Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take a third call on this Road User Charges (Temporary RUC Reduction Scheme) Amendment Bill. I do just want to take a note of the Minister's comments there where he said The Government does listen; the Government does take note." When you read the preamble of this piece of legislation we're all told this is a very serious well-thought-through response to the energy crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However when you actually boil it down this is a panicked reaction to a bad poll on 10 March which got the Government thinking "We'd better do something." And so what they decided to do was an announcement: "We're going to announce that we're going to reduce the fuel excise tax and we're going to announce that in the future we'll make an announcement about a reduction in the RUC rates." Well we're now here three weeks and one day on from that announcement finally putting in place legislation to give effect to that announcement and it still doesn't come into effect until 21 April another 16 days from today. So when the Minister says this is a Government which listens and responds to the issues in front of them actually what they're doing is they had to quickly come up with an announcement and then actually work through the detail. And so when the Minister says the Government needed to act with urgency—well if he really wanted to act with urgency he would have actually done the work and made sure that this was ready to go when that announcement was made not a whole three weeks later. So the National Party will support this piece of legislation. We do believe that New Zealanders need relief from the cost of living crisis that they are suffering under at the moment. And it didn't just start with the war in Ukraine. This has been building over the last few years with the cost pressures that this Government has been piling on hard-working New Zealanders—rents up $150 a week the price of fruit and veges up significantly other cost pressures building over the last couple of years inflation recorded at the end of last year at 5.9 percent. I see Mr Greg O'Connor over there rolling his eyes and saying "Well actually no you're wrong." Well actually inflation was 5.9 percent at the end of last year before the war in Ukraine started in February this year. So don't try and rewrite history. This Government needs to take some responsibility for this cost of living crisis that New Zealanders are suffering under. So whilst this provides some relief it doesn't go the full way to actually help to relieve the pressure New Zealanders are suffering from. National has a comprehensive plan. We want to cut taxes; we want to ensure that New Zealanders can keep more of what they earn so that they can spend that money on the areas where they are facing those cost of living pressures and make those choices themselves. So whilst we will not oppose this piece of legislation we do propose a much more comprehensive plan which we know will make a real difference in New Zealanders' lives. Finally I do want to note and I made this point in my second-reading speech that New Zealanders pay their road-user charges (RUC) and they pay their fuel excise because they want to get stuff done on our roads. They want to see things built and under this Government we've had an infrastructure deficit which has been caused by this Government coming and cancelling road after road: Mill Road cancelled; East-West link cancelled; Ōtaki to Levin cancelled until the member for Ōtaki re-announced it this evening—and I just want to congratulate her and Helen White for standing up from the backbenches and actually speaking for their electorates for once. Well no—Tauranga-Northern link cancelled now they're restarting it; Whangārei to Marsden Point cancelled; we've got Cambridge to Piarere cancelled. This Government keeps cancelling; New Zealanders keep paying. They want a Government which will deliver; National will deliver. We'll be back in Government next year and we will actually get things done and put people's hard-earned money to good use. We commend the bill to the House."