Brownlee Gerry: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrownlee Gerry: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10304. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Transport): I am sorry but the previous speaker Brendan Horan was a cure for insomnia. He certainly had me in a deep trance. I moveThat the Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. The bill is a very straightforward response to the pressing need for additional investment in the land transport network. Part 1 amends the Customs and Excise Act 1996 to give effect to the decision to increase the excise and excise-equivalent duty on motor spirits—petrol—by 3c a litre on 1 July 2013 1 July 2014 and 1 July 2015. These increases will provide additional revenue that allows the Government to continue its significant and much-needed investment in the land transport network.Part 2 of the bill makes consequential amendments to the regulations to increase the rate at which duties are refunded to people using petrol for off-road commercial or other purposes that entitle them to a refund. That would particularly apply to the agricultural sector and also some parts of the tourism sector. Road-user charges or RUC will also increase on these dates by an equivalent amount. The mechanism for increasing road-user charges is by Order in Council so it will be done separately from this bill. The increase in excise duty on petrol will raise approximately $90 million in the year 2013-14 and road-user charge increases will raise around $70 million. Thiswill mean an additional $500 million will be spent on the current National Land Transport Programme 2012-15.All the money collected from these revenue sources is spent on the roads. In particular the increase will assist in developing the State highway network which is crucial in assisting economic growth and enabling greater productivity from the transport network. Specifically the increases will allow the New Zealand Transport Agency to begin work on four projects in the 2013-14 financial year: the Rangiriri Tamahere-Cambridge sections of the Waikato Expressway the MacKays to Peka Peka section of the Wellington Northern Corridor and the four-laning of The Groynes to Sawyers Arms Road and the Johns Road section of the Christchurch Western Corridor. All of these are subject of course to regulatory consents.The Government is committed to delivering the roads of national significance programme in a timely fashion without placing excessive costs on motorists. By announcing these cost increases as we did in December of last year we have given time for motorists to prepare for the increases. The additional cost of travelling 14000 kilometres per year which is the average annual distance that is travelled by a New Zealand petrol vehicle with average fuel efficiency of 10 litres per 100 kilometres is around $45 a year.Duties on petrol can sometimes be changed by Order in Council as we did with the increase last year. However the legislation that allows this does not permit the mechanism to be used to increase duty in three consecutive years. Given the huge benefits that New Zealanders will gain from the increase in land transport expenditure it is important that this bill is passed before 1 July 2013. In addition the increases in duties are relatively small in the context of the price of petrol and other vehicle costs. The Automobile Association estimates that the average annual cost of running a compact petrol vehicle is about $3300 per year. The excise increase in this bill proposed from 1 July 2013 will increase that amount by 1.4 percent. As I said before I also signalled these increases in December 2012 to give motorists advance warning that costs would increase.It is worth noting two things. Firstly these increases mean that in the time of this Government the increases overall have been comparable to if not slightly less than the previous Government’s record over the same period of time. It is worth noting that the time savings that thousands of motorists are making in their journeys often daily does add to the fuel efficiency bonus that comes from having good roads.In closing by passing this bill Parliament will ensure that Government can respond to the pressing need to progress significant investments in New Zealand’s transport network. I commend the bill to the House.