Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I rise to speak on the Self-contained Motor Vehicles Legislation Bill at the second reading. I'm sure that the Minister felt that that was a highlight of his career as he spent nine minutes talking about toilets; but I now have a few minutes where I need to speak about the same subject. I do note that the previous Tourism Minister the Hon Stuart Nash said at the first reading of this bill that The days of the dodgy vehicle are now numbered"—interesting words and I think those words really articulate where this probably has gone wrong because there's been a focus on vehicles rather than the behaviour of campers. National agrees that stronger regulations for freedom camping are needed but the Government's Self-contained Motor Vehicles Legislation Bill is too restrictive and pushes unreasonable costs on to Kiwis forcing us to oppose the bill.The requirement for vehicles to have a fixed toilet punishes the nearly 70000 responsible New Zealanders who have suitable portable toilets in their vehicles and use them. Under this proposed law a camper with a fixed toilet who doesn't use it will not be breaking the law but a camper who uses a non-fixed toilet will be subject to a fine; that should be reversed. National want to see all freedom campers treated equally and fairly by the Government. The Government had a chance to listen to New Zealand at the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee and make key changes and as the Minister noted most of the submitters opposed the bill. Unfortunately the Government didn't make any changes forcing National to oppose the bill. National was wanting to propose some sensible changes to make this a workable bill and hoped the Government would support them; unfortunately that did not happen.So law-abiding responsible Kiwis enjoying themselves and the outdoors will be punished potentially by this. So someone with a portable toilet could use it responsibly while someone with a fixed toilet could decide not to use it—but only one of them would be breaking the law. I note that the Responsible Campers Association founder Rob Osborne told the committee that imposing fitted toilets and all this stuff isn't going to guarantee people use them. How does having larger campervans meet the Government's long-term goals of sustainability and becoming carbon-neutral and all that stuff as well? That was the question posed by Bob Osborne.Hon Mark Mitchell: Good question.JOSEPH MOONEY: So I think that is a good question Mr Mitchell and one well-posed—and one not answered by this Government. I also note that it's estimated that converting a van would cost somewhere between $1200 and $5000 now. To put that in context we are in a cost of living crisis right now; there are ongoing supply chain issues and significant labour shortages. Firstly how are people going to be able to afford this and secondly be able to get the resources to actually install these into their campervans? It's a real problem; and I note that the Minister made brief reference to people who are homeless and unfortunately right now in Queenstown there are people who are living in tents and vans and cars and this bill is certainly not going to help them. So I suggest the Government is focused on the wrong thing here and is not looking at actually how to solve the real issue. I note that it's not just the 70000 responsible New Zealanders who have suitable portable toilets in their vehicles—and use them—who will be punished by this bill. A large tourism company made a submission to the bill as well and noted that they operate over a thousand motorhomes in the country. They'll only have 18 months to transition to bring their whole fleet up to standard and as motorhomes are relatively long-lived assets they'll need to retrofit them all. They have the resources to do that but will still face those supply chain issues and labour shortages in retrofitting a significant number of the thousand-motorhome fleet. They did point out that others will struggle however because "This requires capital expenditure [that] for many operators [has been] carefully managed following the effects of COVID-19" and I really do not think the Government has turned their mind to this. So this is not only impacting the 70000 responsible Kiwis who have suitable portable toilets in their vehicles and use them but it also will be punishing these companies who are just trying to trade their way out of the last incredibly difficult three years. So again the Government has focused on vehicles as opposed to focusing on the behaviour of campers and that's where this has gone wrong so we will be proposing changes to this bill at the committee of the whole House stage. I certainly hope that the Minister will support that and we can actually look at having a useable bill that is actually going to address the real issue. With that I'll say regrettably I cannot support this bill."