: Road User Charges Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is very interesting to listen to Government members filibustering on their own bill this afternoon. We certainly did not have the luxury of doing anything like that when Labour was in Government because we always had to take short and succinct calls to get through the business because we had so much on the Order Paper. We had so much business to get through that we were under the opposite instructions from those that the National Government backbenchers seem to be under. The National Government obviously has a light workload on the Order Paper. It is becoming very noticeable because we had to have Nikki Kaye talk for probably about 2 minutes of her 10-minute speech about nana cars and cool cars. Enlightening as it was that clearly was a filibuster and it tells us that the Government is in a bit of trouble with its programme of action. 
I will of course come to the first reading of the Road User Charges Amendment Bill. Labour is supporting the bill through to the select committee in its first reading. I will not be on the select committee to hear the submissions but I wish the select committee well in its deliberations. I know that at least one of the Ministers was a bit confused the other day as to whether I am a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. I am not and therefore Kate Wilkinson was quite wrong to draw to the attention of the House my supposed absence from that committee when I was not even a member of it. But here I am speaking in the House on a bill that is going to go before that very committee. 
It is a bill with regard to road-user charges and it has two particular outcomes. The first is to enable the exemption of light electric motor vehicles from the requirement to pay road-user charges. Labour supports this and of course Labour has been working along these lines for quite some time. But I note that the light electric motor vehicle seems to be the nemesis for everything that National does in transport. Although light electric motor vehicles will form a significant part of transport policy in years to come— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Eventually! 
SUE MORONEY 
:—eventually they will—they are not the silver bullet for transport issues and I am pleased to see at least some of the National members acknowledging that. I have certainly had debates in my home patch of Hamilton with some of the National MPs there. I notice that when David Bennett was arguing against establishing a passenger train between Waikato and Auckland—that is right folks he was against something that would actually help his constituents—his reason for that was first of all that in the next 5 years everyone would be driving electric vehicles. I noticed that he has started to change that position now and he is saying it will be sometime in the next 20 years when everyone—apparently everyone—will be driving electric cars of some description and that the entire fleet in New Zealand is going to be electric cars in the next 20 years. I suppose we will just have to wait and see what happens on that front but I certainly do not believe that will happen in the course of the next 5 years. 
I wonder at times whether National members understand the economics of ordinary people who buy cars and how frequently they can afford to turn over those cars and how frequently families particularly in this economic climate will be able to afford to buy the newest car that—I acknowledge—one of the Ministers appears to have. But not every family will be in a situation where it will be able to afford the newest thing on the market—the electric motor vehicle. I do not know whether Dr Smith knows of many families in his electorate of Nelson who have stepped up to the electric motor vehicle. I ask Dr Smith how many he would see driving around Nelson these days. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Rex Nowland has been an innovator—converted his V-Dub! 
SUE MORONEY 
: That is one. So a man named Rex in Nelson can afford one of these but not many other families could. I would strongly suggest that those thousands of New Zealanders who are losing their jobs every week sadly in the current economic situation are not going to be looking to replace any motor vehicle in their family for quite some time to come. That is going to put back significantly the planned approach. It seems to be the silver bullet approach that National has: that everyone is going to be driving an electric vehicle sooner or later. 
I think there are just a few small things in the way at the moment but nonetheless this is a good approach: to enable the exemption of electric motor vehicles from the requirement to pay road-user charges. I also wonder whether the National Government might take the opportunity when it is listening to submissions on this particular bill to think about diversifying even further in its transport portfolio. Could it consider using our rail network as part of the transport policy rather than seeing it as a competitor with roads and therefore something that cannot possibly be used? One of the arguments I have heard against having a passenger train service between Auckland and Hamilton is that National will not have that because it might compete with the concept of its precious Waikato Expressway. Another way of getting from Hamilton to Auckland might put the Waikato Expressway at risk. How ridiculous is that! 
Clearly people have different transport needs. Certainly I am a strong proponent of establishing that passenger train between Hamilton and Auckland because it is going to be a much safer way and a much more energy-efficient way for hundreds of people who commute daily between Hamilton and Auckland—that is between the largest city in our country and the fourth-largest city in our country. They are only 120 kilometres apart. We have a train track and the Government owns the trains now so I am not quite sure what the big objection is from National members for establishing a passenger train service between Hamilton and Auckland. Does the Government think that somehow it will undermine the use of roads? Does it think that is somehow going to get in the way of this bill? I certainly cannot see what the issue is but David Bennett is extremely opposed to establishing that passenger train service. 
The second objective of the bill before us is to provide 40 days’ notice of increases to the road-user charges to all diesel motor vehicle owners and to minimise potential revenue loss caused by pre-purchasing of the road-user charges by the trucking industry following notification of an increase. The bill provides that heavy vehicle road-user charges licences will expire 1 month after an increase comes in effect. I think this is a very sensible way through a very tricky issue. We all like to know in advance when our costs are going to increase to our businesses. We all want to have this knowledge so that we can take it into account when we are doing our forward planning with our finances. Removing the road-user charges for electric cars is a great idea and it reinforces all the work that Labour did in promoting electric vehicles. 
We know that electric cars are the beginning of a new era of energy independence and low emission transport but I hope that National is in no doubt whatsoever that it cannot claim any mana from any initiative to reduce carbon emissions by putting more electric cars on the roads when it continues to dither and dilly-dally over what it will do about the emissions trading scheme. I think until National actually gets its act together around that issue anything that it does in regard to this particular bill will absolutely look like tinkering around the edges. I hope that in the submissions coming forward people will support this bill. I think it has much to recommend it but I also hope that submitters will take the opportunity to talk about the broader issues concerned with emissions from vehicles. I hope they will take the opportunity to put forward pressure on this Government to look at the whole ambit to do something and to take leadership over the emissions trading scheme issue. In conclusion I recommend the first reading of the Road User Charges Amendment Bill to the House. I look forward to hearing the report back from the select committee on the submissions that it hears.