McCallum GrantGRANT McCALLUM (National—Northland): Thank you Madam Speaker. Well we are here to debate the final reading of the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill. Unlike the previous speaker Scott Willis I think I have worked that much out.Right I think I'll start off by firstly giving a little bit of history to the electric vehicle (EV) situation in New Zealand. Under that great former Minister of Transport the Hon Steven Joyce in 2009 we brought in the—Hon Dr Duncan Webb: Jobs for your mates!DEPUTY SPEAKER: 2009 was the reference.GRANT McCALLUM: That's correct; did you hear that? We brought in the encouragement for people to purchase EVs by exempting them from having to pay road-user charges (RUC) which has been a great thing. But we also said at the time when it gets to about 2 percent—when the number in the fleet gets to about 2 percent—we would then bring them into the system so they could help pay their way right?Tom Rutherford: It's only fair.GRANT McCALLUM: Yes well said. And this is all about the fairness so that everyone is seen to be contributing to the roads using the roads of New Zealand.And actually why is that important? I'll tell you why that's important: because we need to fix our roads and we need everyone to contribute to that everybody who's using it to contribute to that so that we can fix the Brynderwyns which have now been struggling for the last while—which are open. By the way have I mentioned already that you can actually go there this Easter on holiday? But that's what you require the money for right? That is why we are doing this: so that everyone pays their fair share for the roads OK? It's really really important because it's all part of that so we can help fund the roads of national significance which are a great idea so that we can actually create productivity and jobs in this country. We can create business opportunities particularly in the Far North where we need to be able to create jobs.Hon Willow-Jean Prime: Is this about the RUCs?GRANT McCALLUM: Yes it is. It's about creating opportunities—it about creating opportunities so that we can pay for the roads—pay for the roads.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yeah Mr McCallum is about to explain how the RUCs will fix the roads in Northland.GRANT McCALLUM: That's exactly right. Well said Madam Speaker. That is well said. Well moving on it's very important that we fix those roads so we unlock potential around the country. But it has to be paid for right?We worked through this very carefully as a select committee listened carefully to the submissions and we came to the conclusion that we had to make some changes after the last Government delayed and delayed and didn't act on this bill—the challenges that were faced through the road-user charges that were going to be coming automatically on 1 April this year. We had to act quickly. We've been challenged about this—saying it was acting too quickly. We had no choice unless we were going to leave the electric vehicle fleet having to pay the full RUC of $76 per 1000 kilometres which would have been unfair for the whole lot of them. So we went through the system and particularly the plug-in hybrids and we reached the point which the previous Government had set at 20 percent; we took it to 30 percent. After consultation we went to 50 percent. And that's where it sits. So we've reached that situation.But ultimately for it to become completely fair we need to have everybody paying road-user charges because that is how it will be a fair system and that will take time. We've got a transition period set in for that so we can actually work that through so that ultimately if you use the roads the amount of road-user charges you pay will be based on the distance you travel and the weight of the vehicle not on what powers your vehicle. That will be a fairer system for everybody and I'm sure that New Zealanders will really appreciate that. So we've got to be able to do that moving forward. And as we worked through this as a select committee we heard some great submissions and ironically virtually everybody said Yes we have to all pay our fair share." We had some debate about the fair share but the Government is focused and that's why it is so important that we move through the transition as quickly as possible so that we get to the overall RUC situation.And I'd finally like to say that this is a good bill a good compromise. I thank the support from the members of the Opposition from the Labour Party on their bill for their work in the select committee. It's just a shame that the member for the Green Party has left because I would have liked to have pointed out to her—DEPUTY SPEAKER: We can't talk about members not being in the House.GRANT McCALLUM: Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm sorry. But anyway we have had good support generally across the House so I thank them for that and I commend this bill to the House. Thank you."