Guy Nathan: Urgent Debates — Transport Funding—Replacement of Regional Fuel Tax with Increased Fuel Excise Duty and Road-user Charges 
Guy Nathan: Urgent Debates — Transport Funding—Replacement of Regional Fuel Tax with Increased Fuel Excise Duty and Road-user Charges 
[Volume:653;Page:1991] 
NATHAN GUY (National—Otaki) 
: 
 We learnt today in the House that there have been 80 road fatalities from Foxton through to Paremata over the last 10 years. We need to do better than that. The Government has shown some leadership in announcing seven roads of national significance. One of those roads is from Wellington to Levin. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek your advice. A well-known Standing Order says that we are not allowed to use a certain word starting with “h”. The Government has just removed funding for road safety through this package yet a member is now campaigning on the very thing that the Government has just cut. How can members deal with that when they cannot use the “h” word? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Well they need to find some other way of doing it. 
NATHAN GUY 
: What a hopeless point of order—trifling with the House like that! That member should be ashamed of himself. This is a serious issue. That is why this Government is showing some decent leadership. 
I was horrified to see the former Minister of Transport the Hon Annette King stand up and say this National Government is not doing enough on roads when in her reign as transport Minister she did nothing to reform the Resource Management Act. When Transit the Government’s road-builder came along to the select committee it said openly that it takes as long to get a consent to build 1 kilometre of highway as it does to actually build it: on average over 3 years. That is why this Government is getting started on reforming the Resource Management Act—so that we can get these roading projects started. That is why we have announced seven major roading network corridors—and I am delighted that one goes up through my electorate where we have had some terrible fatalities—and why we are going to get on and improve the roading network. 
We have heard from members on the other side of the House today about how terrible it is to remove the regional fuel tax—what I call the “jerry tax”. The reason I say that is that it would be very easy for people to move outside their region with their jerrycans on the back of their trailers move into an area where there is no regional fuel tax and fill them up. The announcement that we have made of a level playing field across the whole of the country—3c across the board—will be fairer and less complicated than a regional tax. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: 6c. 
NATHAN GUY 
: The former member for Otaki should know—he has actually buried the figures—that 1.5c was already signalled under the Labour regime so we have actually announced 3c under this regime. 
We also need to be aware that 84 percent of the people are travelling on the highway whether in a bus a car or a truck. Yes we are supportive of public transport. We have some great initiatives rolling through the Otaki electorate. Over $100 million of public transport projects are already under way; that has already started and I think it is fantastic. It will give people a more reliable service into Wellington. There will be double tracking and electrification—which I have been supporting right through—through to Waikanae. That will take the congestion away from the Paraparaumu railway station and allow for greater frequency of services—as frequent as 15 minutes ultimately—for residents from Waikanae who want to get through to Wellington. 
So this is a great announcement. It has actually been very very well received in my electorate. We are showing some leadership. I was interested to hear from Peter Dunne before who signalled that we now have some decent leadership so we can actually park the old funding debates of the past and move forward. I am looking forward to the New Zealand Transport Agency making some announcements of the significant projects that we can get under way sooner that had been proposed. The reason we will get them under way sooner is that we are going to reform the Resource Management Act and that is why these corridors of national significance are a priority. 
The other important thing to realise is that half the people across New Zealand travel on our State highway network. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: You’ve said that! 
NATHAN GUY 
: No I did not say that. I said it just now which the member would know if he had been listening. You see that is the problem: the member did not listen and that is why the constituents of Otaki kicked him out of that seat. 
This initiative will give some certainty to funding: $1 billion over the next 3 years; $4.4 billion over the next 10 years. It is a fantastic initiative and I thank the former member for Otaki for bringing it before the House today so that we could clarify some of the smoke and mirrors stuff that he has been out there bandying around the country. There has been strong leadership from this side of the House. We are getting on and addressing the big issues lifting productivity through building more roads getting people into work and carrying on with our jobs and growth programme. This is a fantastic initiative.