McKelvie IanIAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): Goodness me! Thank you Mr Chair—something of a surprise! I just about had a heart attack getting up so it was lucky you did call me. It's a great pleasure to take a call on Part 2 of the Land Transport Management (Regional Fuel Tax) Amendment Bill. I have I suppose the privilege of actually proposing an amendment as well and that amendment would alter clause 10(5) inserting a new subclause 6). In fact after subclause (5) you'd insert a new subclause (6) which would add a new subsection and that subsection would say Any proposal for a regional fuel tax scheme under the provisions of subpart 3 of the Land Transport Management Act must incorporate to the best ability possible the contents of the infrastructure strategy." So that is a very constructive piece of alteration to the legislation and it would add to what I think the legislation should have contained in the first place which was a direct reference the regional land transport plans in each regional council area which would've actually been a very simple way of ensuring that the fuel tax adhered to the plans that those regions had.This is a crock this piece of legislation. It's almost like a death by a thousand cuts. It's like third time lucky in effect because this is the third time in my young memory that we've had a regional fuel tax introduced to Parliament. Of course for that to apply it really needs to apply to the amendment that I introduced to the committee a moment ago and if it doesn't then it makes it very difficult for regional councils to implement this type of legislation. It is in my view not at all practical and just recently we've seen the Rangitīkei District Council putting their hands up wishing to charge a regional fuel tax. Of course Rangitīkei District Council gets all their money from Wellington people going skiing on a Friday night and coming home on a Sunday night because that's where the regional fuel tax would come from as they travelled through the district to the mountain. Of course given Rangitīkei River runs right next to the boundary they would fill up in Sanson on their way up and Sanson on the way back and avoid paying the regional fuel tax which would be somewhat ironic Mr Chair—of course in your instance that contains your very own home.Earlier in the night my colleagues were talking about roads of national significance and the issues that the former Labour Minister Ken Shirley raised and it occurred to me that that great Labour Minister of transport Harry Duynhoven would have a fair bit to say about this piece of legislation as well especially given he comes from that great city in the west where they will no longer have fuel to fill up with anyway and that will be quite an interesting challenge for them.So I think that the planning around how we get to the point of a community understanding what the regional fuel tax is going to provide for that district or for that region is quite challenging. I think it's important that it is attached to the planning that's gone on in those regions where it's applicable and as I said earlier that's the Rangitīkei District Council wanting to impose a regional fuel tax. They're part of a seven-district regional council so it would be really interesting for a regional council to pull together a tax that deals with one small piece of that area so I think that's quite challenging in itself.So Mr Chair—or Madam Chair; it's changed—I think that this whole piece of legislation is going to be extremely difficult to administer equitably. We've seen very clearly in the past that it doesn't work and I don't know why we would try to insert or I guess come with a "third time lucky" proposition to reinsert a regional fuel tax again. There was reference made by the Minister only a minute ago to the way the last Government dealt with fuel tax and of course it is quite an important part of how we fund our road transport system. I think it's logical that it should be rationally applied across the country and then allocated on a regional basis where the Government thinks it's necessary. It would have been a much better way of doing it than this. This is hugely untidy and whilst I must stick to Part 2 I'd very much like to have got on to where the farmers are going to get to with their challenges with the diesel tax as it comes on in a very different form than it's ever come before and it's going to mean a huge administrative cost."