Beaumont Carol: Road User Charges Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Beaumont Carol: Road User Charges Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:655;Page:4900] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to give Labour’s support to the Road User Charges Amendment Bill to go through to the select committee. The aim of the bill as others have mentioned is to amend the Road User Charges Act 1977 to enable regulations to be made to exempt light electric motor vehicles from road-user charges to provide 42 days’ notice of road-user charge increases and to provide for the expiration of heavy vehicle road-user charge licences 1 month after an increase comes into effect. 
The reason for those changes first of all is to encourage the uptake of light electric motor vehicles which are expected to improve the efficiency of the motor vehicle fleet decrease reliance on imported fossil fuels improve energy security and reduce vehicle emissions affecting air quality and greenhouse gas levels. Secondly the changes are to provide that heavy vehicle road-user charge licences will expire 1 month after an increase comes into effect in order to minimise potential loss of revenue caused by pre-purchasing of road-user charges by the heavy vehicle motor industry following the notification of a road-user charge increase. 
First of all in relation to electric cars it seems that we would all have to agree that this is a great idea. This is an important idea and one that reflects and reinforces the work that Labour did in promoting electric vehicles. Secondly this new electric vehicle technology can improve the efficiency of our vehicle fleet. Such vehicles are certainly very expensive but they are much cheaper to operate per kilometre than conventional motor vehicles. However because availability is currently low the purchase price is at least double that of a conventional vehicle and manufacturers do not rate New Zealand as a priority market the take-up rates are understandably low. It is the role of the Government to encourage the uptake of new technology by removing barriers as is the case with this bill. One barrier is the road-user charge. As Mr Auchinvole mentioned this view was reinforced by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority’s market research in 2008. A majority of respondents stated that having to pay road-user charges would affect their decision to purchase a light electric motor vehicle. 
Road-user charges fund road use and they are required for all motor vehicles not eligible for an exemption. A light electric motor vehicle is not exempted under section 4 of the Act so would therefore be required to pay a road-user charge. For a light electric motor vehicle weighing 3.5 tonnes or less the road-user charge could cost $36.07 per 1000 kilometres. That would cost the owner of a light electric motor vehicle approximately $432 per annum based on an average travelling distance of 12000 per year. Of course the upfront capital cost of an early electric motor vehicle would be very significant. In comparison the road-user charge would appear to be quite a minor influence. None the less the negative perception about road-user charges particularly from owners of petrol motor vehicles who have not previously paid the charges would make it a barrier to the uptake of electric motor vehicle technology. So the preferred option being promoted by this bill is to exempt light electric motor vehicles from paying road-user charges until 2013. The exemption would last 4 years from 1 October this year to 1 July 2013; we would probably see about 300 light electric motor vehicles in the fleet by the end of that period. The expected loss of revenue from that exemption will be about $88000. 
I want to talk about the view of the Labour Party in relation to electric cars and other vehicles because our ambition which we stated very clearly in our manifesto was to be among the leading countries to widely deploy— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: How? 
CAROL BEAUMONT 
: Yes “our”—the Labour Party manifesto. Our ambition was to be among the leading countries to widely deploy electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids to mark the beginning of a new era of energy independence and low emissions in transport. The preparation for a large-scale roll-out of electric vehicles included establishing a vehicle emissions reduction group focusing on electric vehicles. We expected to see—and I think this expectation is probably still right—vehicles starting to arrive and being used in New Zealand between 2010 and 2015. The numbers would grow slowly at the start but the volumes would increase as the supply increased and the cost decreased. 
Labour also in our manifesto talked about building clean green electricity generation to develop partnerships with electric vehicle manufacturers. There is certainly a role for the Government in establishing an environment that facilitates the uptake of electric motor vehicles. We had a plan for the introduction of nationwide infrastructure to recharge electric vehicles. Clearly there are a number of issues about the public infrastructure required for people to charge their vehicle during a journey. This sort of technology is likely to be expensive especially for the high voltage facilities that allow shorter charging times. Obviously work is going on in a number of other jurisdictions that are ahead of us on this and we could clearly learn from that work. 
As others have mentioned it is a shame that the process around this bill will mean that the select committee will not get an opportunity to really analyse some of these points in any sort of detail. From the speeches given in the House today I think that we can see there is a fair degree of interest in electric motor vehicles. 
I repeat my point by saying Labour is supporting this temporary exemption from road-user charges for light electric motor vehicles because we had initiated a whole raft of strategies to combat climate change and this is an area that could assist in that process. I also make the point that at that time National politicians such as Nick Smith were still in denial over climate change. A lot of groundwork was done by Labour to activate a strategy that would increase the size of the electric car fleet. I think it is quite interesting if the National Government thinks that it can claim any mana from any initiative to reduce carbon emissions given its response in that area. I ask members to look at things like the emissions trading scheme the future of which is still uncertain. The legislation is still before the special select committee the Emissions Trading Scheme Review Committee and there is no clear plan to outline how the emissions trading scheme legislation will be amended. Labour has offered to have some talks with the Government about a bipartisan approach in this area because it is very important. This is a matter for the survival of our planet. We will be approaching and have been approaching this task in good faith. We want to see a system that will be durable and in the best interests not only of New Zealand industry but also of our environment. 
It is important that we do not look at electric vehicles as the only solution. Electric vehicles might provide a nice photo opportunity but given the size of the fleet—and we have all talked about the fact that potentially we are looking at something like 500 electric motor vehicles on our roads in the next 5 years—this exemption by itself is not going to be the solution to climate change. I was recently in the UK as part of a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association trip and we were lucky enough to have a briefing while we were there by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. One of the important things was that the department has a comprehensive plan in place around climate change and ambitious goals. In fact the department is seeking to have an 80 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and it has a comprehensive range of mechanisms on how it will do that. Clearly the situation for the UK is very different from ours. It is in a situation where methane is not particularly an issue but carbon dioxide is a much greater issue. But the country has a plan. We are well behind the eight ball on this. It made me feel particularly concerned to think that we had a number of initiatives in place but here we are with the emissions trading legislation still before a select committee and with no real plans in place while other countries are powering ahead. 
In conclusion I take this opportunity to say that this is a critically important matter for us. Thank you.