Yule LawrenceLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): I'm happy to take a call in relation to a tabled amendment I lodged yesterday on Part 2. As I said to the honourable Minister Phil Twyford last evening it's all very well in theory to think this is going to work but actually there are some realities that I want to point out to the Minister and this committee.Under the regional fuel tax legislation the key responsibility at a local level is the regional council but under the provision of who's funding the work it won't be the regional council; it'll be the territorial authorities in places other than unitary areas. So in places like mine if we were ever to have a regional fuel tax in Hawke's Bay the costs of the projects will actually be jointly funded between the local authority the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) or even the regional fuel tax itself.Now I want to point out to this committee that actually regional councils have a very different role than delivering transport solutions other than in public transport. Regional councils largely look after air and water and the management of those and in many cases they also have a significant provision about passenger transport and they also host and generally organise the regional transport committees and the regional priorities. But they do not fund the work. They have a facilitation role and they manage the public transport committees. So while there is a trade off in terms of what the regional council might do in this space the biggest trade-offs actually are in money terms from the territorial authorities—how they spend their money on this project versus that project. And if they know that a regional fuel tax is going to partially fund there is a big temptation amongst local authorities to shift money into that where they can actually get regional fuel tax money as well.What I'm seeking to do is put a new clause under a tabled amendment in my name which would say that after clause 10(5) there is a clause 10(6) and that would require that the regional council of a regional fuel tax region in its long-term plan must report on the following things: the revenue from a regional fuel tax how this revenue was applied and progress with respect to that programme supported by the regional fuel tax.And just to make it very clear to this committee the long-term plan is the biggest consultative document that a local authority will do in a three-year period. In fact outside of that three-year period it can if it wishes not do any other form of consultation. So once every three years—once every three years—it must by the Local Government Act 2002 section 82 consult with its community. And what we're saying in this tabled amendment and what I'm asking the Minister to think about is actually making it very transparent in that document that while the regional council is the facilitator of the process the territorial authorities are the funders and they're going to use their resources—even in a coordinated way and often with NZTA—to look at projects together. I say that because simply without doing that most members of the public apart from the first period in the 10-year period will not have any visibility about what the regional fuel tax is doing and what projects it's going to fund.So I say to the Minister I think this is a simple solution to try and force the regional council using the public consultative process in the long-term plans to make a difference that will matter. Regional councils—in my experience in the last six years anyway—have got way better at consulting with the community. So they consult with the community about land and water measures and about public transport and I think it would be a great measure for this amendment to be added into the mix so that they can formally consult and report on as part of the long-term plan.