Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take a call on the second reading of this piece of legislation. This debate which is now being pushed through in urgency is a reminder of this Government's ad hoc way in which it is dealing with this issue. This piece of legislation has been dropped into Parliament and is being passed under urgency because of an announcement made on 1 February to of course extend the reduction in excise and road-user charges (RUCs) which of course is meant to expire on 31 January.And why did they decide to extend it? Because of course this Government has still got no plan on how it's going to deal with the cost of living crisis that New Zealand taxpayers and working families are facing. This is a Government which simply has one tool in the tool box and they just keep re-announcing it every three months. So this is meant to now expire on 30 June 2023 and mark my words there will be an announcement somewhere around 29 June—it might even be an announcement on 1 July—to say that they will be extending this only one more time. But of course the National Party will be supporting this piece of legislation because what it does is quite simple and is important and it does rely on the fact that it ensures that people who pay road-user charges—which are people who own diesel vehicles: our tradies our farmers our truckies—are able to also get the reduction in road-user taxes which those who drive petrol vehicles and who pay tax at the pump through petrol excise are already receiving. But of course there are a number of questions that we will be asking at the committee of the whole House because of course once again this bill has been rushed there is no select committee process and there's no ability to actually interrogate the bill substantially with officials and actually understand the implications it has on the funding system etc. It's been rushed through but there are a number of number of questions that need to be asked about the assessment process which need to be asked around what's going to happen to those road users who have been purchasing road-user charges in the last couple of weeks and had to because their previous amount ran out and they've had to purchase some more. Will they be able to get some of their money reimbursed? Of course when you have an ad hoc approach to policy you end up with some people having to go down and buy at the full rate. If you go down to buy your RUC today you have to pay the full rate. So will these people be able to get reimbursed for this fact? Some people might say Well they should have they should have just bought more in advance." Well some people may have and some people may not have. And the reality is though if you do have to go and buy a RUC today if you go and register a vehicle today and you have to put some kilometres on the clock because you have to pay in advance and if you went and bought a new diesel vehicle on 2 February you'd have to put a couple of thousand kilometres on straight away and so you'll be paying at the higher rate. How are those people going to be reimbursed? So there's a number of questions but at its core that is the fundamental point: it does create that fairness and that is why we're supporting it. However we have a number of questions certainly around why this bill creates a five-year blank slate for this to be effectively permanently extended. It's now no longer a temporary reduction but a permanent reduction. And those are more questions that we'll be asking the Minister at the next stage. But look I just want to echo a couple of points which have been raised during this debate and that is the fact that we do need to make sure we sustainably fund our transport funding in New Zealand and this Government has mismanaged the National Land Transport Fund it has failed to invest in our roading network it has failed to build the roads that we need and what we need is a National Land Transport Fund which is well-funded and which is able to meet the challenges that we as a country are facing.This Government's focused on one thing alone: light rail which ain't gone anywhere and is now not going to be started until 2025. They said it would be built by 2021; it won't be started until 2025. They are stripping billions out from the National Land Transport Fund for their pet projects when actually what New Zealanders want that fund to be used for is building and maintaining our roading network. And if you travel down the East Coast of New Zealand if you go across the Brynderwyns—well you can't go across the Brynderwyns; if you want to go across the Brynderwyns—if you want to go to the Coromandel if you want to use these roads well you can't because this Government has failed to invest in our highways. It has stripped the National Land Transport Fund of its primary purpose to build and maintain our roading network and to invest in the quality of our roads and it's focused on its pet transport projects which it has failed to deliver. So we'll support this bill but this Government has failed on transport in New Zealand."