Carter DavidRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): It's a pleasure to follow the so-called self-proclaimed first citizen of the provinces and it's interesting that a tax that's going to affect Auckland is now defended by the Government by the Hon Shane Jones the person who went to a select committee late last week saying The winner takes the booty."—the winner takes the booty. And that shows the man to a T. He's prepared to take any amount of money from any taxpayer at all and spend it blindly in the hope that it might get them another term after 2020. I think this will be the legislation that actually makes New Zealanders realise what they've got in the way of a Government of three parties that's intent on taxing taxing taxing. And it is of course yet another broken promise by the Labour Party.Hon Phil Twyford: We campaigned on this.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Mr Twyford interjects that they campaigned on it. I know his campaign pledges better than he does. What he campaigned on was an Auckland regional fuel tax and what this legislation does is give the ability for Christchurch and Wellington and Waikato and Tauranga all to have a regional fuel tax after 1 January 2021. Mr Twyford never went round the country campaigning on a regional fuel tax for just about every region in New Zealand. He said it would be for Auckland and Auckland only and then he surreptitiously introduces this legislation into the House. It is another broken promise Mr Twyford and at this stage Mr Twyford has stopped interjecting and the rest of his Labour caucus hang their heads in shame because they know they've actually one of two of them—Jamie Strange I see over there. He's been in Northcote. He's been knocking on the doors doing what he can to get the odd vote for the Labour candidate. I was knocking on the doors too Mr Strange and they were saying to me "We're voting for Dan Bidois. We're voting National because we're fed up with this Government seven months on breaking election promises and introducing yet another tax." We heard it all today in question time from the Hon Phil Twyford and this is why his colleagues are worried. He acknowledged this will collect each year approximately $150 million and then he remarkably said "We'll spend $4.5 billion of that money on roads." He's the only member on the front bench of the Labour Party—now I admit the Hon Shane Jones has got a similar ability to just manufacture money from anywhere. But how the Hon Phil Twyford reckons that $150 million will automatically turn into $4.5 billion defies logic.The other interesting thing that Mr Twyford—Hon Phil Twyford: NZTA subsides.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: He's wound up again—he's wound up again. The other interesting thing Mr Twyford said in the Chamber today at question time was that this isn't a very good tax and we'd be better to be congestion charging. That's what Mr Twyford said and I agree with him. Aucklanders are fed up with being locked in traffic jams. It's totally unproductive. It's—Hon Phil Twyford: After nine years of neglect.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Well after nine years of neglect—I'd say the problems built up over 20 years Mr Twyford. But let's find a way to fix it that works. Let's find a way to fix it that works. I listened to the submissions. I carefully went through the submissions. Mr Twyford probably hasn't even bothered to read the submissions. But all in one they said there's a problem in Auckland and we need to find a way to fix it. We need money to fix it. Everybody agreed with that. Congestion charging was popularly submitted to the select committee. It may take a couple of years to bring in but it was a solution and it was a solution far better than this particular regional fuel tax. But the submission that struck me as very very sensible came from the Hon Ken Shirley. The Hon Ken Shirley of course started his parliamentary career as a Labour member of Parliament. He spoke for the Road Transport Forum and he said there's an easy solution Mr Twyford if you only wanted to listen: find some money to fix the infrastructure and do it simply by raising road-user charges (RUC) and raising the excise on petrol. That would have brought in more than $150 million. It would then have given the Government with that money—to distribute it regionally as indeed the regional fuel tax will do after 2021. And it would have been simple to administer.The other thing that struck me as we went through the submission process was a very good submission from Federated Farmers. They came along and pointed out that there was already a fuel excise tax for which they legitimately claim a rebate for the petrol they buy on to their farm which is then used on the farm. I'm one of those farmers that applies for that rebate and it's a nightmare. Kieran McAnulty was in the select committee the day Federated Farmers came along—Hon Phil Twyford: Help's on the way. Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Mr Twyford's got more to say. I'm surprised he's got anything to say. Federated Farmers came along and showed us the forms that had to be completed by hand put back into the mail and sent to the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) in Palmerston North to claim this rebate. It's a nightmare of a process. We got some sort of promises from NZTA that they'll find a way to meet the modern world so we can do it by internet. But once we put a tax on diesel—Hon Phil Twyford: Stand by help's on the way.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: He's just said "Help's on the way and we're not going to put a tax on diesel."—that's the whole purpose of the regional fuel tax Mr Twyford. Get to know your own legislation. What we're going to have is a nightmare whereby those that use diesel off roads now also have to apply for a rebate.Hon Phil Twyford: Help's on the way.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: "Help is on the way."—say that to any farmer who already frets night after night after they've worked hard all day now having to fill in more forms to get legitimate money back on their diesel. And he's nodding and noting that it's going to be a nightmare because that's what this legislation does. It imposes more impediment on people who use diesel the majority of which is not actually used on road—it's used in marine it's used on farm services it's used by contractors for instance. We had a very interesting question put to the officials who have no idea how this works—they don't support it anyway. We said "What about a contractor who trims hedges?" "Oh no that person's allowed. It's off road. They can certainly apply for and get a rebate." We said "What about the tractor going from one farm to another on the road?" "Oh" they said "we haven't thought about that." And then we said "What about the hedge trimmer who comes off the farm and trims the hedge along the road?" "Oh we hadn't thought about that either."This is a nightmare piece of legislation and it hasn't been worked through. If you want to see it—Kieran McAnulty: You've never been the party of hedge trimmers before.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: —accepted by the public of New Zealand Mr McAnulty have a look at Saturday's results. Jacinda Ardern can go to Northcote as many times as she wants. She was never going to win that by-election because the dominant issue was this is a tax that is imposed on Aucklanders to fix a problem. It's a complicated tax and it won't work.Can I conclude with a little bit of good news because we had one win in this select committee process. I refer members to new section 65ZE(2) in clause 5. Even the Labour members acknowledged to us that this tax should not apply to any non-road use yet nowhere in the legislation did it say that. So we argued and with passion—all the National members argued with passion—to get a clause introduced into the legislation which said "The responsible Minister must consider whether to recommend the making of regulations under subsection (1)(b) and when doing so must have regard to the principle that regional fuel tax is intended to be borne only by those who use fuel on public roads." I say to Mr Twyford if he needed the money—because I think it is justifiable to argue that you needed the money—to fix the infrastructure of roading in Auckland do it the way Ken Shirley suggested.Hon Phil Twyford: Tax the whole country.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Stop creating another bureaucracy and do it by increasing RUC and fuel excise. When he says "Tax the whole country." that's exactly what this legislation does. It's not exclusive to Auckland."