Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Well thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take a call on the third reading of the Road User Charges (Temporary RUC Reduction Scheme) Amendment Bill (No 2) and of course it's No 2" because this is the second time this Government's come to the Parliament to extend a policy they've announced four or five times. And it's the only policy that this Government's ever had to address the cost of living. The cost of living crisis is not something that is new as you might have thought from this Prime Minister Chris Hipkins who's suddenly found this focus on the bread and butter issues when for the last 12 months—well more than 12 months—New Zealanders have been suffering under a cost of living crisis with incomes rising slower than inflation with costs going up all around them interest rates continuing to rise the Reserve Bank once again putting up the official cash rate. This is causing pain for New Zealanders but all this Government's got is "Oh what we'll do is we'll reduce petrol taxes and we'll reduce temporarily road-user charges". And as my colleague Chris Penk said in his speech it seems a bit disingenuous actually using the word "temporary" in this legislation because it's the fifth time they've actually extended it. So when does something end up not being temporary? But we will support this piece of legislation because it does provide some relief for working families for people who are facing that tsunami of cost of living crises that they are facing on a daily basis; the bills that they're having to pay of which one of them is of course the price of fuel which has become incredibly expensive. But we do call out this Government and we do say "Well actually where is the plan to deal with the cost of living?" Where is the plan to deal with the underlying causes of inflation other than just simply putting in place this policy? Where's the plan to give working New Zealanders some of the money that they earn back into their own pockets? This is a Government which is taxing New Zealanders at record levels pushing people into higher and higher tax brackets despite their real income going backwards. That is theft. That is daylight robbery from this Government. Where's the plan to get wasted spending under control? Where's the plan to actually stop the wastage which we're seeing under this Government? Where's the plan to stop the burdensome regulations on businesses? Because that is what businesses are crying out for a plan to actually relieve them of the increased regulation that they're constantly facing. And what this Government did to the Reserve Bank is give them a dual mandate rather than have a single mandate which is what they should have focused so they can actually properly deal with the cost of living. So Madam Speaker—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! I ask the member to come back to this bill.SIMEON BROWN: The Minister said in his speech when he criticised the plan that National has released around providing tax relief for hard-working New Zealanders but what he didn't talk about was the fact that he's giving millions of dollars to Tesla owners. Millions of dollars to millionaires to buy Teslas. Absolutely ridiculous policy from the Government once again taking from those who don't have choices and giving it to people who do already. That's the Government's solution to the cost of living crisis is this bill and then giving millions to Tesla owners. It's madness. It's absolute madness that this Government thinks that giving millions to Tesla owners is the way to fix the cost of living crisis. But I guess you can add that to the list for the other side of the House's achievements.So we have supported this piece of legislation because it does an important thing. It aligns the fact that people who go with their petrol vehicles to the pump today and fill them up are getting the reduction in their fuel excise duty. They're getting that today. But if you've got a diesel vehicle or if you're a truckie or a farmer who does the hard work getting our goods to market growing our food and doing those things and if you go down to buy your road-user charges you're having to pay the full rate. And that's because of one thing: this Government thought this—well they said this policy was going to finish at the end of January. And then lo and behold on 1 February they woke up and thought "Well actually we need to think about the bread and butter issues. We need to think about the bread and butter issues so we'd better"— Barbara Kuriger: What about the vegetables?SIMEON BROWN: Well I know as my colleague Barbara Kuriger has said what about the vegetables as well? Vegetables are up—what is it? Fresh fruit and vegetables up 22 percent in the last 12 months and the point there is all those farmers with their tractors they of course don't benefit at all. That is why we actually need a plan. We actually need a plan to deal with the underlying causes of inflation and this is a band-aid solution which yes provides some relief but doesn't deal with the underlying causes of inflation that we're seeing in New Zealand. So yes this bill does mean that those people with diesel vehicles now get the benefit of this policy as well. It would be absolutely wrong if that was to be only given to petrol vehicles and not to our truckies our farmers our tradies those who drive diesel vehicles the benefit of this policy has to go to them as well. But at the same time we do hold reservations about how this Government has inserted clause 6 which is now effectively to give themselves a five-year extension to be able to continue to extend this policy and mark my words this policy will be re-announced by this Government. Hopefully they announce it before 30 June but my guess is it'll be announced on 1 July when they wake up and remember "Actually we should focus on the bread and butter issues again" because that's what they do. They wait for the policy to expire and then they wake up and go "Oh darn we need to focus on the bread and butter issues again we better extend that temporary road-user charge". And mark my words there will not be a cost of living package plan from this Government in this Budget. There will be more taxes. There'll be more taxes on hard-working Kiwis because all this Government knows what to do is to tax and to waste and to spend and they don't know how to deliver and they certainly don't know how to make sure the economy is working for New Zealanders. So we'll support this piece of legislation but what New Zealanders need is a plan which helps ensure that they are in charge of their lives that they are back in the driver's seat of their own lives not having a Government which does not have a plan which does not have a direction for this country and all they have is band-aid solutions without actually getting to the underlying issues."