Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm sorry it gives me no pleasure to speak on behalf of the ACT Party on this bill—the ACT Party is not going to support this bill. And in one of life's remarkable and fortunate coincidences there are some things that we agree with the Green Party on about this bill because it turns out that one of the things that the Green Party and the ACT Party have in common is that we're generally interested in the welfare of New Zealanders—it's just that we have different ideas about how to deliver that. So I just want to note that this policy including extending the discount on road-user charges to motorists who would buy diesel for trucks buses four-wheel drives—like my favourite the Toyota Hilux Surf—that they are going to be able to obtain road-user charges; they have to pay for every kilometre on the highway at a discounted rate. And while we've heard from the Minister responsible for the bill Minister Michael Wood—and various Labour MPs—that this is going to help with the cost of living crisis actually when we look at the regulatory impact analysis provided by officials what it says is there are other ways to achieve this and other ways which it might be actually more practical more cost-effective more targeted at people who are in hardship. Because while New Zealand's truckies—and I'm sure those people who read my column in Truck and Driver every month would agree with me that if they could actually get the benefit from all the money they paid in their road-user charges by actually having roads that were available when they wanted to drive their truck on them they might be prepared to forgo the discount if they're actually getting the roads that they thought they were paying for.And if we just consider what the National Land Transport Fund that road-user charges—these charges that are going to be discounted; what the fund pays for—in fact I just did a quick calculation and sorry I've got a lot of bits paper here because a lot of it's had to happen on the fly; that's what happens when legislation is brought to the House under urgency in all stages in one afternoon. In the three years of the National Land Transport Fund period 2021 to 2024 about $5 billion of money was collected from motorists including truckies and people who drive diesel vehicles $5 billion out of the $15 billion is allocated to capital spending on State highways and local roads and road maintenance. That's only a third of the money in the Land Transport Fund; only one-third of the money collected from motorists truckies and road-user charges in fuel excise duty—only one-third of the $15 billion is allocated to building and maintaining roads. And that is the shocking statistic that you can obtain by looking on Waka Kotahi's website and having a quick shoofty at the National Land Transport Fund. So why would ACT oppose this bill that would actually make it a little bit cheaper for truckies getting around the country right now that would give them a discount on road-user charges? Well here's the thing. I've done some quick analysis using this high-tech tool called Google Maps. And what it tells me because the Brynderwyns are closed—State Highway 1 at Brynderwyn north of Auckland is closed it's taking an average of an extra hour in a truck through any available detour. Because the State Highway 1 at Mangamuka in Northland is closed—and has been since August of last year due to slips—it's taking truckies about an hour and a half extra to get between Whangārei and Kaitāia. So any small discount this Government is offering truckies through this discounted road-users charge is being more than gobbled up by the extra travel time by the extra cost of paying drivers and by the huge inefficiencies that the failure of the State highway network is causing to businesses. That alone will be pushing up the price of food fuel—everything that you buy in a supermarket in Kaitāia will be more expensive because the State highway network has been unfunded and slips haven't been repaired. And what ACT says is that this temporary reduction in road-user charges—which apparently is intended to help reduce the cost of living in New Zealand—doesn't address any of the fundamental underlying problems that we face. For 30 years now rather than maintaining improving and renewing the State highway network and the local road network to deliver the level of service that New Zealanders need to allow our cities to grow in the ways that they are planned we're actually going to be kicking the can down the road when it comes to funding. So the ACT Party has identified that in the time this policy has already been in place—these discounts on fuel excise duty and road-user charges—that's cost the future taxpayer about $1.3 billion which hasn't been collected from motorists and used for roads; it's been borrowed by the Government and that borrowing that debt has been allocated to taxpayers—some of whom probably aren't even born yet. So this Government while telling us today that in fact they're giving Kiwis a little bit of a boost a little bit of a help in the hip pocket with the cost of living actually is only telling them half the story. When we look at the assessment carried out for the Minister of Transport Michael Wood by his officials what it says is that officials did not have time to investigate the problem thoroughly … more time could have allowed evidence and data to be obtained and analysed and greater clarity gained about the problem and desired objectives". This is policy making on the hoof. This is a crisis caused by this Government. This is not solving any of New Zealand's short- medium- or long-term problems. When we look further when we look at diagnosing the policy problem—there's an interesting graph here which viewers at home might find it hard to see. But if you jump online and you look for the regulatory impact assessment associated with this bill what it will tell you is on page 4—that actually about half the price of petrol is petrol tax collected by the Government and about 20 percent of the price of diesel is excise duties collected by the Government. So what possible alternative could there be to helping Kiwis in a cost of living crisis? Well what ACT says is that firstly the Government could cut some wasteful spending. Now there are members in this House who think it's a good idea to focus on lowering serious harm and fatalities on our State highway network; that's the Road to Zero programme. But the problem with the Road to Zero programme is a whole lot of it is comms and spin. When you jump on Waka Kotahi's National Land Transport Programme and you have a look at what they're planning to spend over three years—2021 to 2024—they're planning to spend $171 million on telling you to drive slower and showing you ads on television about their Road to Zero campaign: lecturing Kiwis infantilising the issue of road safety—$171 million over three years. If the Minister Michael Wood and his Government wanted to offer Kiwis some savings they could stop lecturing us around road safety maybe fix the roads but certainly not waste $171 million on communications. And as much as I like walking and cycling if I ever have the chance in the busy calendar of an ACT MP this Government has budgeted $670 million over three years for walking and cycling initiatives. So if there was a serious consideration—which there hasn't been—about alternatives then potentially some of that $670 million allocated to walking and cycling which is a personal choice and I know that the Green Party likes to make the personal choice to walk and cycle more so do I. The ACT Party also believes that motorists should be able to make the personal choice to drive.And in fact if they're going to make that choice there are alternatives to road-user charges and that includes road pricing. And that's what this Government should have considered as an alternative to cutting the amount of money collected from motorists. They could have actually considered cutting some of their wasteful and unnecessary programmes that could not possibly have a high priority at this time with our nation's road network smashed by flooding communities cut off and roads like State Highway 1 at the Mangamukas in Northland out of service for years and years."