Williams Andrew: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10314. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): I take a call on behalf of New Zealand First on the Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill. In so doing I send greetings to people around New Zealand. In particular I send greetings to the people of Dipton where Bill English’s holiday home is located. I send greetings to you in the knowledge that on 1 July in Dipton you will be paying another 3c a litre to pay for the roads of national significance—most of which are north of Taupō. I send greetings to the people of Bluff to the people of Hokitika to the people of Nelson. I send greetings to the people of Waipukurau my old home town and to the people of Gisborne who do not have a rail connection any more. I send greetings to the people of the East Coast who no longer have a rail connection.I also particularly send greetings to the people of Pipiwai up in Northland who have experienced dust problems on their local roads. The people of Pipiwai have suffered incredible dust problems up there because this Government sees more importance in its select few roads of national significance. It sees more importance in its select few roads of national significance than in the people of Pipiwai who have to put up with dust day in day out year in year out because this Government has cut the subsidies to rural regional New Zealand. Rural regional New Zealand is the area that is suffering from this Government. I am the spokesman for local government for New Zealand First. We are hearing constantly from local authorities and from people around New Zealand that their local roads their local rural roads their local regional roads are going backwards because this Government is putting all the focus on its select few roads of national significance.I would like to draw everyone’s attention to the statement made by Gerry Brownlee in his press statement on 18 December 2012 when it was first announced that these 3c per litre excise tax increases would be starting as of 1 July this year with another 3c increase on 1 July 2014 and another 3c increase on 1 July 2015. Gerry Brownlee Minister of Transport said: “The series of July increases will also ready the [National Land Transport] Fund for investment in upper North Island transport projects beyond the RoNS programme.” So Mr Brownlee stated in December that these increases starting this coming month are basically to provide for the investment in the upper North Island transport projects beyond the roads of national significance.Again I say to the people of Dipton to the people of Bluff to the people of Hokitika to the people of Nelson to the people of Waipukurau and to the people up in Pipiwai that I hope that they are happy that in a month’s time when their fuel goes up by 3c a litre they will be paying for the benefit of a select area of New Zealand the upper North Island while the rest of New Zealand basically suffers. That is not good enough. That is not good enough. We all live in one country. We are all New Zealanders. We all deserve to have a fair share of what is available and we all deserve to be treated fairly. What this Government is doing is selecting specific areas where it sees the most votes where it sees the most opportunities and where it sees the best return for itself.Why is it that we are having to have these 3c increases this year next year and the year after? Well partly it is because a couple of years ago this same Government slashed nearly $2 billion off the income taxes of the top 10 percent of earners in this country. The top 10 percent of earners in this country received significant income tax cuts. Mr John Key himself got $1000 extra back as a result of the tax cuts. The big tall Scotsman who was running Telecom Paul Reynolds who was on many millions of dollars per year received $5000 a week of tax cuts—$5000 a week of tax cuts—from those tax cuts that National put through a couple of years ago.So all the high rollers all the wealthy people have all seen some very significant improvements in their own personal wealth—including all the Ministers on a quarter of a million dollars a year—with a significant reduction in their tax. Meanwhile everyday good honest hard-working New Zealanders are going to be asked to spend as of 1 July this year another 3c a litre to fill up their tanks as of next year another 3c and the year after another 3c. So basically while the likes of the Hon John Banks cruises around in his Bentley in Auckland while the Ministers cruise around in their big Crown BMW 7 Series and take their tax cuts and while Mr Key is taking his $1000 a week good New Zealanders will be paying for the pleasure of that.It is very interesting that the current excise tax on fuel according to the Automobile Association is 61.129c per litre of fuel—that is the amount of tax: 61.129c on every litre of fuel. The Government is already getting a pretty jolly good share. When you are paying say $2.10 a litre you take off 61c. You already know that 61c of that is going to the Government. It is getting a fair amount of money and now it is going to add another 9c a litre—by the end of another 3 years another 9c a litre. It is incredible.Is it not interesting that it has to do this to help balance its Budget to help try to find some sort of margin-of-error surplus in 2014-15 which is going to be only in the order of something around $100 million? Imagine if the Government did not have this—and it says it is going to get an extra $90 million a year from these 3c increases to start with. Basically it would be in the red. It would be in the red. So basically you have to be a little bit sceptical and say: “Well did they do their budgets? Did they do all their figuring? Did they do all their sums? Did they work out all the various things?”. Then you would go: “My goodness! We’re going to be in the red if we don’t find some more money.” The Government said: “Where do we find some more money from the good average everyday hard-working New Zealanders? Ah! Let’s get it from their pockets. Let’s put it through the petrol bowser. Let’s take another 9c a litre by 2015-16 and let’s try to balance the books with some more money out of petrol.”This is a very disappointing thing for the average New Zealander. Average New Zealanders are being stung at the moment with higher electricity prices and they will see even higher electricity prices as a result of the sale of Mighty River Power. When Meridian Energy is put on the block and is sold off average New Zealanders are going to be paying more for their everyday vital necessities of life. They are paying far more in Auckland for their water as a result of this Government creating a super-city. New Zealanders are paying far more for their electricity and they are going to be paying far more for their petrol. Basically this is a miserable Budget which once again the good average everyday New Zealander suffers from.But meanwhile the fat cats—and we saw the Rt Hon Winston Peters here the other day with the mouse. The mouse might come out again this afternoon if this keeps going—it might come out again. The Rt Hon Winston Peters said the poor average New Zealander is on the treadmill trying to make things better but every time he goes forward the treadmill keeps coming back at him. He cannot ever make any progress because under this Government the good average New Zealander continues to have his everyday wage taken away from him. This latest fuel tax is just the latest poor poor effort by this Government to try to balance the books. New Zealand First will not be supporting this.