Genter Julie Anne: Land Transport and Road User Charges Legislation Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGenter Julie Anne: Land Transport and Road User Charges Legislation Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:13041. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): I rise to speak on behalf of the Green Party on the Land Transport and Road User Charges Legislation Amendment Bill. The Green Party sees no reason to oppose the bill at this time. It is pretty minor. I am looking at the regulatory impact statement now. One of the two key proposals in this bill which has already been explained by other members in the House tonight is to exempt fast tractors from road-user charges and subject them to an annual charge instead. The other major proposal in this bill is to exempt all unregistered vehicles from road-user charges—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! [Interruption] Order! I am sorry. I would actually like to hear what the member is saying.JULIE ANNE GENTER: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. As I was saying the other major proposal in this bill is to exempt all unregistered vehicles from road-user charges and instead apply an annual charge. There are six other proposals which are supposedly going to improve the functioning of the road-user charges system. They are minor in nature and impact and there is very limited information available so it was difficult for the officials to provide a very thorough analysis in the regulatory impact statement.I think it is worth saying that although the Green Party has no reason to oppose this bill it is a bit of a missed opportunity to get much better outcomes from the entire road-user charges system. It is my understanding that there are highly highly efficient light diesel vehicles which are currently probably paying far more than their fair share with the changes that were introduced by this Government to the road-user charges system and really the entire vehicle licensing registration road-user charges and petrol tax systems—all of these systems that we have for raising revenue—are also an opportunity to use economic instruments to clean up our fleet and to get more efficient and safer vehicles on the road. That opportunity has been missed.So here we are after 11 p.m. on a Wednesday night debating this minor change which is primarily going to benefit a few farmers. That is fine—I mean they do not use the road so much with their fast tractors. I suppose that it is entirely fair but it does say something about the priorities of this Government that it is not taking the opportunity with the transport portfolio to reduce the transport costs and the burden on households and businesses in New Zealand which is probably a major drag on our economic development at this point in time.It has been about 6 or 7 years since we have seen any increase in vehicle kilometres travelled on our roads so households and businesses are not travelling as much—well they are not travelling more even though there are more people; the population has increased—and that is because oil prices have been high. That has impacted on economic development. So here is an opportunity to reduce the burden of transport costs and that is going to get more economically efficient outcomes for the country. Yet the National Government is apparently completely unaware of the fact that New Zealanders are having to spend three or four times more than the Government just to use the infrastructure that is being provided by their tax money.I think it is important to explain this. I am not sure that everyone in the House is aware of this. Of course road-user charges contribute to the National Land Transport Fund as do petrol taxes. Petrol taxes by the way have increased significantly in the past 5 years. Their contribution to the National Land Transport Fund has increased 92 percent since 2007-08. The light road-user charges’ contribution to the National Land Transport Fund has increased 37 percent so by much less. The heavy road-user charges’ contribution to the National Land Transport Fund increased by only 20 percent.So the changes that the National Government introduced to the road-user charges system did not result in a commensurate increase in the amount that truck drivers and heavy vehicle commercial users were paying for the roads compared with your average Kiwi family. Kiwi families are having to pay much more and yet the infrastructure being provided by the Government—75 percent of the budget for new infrastructure—is going on just a few State highways that primarily benefit freight and actually accommodate only about 4 percent of daily vehicle trips. Surely that is not a logical allocation of resources and it is certainly not the best way to get better economic outcomes from our transport investment.As I was saying before the National Land Transport Fund—which is now contributed to much more by petrol taxes paid by average Kiwi households and partially funded by road-user charges paid by heavy vehicles and light diesel vehicles—is about $3 billion a year. About $3 billion a year is spent by central government on transport infrastructure. It is not true that roads are entirely paid for by road users because there is another $1 billion that is spent on transport infrastructure that comes from your rates. Local government contributes about $1 billion to transport infrastructure. All of that comes from property owners ratepayers and even renters because renters pay rates through their rent.So we have got $1 billion a quarter of the transport infrastructure cost paid for by rates not by road users. We have got another $3 billion that is paid for by road users in some way but not in a direct way—not in the way that you pay a toll to use a road the vast majority of the time. Even when one does pay to use a toll road like for example at the Northern Gateway the amount raised by that toll does not even cover the cost of collection or it barely covers the cost of collection. So it does not contribute to the building of the infrastructure.Anyway the Government is taking $4 billion off ratepayers and taxpayers and spending it on transport infrastructure the vast majority of which is roads and a huge proportion of which are a few new State highways that have terrible business cases and that carry only 4 percent of daily vehicle trips yet Kiwi households and businesses have to spend four times more than this just to use that infrastructure. Last year we spent $8 billion importing oil. We are not importing any more than we did 5 years ago but we are spending twice as much on it. We spent $8 billion.Hon Simon Bridges: We need to drill more.JULIE ANNE GENTER: I would have thought that the Minister of Energy and Resources would know that we do not use the oil produced offshore in New Zealand in our cars and trucks. We do not even have the capacity to refine it. Even if we did have a big find off the shore of New Zealand the Minister should know that that would not affect the amount that New Zealanders pay at the pump because we pay the international price of oil. So we are going to be paying the same amount for oil whether or not it is produced here and whether or not it is spilt and destroys our shores. It is not going to benefit Kiwi households. But of course the Minister would not know something like that. Why would he know that? The real question—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! Order please. [Interruption] Order! I cannot hear and if I cannot hear it is not fair on the speaker. I ask that you give the speaker a fair go.JULIE ANNE GENTER: New Zealand households and businesses are spending—well last year they spent $3 billion on vehicles. Three plus eight for those who cannot do math on the National Government’s side of the House is $11 billion. That is slightly more than our current account deficit. Our transport system is highly inefficient because it forces us to spend $11 billion at least just to use the infrastructure being built with our tax dollars. That is the major oversight that unfortunately the National Government has not grasped—that it has the opportunity to invest in more choice. That does mean better buses and trains which I know New Zealanders want and safer walking and cycling which I know New Zealanders want. That will not only save them money and provide cleaner healthier communities but also actually free up the roads for those people who still need to drive. That is smart green transport and unfortunately this Government has not seen the light. It appears it never will. Thank you.