Lee Melissa: Road User Charges Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lee Melissa: Road User Charges Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:371. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 I would like to congratulate the member who just sat down. She said that people should go out protesting against this Government’s policy. If she thinks people should protest against modernisation and simplifying of the road-user charge—simplifying and modernising New Zealand’s transport operations so that they are cost-effective efficient and fair for all users—well I do not know maybe she should actually go and encourage people to go and protest about that!  
Before I continue to speak about this bill the Road User Charges Bill I would like to take an opportunity to congratulate you Mr Deputy Speaker on being appointed to the Deputy Speaker’s Chair and I would also like to congratulate all my new colleagues in this 50th Parliament. This has been the first opportunity for me to speak in this House and I would like to congratulate my colleagues across the House as well. I did see Mr David Cunliffe just now and I have to say that—oh he is sitting over there—I looked up across the House and I hardly recognised him. I looked up in the gallery and I noticed a member of the gallery a visitor and recognised another person with a beard and I have to say that that beard is actually very becoming on Mr Cunliffe. 
Hon Annette King 
: Hear hear! 
MELISSA LEE 
: It is very becoming and you know it actually goes towards that whole change in the Labour benches does it not? We have got a new leader we have got a new— 
Michael Woodhouse 
: It’s a disguise.  
MELISSA LEE 
: Well it might be a disguise; I do not know. But I have to say that it does actually look very becoming. I would also like to congratulate— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: It must a boring day in the National caucus if you’ve got nothing better to talk about.  
MELISSA LEE 
: Mr Cunliffe I am actually giving you a compliment. Do you not know how to take it graciously? I would also like to congratulate my colleagues across the bench on coming back into Parliament re-elected. Hopefully we can you know work across the House on many things.  
I think I was actually at a Chinese New Year event not long ago where Raymond Huo commented that he would like to thank the National Party’s success for his entry into the 50th Parliament and on that score I would like to thank the member for Waitakere the Minister for Social Development for winning that seat. We have got another ethnic MP in this House as a result of it. 
Hon Member 
: A thundering majority. 
MELISSA LEE 
: Pardon?  
Hon Annette King 
: She carries it wherever she goes.  
MELISSA LEE 
: A win is a win Miss King and a great win. I was not part of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee— 
Hon Member 
: I can tell. 
MELISSA LEE 
: Ha ha! But I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of those people who submitted on this bill because obviously it was quite a debate. There was a big debate going on in this committee; obviously Miss King seems to know what she is talking about.  
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: No no Jami-Lee Ross says it was all sorted.  
MELISSA LEE 
: Mr Lees-Galloway I did not hear you sorry.  
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: Jami-Lee Ross says it was all sorted. There was no debate.  
Andrew Williams 
: Talk about the Waterview tunnel.  
MELISSA LEE 
: Are you allowed to speak in this House sir? Have you done your maiden speech?  
Andrew Williams 
: Yes thank you very much.  
MELISSA LEE 
: OK thank you. As I was starting earlier before I actually greeted everybody—happy New Year everybody. I think I should actually greet everybody in the traditional way that we do in this House: xin nian kuai le. Happy New Year and se hae bok mani baduseyo. I think I have actually done that. As I said this is my first speech in the House—I should actually get that out of the way.  
National is committed to simplifying and modernising New Zealand’s transport operations so that they are cost-effective efficient and fair for all users. I like that being fair for all users. Say my colleague sitting next to me was driving a big truck that was I do not know costing this country a lot of money and I was driving a tiny little car. If we had to pay the same cost it would not be fair would it? National is focused on promoting a road-user charge system that is fair balanced and well managed.  
This bill gives effect to the Government’s decision arising from the recommendations of the  
Independent Review of the New Zealand Road User Charging System 
. I actually found out that the road-user charge system goes back to 1978. It is almost as old as me. I have updated my knowledge and whatever but for the road-user charge that has not actually happened.  
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: That would have been a very short meeting. 
MELISSA LEE 
: Sorry? Where are you a member for sir? This particular bill aims to bring the road-user charge system into the 21st century. I think that is a fantastic thing—bringing it into the 21st century. We do not want it back in the 1970s where this system was at. It is about reducing compliance costs for transport operators and ultimately reducing transport costs for our businesses and exporters. I think that is a key thing—reducing costs for exporters—because you do not really want New Zealand export items being so expensive because road-user charges are actually adding extra cost to these exporters. These changes will also make the system easier to understand and fairer for all who actually use the roads I guess.  
As I said earlier when you actually modernise the system so it becomes fairer for all users it has to be a good bill. I would like to thank everybody who actually took part in the select committee process particularly those members who actually sat on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee which was not me. I would like to thank them and I commend this bill to the House.