van de Molen TimLAND TRANSPORT (CLEAN VEHICLES) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed.TIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm not sure that last member Angela Roberts could have put it much better actually. She put a very good case for why this bill is totally unnecessary and actually doesn't help the situation at all. And I want to start by touching on the impact it has on rural New Zealand. The member said that there's no public transport options. Well actually that's exactly right. And if you're in rural New Zealand there aren't public transport options; there aren't electric ute options either. The member may have missed that part. In rural New Zealand and in the construction sector as well—I'm delighted to be the spokesperson for building and construction—I'm hearing constantly from tradies who are absolutely outraged tradies and farmers around the Waikato electorate who are totally disappointed in what this Government is proposing.Now you can have whatever position you like on how we might go about trying to reduce emissions but this particular approach is totally unfair because primarily it reduces the ability for those people to have options. Now regardless of your view on how you may or may not go about this if there is simply no option then it makes it incredibly difficult for people to comply or they can't comply if there's no electric ute option or no electric vehicle (EV) that might suit the needs of whatever their particular vocation requires. And on that basis it becomes inherently unfair that they get penalised for something with which they have no ability to comply. So on that basis alone this bill is absolutely flawed and is unfair for a significant portion of New Zealanders who make a massive economic contribution whether that be in the rural space or in the construction space or in any other area where your vehicle of choice is one that does not have an electric alternative—or indeed actually for many of these low and middle income families that we've heard won't be impacted by this. Ms Genter said It saves people a lot of money."—direct quote from Ms Genter that this bill saves people a lot of money. Well I haven't seen any justification for how that might actually be the case; quite the opposite when we hear that the increased costs from the tax perspective under this bill will require those people to be paying more for vehicles that they may look to purchase if indeed they make that purchasing decision at all. And as Mr Bennett said earlier on that is unlikely to happen as soon as it may have without this bill.Now in New Zealand we already have a vehicle fleet by international comparisons that is very old. The impact of this piece of legislation is that that vehicle fleet will become older still as people retain their vehicles for longer because of the additional cost potentially thousands of dollars that they will have to fork out if they are going to upgrade their vehicle to a newer but still internal combustion engine—or emissions-producing—vehicle because they don't have the capacity often to fork out for a new or even second-hand electric vehicle which are outside of the price bracket that they may be able to achieve. Now when we think about the significant cost implications that are being placed on New Zealanders over the last few years this is just another cost that is going to make it incredibly difficult for them. The cost of living has gone up massively—whether that's power or fuel or some food items; any number of areas you can look at where we have seen significant cost increases. And if you're a family on a low-income wage looking to replace a vehicle and you've seen a $100 per week rent increase you've seen a massive spike in your electricity prices you're having to pay a lot more for your fuel because you've got a fuel tax on top of the increases that we've seen this becomes incredibly difficult. And I cannot understand how Ms Genter can stand up and say that this bill will save people a lot of money and also that this is a fair policy.As I touched on rural New Zealand will not be able to comply with this even if there was an EV ute option and we heard from Ms Simmonds earlier around the geographical challenges of the Southland region. Well that's similar in a number of rural areas around our country where you simply cannot travel the distances necessary between EV charging stations. Look at any number of backroads in the rural Waikato you will not find EV charging stations in those areas.Hon Member: What about a hybrid?TIM VAN DE MOLEN: And hybrid vehicles are one option and I drive one of those myself but you don't get the options under this piece of legislation. And so these are the significant issues that we're touching on here that the Government just don't seem to get. It's another example of poor policy. And whilst the intention might be good the delivery is absolutely suboptimal. This Government time and time again has failed to account for the unintended consequences of their good intentions. New Zealanders are missing out it's costing them more money and it's simply not good enough. This Government needs to do better for all New Zealanders."