Moroney Sue: Road User Charges Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Moroney Sue: Road User Charges Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5482] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to finally rise and speak on the Road User Charges Amendment Bill albeit in the Committee stage of Part 1. It is interesting because it gives us the definition of a light electric motor vehicle. I have some questions to ask the Minister of Transport about this definition because it specifically says: “light electric motor vehiclemeans a motor vehicle whose motive”—Colin King was probably quite right to talk before about motivation—“power is wholly or partly derived from an external source of electricity and whose gross laden weight is 3.5 tonnes or less”. My question is what vehicles does this exclude? Which vehicles over 3.5 tonnes does the Government not wish to see involved in this particular legislation? Certainly I imagine that it means the Government as we know is not committed to electric trains because they will be more than 3.5 tonnes. There obviously is a big question mark. The Minister is not sure but I think they will weigh more than 3.5 tonnes. There is a big question mark over this Government’s commitment to electric trains or in fact trains at all but I will come back to that point.  
We are talking about the definition of what is in and what is out. The definition excludes particular vehicles and I would like some clarity from the Minister about those vehicles that the Government is moving to exclude by limiting the weight to 3.5 tonnes or less. I imagine that it will exclude the juggernauts that the Government seems to want to fast track and let loose on our roads the same juggernauts that many local government authorities up and down the country are submitting on and opposing because they know that our roads are not equipped built or designed to carry those sorts of weights. I imagine that the juggernauts will be excluded from the 3.5 tonnes or less definition and that those juggernauts will be discharging this dreadful diesel that David Bennett keeps mentioning when he talks about this bill and which apparently the National Government is using as an excuse to go around opposing the proposal for a passenger train from Hamilton to Auckland. Apparently the Government is opposing it on the grounds that it will use diesel. I ask the Minister what on earth the juggernaut trucks will be using. Perhaps they will use diesel. I wonder if the Government is prepared to fast track this proposal for juggernaut trucks to actually start using that dirty diesel that David Bennett is so concerned about why the National Government is so vehemently opposed to the rail passenger transport proposal for Hamilton. It is clearly not about the use of diesel so I want to know what the real reason is.  
I turn back to the bill. When I look at what this definition means I think about it from a local perspective. I understand that the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee went through a very truncated process and I am concerned about that. I have yet to hear any justification from the Government benches as to why this very important legislation was given only 1 hour’s deliberation by the select committee. I am still waiting to hear the justification for that. If the Government had allowed the select committee to delve into this bill more deeply then perhaps it would have thought about what 300 electric vehicles on our roads in the next 5 years might mean. Is this a big move forward or a small move forward? Generally when we look at things from the Waikato’s perspective roughly 10 percent of any initiative can be accounted for in the Waikato. That means that for the entire Waikato region under this interpretation of the definition of a light electric vehicle we are talking about an exemption that might apply for 30 cars. 
David Bennett 
: Excellent! 
SUE MORONEY 
: David Bennett is extremely excited that in 5 years’ time 30 families in the Waikato might benefit from this. I ask that member to reflect on what type of family those are likely to be.