Bennett David: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Bennett David: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:17217] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 This is the final reading of the Land Transport Management Amendment Bill. It is a pleasure to take a call when I think about what will happen tomorrow morning: there will be trucks up and down this country blocking the roads in protest at this Government. Trucks in Hamilton Auckland Wellington Christchurch and Invercargill will be blocking the roads showing the dissatisfaction there is amongst the public at what this Government has done to the economy. This is not just about petrol taxes and the price of fuel; this is mismanagement by a Government. This is mismanagement of the New Zealand economy. It is the purchase of a rail system which is seen as some kind of universal panacea but it will not deliver the answers in road transport it will not deliver the answers in passenger transport and it will not be the answer for New Zealand. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Why not? What’s your policy? 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Because there are things going on in the transport industry. If we look at what is happening around the world we will see that it is probably a balance between what we have heard from the last two speakers—from the Greens and the ACT party. There will be technological advances. There will be electric cars before we know it and those cars will run on roads. There is a huge investment in the infrastructure of roads going on around the world. The new technology will be invested in things that travel on those roads. In 10 to 20 years’ time we may even be building roads for the cleanest greenest form of transport which may be cars that are not powered by fossil fuels. That may be the answer in 10 to 20 years’ time. The answer may not be in public transport; the answer may be in roads. 
There may be a role for public transport in the sense of trains as well. It may be part of that equation. But it certainly is not part of the equation that the New Zealand Government has to buy that part of the equation. We had a very sophisticated and efficient system going and this Government has come in and spent billions of taxpayers’ dollars on a system that it will turn just to rack and ruin. 
New Zealanders will get up tomorrow and find they cannot get to work on time; they will find that there are major traffic jams around the country because the public has had enough of this Government. It is their way of saying that they do not want any more silly ideas from the Labour Government; they want practical decisions and government on the economics that will build this country strong. That is the message members will get tomorrow. That is the message that will be on the streets of Hamilton tomorrow morning. People will be saying they have had enough of this Government and they want better management and economic management that will deliver for all New Zealanders. That is what they will get at the election at the end of the year. 
When we look at this legislation we see that it encompasses the regional petrol tax. If this was such a visionary thing for the Labour Government to include in its legislation why does the Prime Minister go out and say that there will be no implementation of this regional petrol tax? Why has the Prime Minister gone out and said that over her dead body will she implement a regional petrol tax next year? The reason is political expediency. She knows she cannot go into an election campaign putting another tax on New Zealanders especially on top of high fuel prices. That is the reason why the Labour Party will not enforce that tax next year. It will pass the legislation today that gives it the right to put another tax on New Zealanders but it says it will not implement it next year. Well we do not believe the Labour Party. We have seen Labour’s policy in this area in the past where it says one thing and does another. This will be another case. 
I bet that next year the Government would put regional petrol taxes on as quickly as it could. It would whack the motorists of Auckland with 10c next year even though the Prime Minister has said she would not because the Government does not care about its word. Its word does not mean anything and it will do whatever it wants next year and the punters know that. They know they cannot trust these guys and they will not because is the Government going to pass legislation that gives it the ability to put a tax on and then not put a tax on? Get in the real world. These guys would put a tax on. They are just waiting until after the election to do it. New Zealanders out there need to understand that they cannot trust Labour on taxes. Labour has shown that in the past. Labour said it was going to give reductions on taxes and it did not. The Government is going to put a tax on New Zealanders next year; a tax which it said it would not put on them now. That is the reality of this Government and we know that is the case. 
Another big part of the regional petrol tax was the 5c-5c split. That was the ability for regions to have their say. The regions came into the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee one after another saying: “We want to have discretion. We want to be able to build our roads in our area if we want to. We want to be able to put money into public transport if we want to. Give us that discretion.” What is so hard about Government giving the regions discretion? Is that not what we are here for to do what the people want? The people came and asked for discretion but the Labour Government said: “No. We won’t give discretion. We won’t give the people what they want. We will give them what we think is right what we think is the best thing for New Zealand what we think is the answer in this case.” That is classic Labour Party mentality. It knows best and the people the public and the regions do not count. They are just a tax-and-grab incentive for this Labour Government and the regions are distraught at that. 
The small parties that came into this House had the ability to change that. I hear members such as those from United Future talk about reasonableness and how we need to have a balance between public and private transport and passenger and roading transport mechanisms but they did not want to give the regions that discretion. When it came to the crunch parties like that were not willing to give the discretion to the regions. They were not willing to go out there and do what the people wanted. So they can talk about reasonableness until the cows come home but when it came to the crunch they were not there for the regions just like the Government of the day. That is something that the regions will not forget. 
The regions of New Zealand will look upon this Government and see that they have been told that they have to have a certain split in their spending when they wanted to have the justification and the discretion to do it themselves. It is a sad indictment on this Parliament and this Government if the regional voice of New Zealand is not accommodated in this Parliament. 
When we look at road transport one of the big issues is planning—long-term planning. People need some certainty that there will be projects going into the future. They need that certainty so that they can have the capacity to deliver on those projects. This bill goes some way in dealing with that planning capacity and that is a good step. However much more is needed. 
When we look at the history behind this bill and why it was set up it was in reaction to the need to finance public transport in Auckland. The Prime Minister the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Finance said in the Budget that they were going to have the electrification of Auckland rail. Then they had to work out how they would pay for it. They had no mechanism to pay for it so they decided to have a regional petrol tax instead. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: It’s a bit like they were going to have a stadium. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: As Maurice Williamson said they will have these things but they will not actually fund them. Now that they have to work out how they will fund it they have decided to put another tax on New Zealanders. They will put another tax on hard-working New Zealanders to pay for the promises they made in a Budget. That is the history behind this legislation. 
The other history behind this legislation is the total mess in relation to the value for money that people were getting out of the transport sector. There was report after report showing no value for money in transport construction and maintenance. We had the Ministerial Advisory Group on Roading Costs and the Next Steps review. Those reports showed that there was no value for money in the transport sector and that major improvement was needed. This legislation is a half-stop measure that came in within a very short period of time in response to those things. This legislation has not been fully considered; it is just something the Government wanted to rush through before the election to say that it has dealt with that value-for-money issue. 
The Government of the day should have been much more reflective. It should have taken a more conciliatory approach that looked at the options rather than just ramming through one option it thought it could get through in a bill before the election. The true test of a Government that wants to do its best for New Zealand is not only identifying a problem but also working for the right solution. This measure is just the solution on the table that was the easiest and I say shame on the Labour Government for doing that because it has not taken the regions into account. It has not done the hard work needed to get the right solution for New Zealand. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker.