Brown SimeonLAND TRANSPORT (CLEAN VEHICLE STANDARD) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Transport): I present a legislative statement on the Land Transport (Clean Vehicle Standard) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon SIMEON BROWN: I move That the Land Transport (Clean Vehicle Standard) Amendment Bill be now read a first time.This bill does two things. Firstly in relation to the clean vehicle standard it enables the targets for the standard to be changed by secondary legislation rather than an amendment for them to be fixed in primary legislation. Secondly it ensures that the standard operates on a user-pays model to minimise cost to taxpayers.This Government is supportive of the clean vehicle standard to ensure that New Zealand has an affordable mix of clean vehicles. By encouraging suppliers to import vehicles with better fuel-saving technologies it helps to reduce our emissions but also it helps to provide that mix of vehicles to the New Zealand market. Our Government is committed to this but we're also committed to ensuring that we continue to provide the affordable supply and the range of vehicles that New Zealanders need into the market.So this piece of legislation does those two things. Firstly it allows for the standard to be amended via regulation and it also ensures that there is a user-pays approach to paying for the use of the standard. Effectively the purpose of the standard—and the vast majority of countries have fuel economy standards of some description—is to ensure that countries and markets are able to get a fleet of vehicles into that market which meet those lower-emission profiles over time.The problem though with the last Government is that of course they got up on their high horse and decided to set not only a standard which would become more stringent than some of the major manufacturing countries globally but they also chucked the ute tax on top—they also chucked the ute tax on top. So of course we've already got rid of the ute tax at the end of last year. But in terms of the standard they decided that even though we're a country of only 5 million people—and the last time I checked New Zealand doesn't manufacture cars—Dan Bidois: Oh actually Beach Haven does.Hon SIMEON BROWN: No no—well we might we might. There might be the niche car—Dan Bidois: Fraser Cars.Hon SIMEON BROWN: There might be the niche car here or there.Tom Rutherford: They've only got one wheel.Hon SIMEON BROWN: OK They've only got one wheel." says Mr Rutherford. But the point is that we're a car taker not a car maker. So we need to make sure when we're setting policies as a country that we actually recognise that rather than setting a standard which says to the rest of the world "We want you to manufacture cars to our standard." Now I'm sorry but the major car manufacturers are not necessarily going to do that for little old New Zealand as much as we'd like. So this legislation enables the review of the standard which the legislation requires the Government to have started by June 2024 to be able to then make any changes which may flow from that review.So I instructed the Ministry of Transport to begin that review earlier this year. They have been engaging with the sector in relation to how we can ensure that New Zealand has the availability the affordability and the mix of vehicles that New Zealanders need but also to ensure that it is cost-effective for New Zealand. Some of the advice that I've been seeing and receiving is that if we were to maintain the current trajectory we could be increasing the cost of importing vehicles on average by thousands of dollars per vehicle. So this is an issue that we need to grapple with.So this legislation quite simply allows for any changes which flow from that review which is currently under way to then be implemented via regulation rather than for that to be set in primary legislation which I note the previous Government I believe was advised not to set it in primary legislation when they actually put the legislation in place in the first place.The second thing this bill does is it ensures that there is appropriate cost recovery for the administration of the lean ehicle tandard. So the last Government of course set the standard up and the deal at the time was that whilst the industry didn't necessarily like where the standard was set and some of the targets which were not going to be achievable the Government paid—well through the taxpayer; the taxpayer ultimately paid—$11.8 million towards administering the standard on a per year basis. Well firstly I asked the officials "How much did it actually cost to run it?" Well I found out that it only actually cost $6.4 million to run it. So the taxpayer was being taken for a ride in the first place.Hon Member: Saved $6 million already well done.Hon SIMEON BROWN: So we saved $5 million already.But secondly actually we have decided in this bill to take a user-pays approach so that as people import those vehicles they'll pay for it rather than the taxpayer.Hon Willie Jackson: Oh user-pays oh! Well what a surprise!Hon SIMEON BROWN: Well I hear Willie Jackson on the other side complaining about user-pays. Well I guess the question the Opposition has got to ask is: are they prepared to increase taxes on working families to pay for the operation of the standard? Is that what the Opposition are going to do? Because I tell you what: whatever moves they'll tax it—whatever they see they'll tax it. They wake up in the morning and all they can think about is what's the next thing they can tax. That's how the Opposition think.So this puts in place—Hon Dr Megan Woods: You know you're a Minister now and this is actually an important part of statutory interpretation.Hon SIMEON BROWN: —a user-pays principle and it's about ensuring that—we have legislative statements now as well which are very important instruments. I acknowledge the process in which those were brought into the House. But what I would just say is that when the Opposition opposes user-pays what they mean is actually they're going to increase taxes on hard-working New Zealanders. Well we stand on this side of the House with a far better and more principled approach to these things.So that is effectively what the bill does. It's a very narrow piece of legislation. There are two simple parts to it. I commend it to the House."