Moroney Sue: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 30 June 2015. Volume:707;Page:4848. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]12.SUE MORONEY (Labour)to the Minister for ACC: Why will people with older cars pay $90 more per year to register their vehicle than those who can afford the latest model Rolls Royce?Hon NIKKI KAYE (Minister for ACC):Firstly I am happy to let the member know that everyone is paying less due to this National Government’s $440 million ACC motor vehicle levy reductions. Secondly I disagree with the member’s question because not all people with older cars will be paying more. As I have said before a significant number of cars that are older than 10 years will attract the lowest levy which will be the same as for some of those cars that she has mentioned.Sue Moroney: Can she confirm the information tabled with the select committee last week that all motorists would have had their registration levies for petrol-powered vehicles reduced to $104.09 tomorrow if the Minister had stayed with the current system?Hon NIKKI KAYE: Obviously I do not have those figures in front of me but what I can say to the member is everybody would be worse off if it was not for a National Government whereby we have given $2 billion of levy reductions. That is because we have got the books in order so everybody is better off due to a National Government.Sue Moroney: I seek leave to table the document tabled with the select committee showing that—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am having trouble hearing. I am going to invite the member to start that point of order again.Sue Moroney: I seek leave to table the information put in front of the select committee that said that the vehicle charges would have been reduced to $104.09 for all categories of motor vehicle registration—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The document has been described. I will put the leave. Leave is sought to table that particular information. Is there any objection? There is objection.Sue Moroney: Is it fair that under her new system more than 1 million New Zealand motorists driving older vehicles will collectively pay $41 million more than what they would have under the current system?Hon NIKKI KAYE: I believe it is fair because we are interested in reducing the road toll. Under our Government we have seen the road toll decrease. That is saving lives. That is a combination of things from reducing speed reducing issues like alcohol but also bringing in things like vehicle-risk rating to actually save lives. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! Can we just have a little less chatter going on and it is occurring particularly on my right-hand side.Sue Moroney: Does she think it is fair that a person on a fixed income like New Zealand superannuation who has never had an accident in her life has to pay $90 more a year than the business executive who has a habit of driving his Merc—his brand new Merc—after long boozy lunches just because she can afford only an older car?Hon NIKKI KAYE: Well let me make a number of points. The first point is everybody is paying between $40 and $130 less because of our ACC motor vehicle levy reductions. The second point is that she has made a number of assumptions in that question about the kind of car that people drive and the point that I would make to her as I have already said is more than a large proportion of cars that are over 10 years old will attract the safest bands and will then attract the cheapest levies. So I think she has made a number of incorrect assumptions.Sue Moroney: Well can she please explain why the 2009 Toyota Avensis achieved the highest safety rating from an organisation composed of seven European Governments and motoring organisations from every European country but is given the lowest safety rating in her system requiring owners to pay $158.46 for car registration rather than the $104 it would have cost them if she had kept the current system?Hon NIKKI KAYE: I am making a number of points. The first point which I have already made is that people are paying less because we have actually managed the ACC accounts a lot better so she has made an assumption in terms of the document that has been tabled at the select committee. The second point that I would make is that obviously I do not memorise all of the cars and their exact vehicle-risk rating. So for me to actually answer that question in the House I think is a bit unreasonable. And then the third point that I would make is as I have said before everybody is paying between $40 and $130 less—that is 2.7 million car owners getting notices in the mail showing that they are getting less levies under us.Tim Macindoe: How will all New Zealanders with older cars be better off as a result of the ACC motor levy reductions?Hon NIKKI KAYE: The average motor vehicle levy as I have said before including the annual licence levy and petrol levy will fall by an average of $330 to $195. All car owners will receive annual licence levy cuts of between $40 and $130 for petrol cars and between $80 and $170 reduction for diesel cars. Also the ACC petrol levy falls to 6.9c tomorrow from 9.9c per litre. That is good news for New Zealand.Sue Moroney: How many more motorists risk being charged the wrong amount for their car registration because of the data-matching error that ACC admitted to on Saturday in the New Zealand Herald and how much will it cost to fix that data-matching error?Hon NIKKI KAYE: I think she raises a good point in terms of ensuring that that issue is fixed. I can tell her that my understanding is there are about 9000 people who have paid incorrect levies out of 2.7 million car owners—so that is way less than 1 percent—but what I can say to her is that we are working through to fix that and people will be getting a refund. So they may be getting another cheque in the mail.