Yule LawrenceLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): Thank you Madam Chair. It gives me pleasure to speak to Part 2 of this bill and I want to come back to a comment that was made by the Hon Dr Nick Smith pay more and get less". And for the people that I represent that's exactly what these changes mean: $5 billion taken out of the State highway network most of it into Auckland; a new tax that we're told is mostly for Auckland but if you read the legislation it can be rolled out anywhere in New Zealand. And who I want to represent are the motorists and the constituents that are actually going to be paying for these costs. I want to specifically talk about transparency because actually this is a 10-year tax. Once it comes in it is in there boots and all—tax and the GST committing everybody who buys fuel in that particular area for 10 years. It's clear in this part of the legislation as the Hon Tim Macindoe said just previously that it can be used anywhere in New Zealand. So I want to come to a specific clause in Part 2 which is clause 10(5) which inserts section 34B which is about additional information required for regional fuel tax schemes. It says in subsection (1) "The regional council of an RFT region in its annual report must report on—(a) the revenue from an RFT scheme paid to the council by the Agency; and (b) how that revenue was applied by the council including to which projects and for what purposes (for example capital expenditures debt repayment operational expenditures); and (c) progress with respect to the programme of capital projects supported by the RFT scheme."I acknowledge the Minister of Local Government here as well. I'm yet to read and yet to see less than 1 percent of the population I formally represented ever read an annual report. We are making a tax here for 10 years that everybody's going to pay and all we ask the council to do is simply report it in a document. To the Minister I say that I actually think we need to do more and I propose an amendment in my name which amends section 34B in clause 10 by adding new subsection (3) which says that regional councils are required to write to all electors annually after their annual report to inform them on the progress of the RFT scheme in their region. I do that because I note that every piece of expenditure in this particular Parliament is looked at annually every piece of expenditure in a local authority is looked at annually and every three years every ratepayer in that local authority gets to look at the long-term budget yet in this case all the legislation currently provides for is that we write it in an annual report. I don't think that goes far enough. With taxation come some obligations and the obligations are that members in our community need to understand in a very direct way how their money is being used. We insist on that in consultation requirements under the Local Government Act and we insist on it actually in this parliamentary process. Yet here we have a taxation regime that largely says "Set it in place get some community agreement at the start get ministerial agreement and then leave it for 10 years and simply report."I don't think that goes far enough when we're going to charge motorists up to 11.5 cents per litre without the Governor-General's agreement to go higher. Fuel excise taxes are going to go up by 12c in the next three years. And I actually think this is a big and now a growing and bigger part of people's lives and they need to be informed just like any other business or any other local authority would on the impact on them because in my view when you tax people you have an obligation. You have an obligation to show them how it's being used and whether it's still appropriate and I remind this committee that things actually change. If there was a great global crisis you might want to actually adjust some of that stuff. People might want to have an understanding. So I think it behoves this committee to consider my amendment—and I'm asking the Minister to seriously consider it—to that provision in order to allow the communities that I represent who will be funding this tax to have very detailed and personal information."