Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:643;Page:12823] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Let me say from the beginning that New Zealand First will support this bill going to the select committee and the principal incentive we have for giving that support is the fact that the Government has finally agreed to transfer all the petrol excise tax that goes into the Crown bank account into the National Land Transport Fund. New Zealand First has been advocating that for a long time well before I arrived in this House. But certainly since New Zealand First came here with several MPs we have advocated that the petrol tax that goes into the Crown bank account should in fact go into the National Land Transport Fund as roading has suffered as the Hon Maurice Williamson said because of the lack of injection of funding. 
Now we were a little reluctant to support the innovation as we called it of the regional fuel tax but we do recognise that regions in this country basically get responsibilities thrust upon them by central government and therefore it is reasonable to say “we will give you the additional funding stream if you so desire.” We know that the Auckland region will want it and I have no doubt Wellington will follow shortly thereafter and probably the area I come from the Bay of Plenty region will be fairly swift off the block—I do not know. They will not all want 10c a litre. Auckland most certainly will—5c to go to the electrification of the rail and 5c to go into roading. Bay of Plenty will want something less and I suggest that Wellington will want something less. 
But it intrigued me listening to what the Hon Maurice Williamson had to say about National’s track record because in 1995 I think that was the year the Rt Hon Winston Peters had a bill drawn out of the ballot that would have taken all the petrol tax that went into the Crown bank account at that time—I think it was 21c—and put it into the roading account. What did the Hon Maurice Williamson say when he had the opportunity to do something? 
R Doug Woolerton 
: Tell us. 
PETER BROWN 
: I will quote from  
Hansard 
 for Mr Woolerton. I have the Hon Maurice Williamson’s  
Hansard  
here. He said: “The first thing is there would not be enough roading projects or enough contracts out there to do them.” That is what he said in 1995 when a bill gave him the opportunity to do what he now says he has wanted to do for several years. He went on to say: “Even at conservative estimates with the doubling of the current annual road expenditure and present levels of charge Transit New Zealand has identified no more than $500 million worth of projects that are worth doing into the future.” That is all the Minister of Transport at that time the Hon Maurice Williamson could come up with in terms of an argument against putting all the petrol excise tax that goes into the Crown bank account into the National Land Transport Fund. 
I draw it to members’ attention that at that time only 9c a litre went into the National Land Transport Fund but something like 20c to 21c went into the Crown bank account. In other words under the regime of the Hon Maurice Williamson the petrol motorist was being ripped off big time. He said —I think he alluded to it or stated—that the reason was that the Government was running in debt and was not running in surplus so the National Party at that time thought it wise and fair for the petrol motorist to pay for that shortfall. 
Currently at this point in time 23.8c a litre from the petrol motorist goes into the roading account and 18.7c goes into the Crown bank account. In July next year that 18.7c will all go into the roading account—the National Land Transport Fund which pays for more than roading. That represents a transfer of $570 million a year into roading. I say to members that we are still building roads or enhancing roads in this country particularly in Auckland that were planned for in the 1960s and should have been well built by this time. This money going across will help significantly but not as much as it would have done had it been transferred across when National had the opportunity. Since that time concrete bitumen and steel have all gone up hugely in price well above the inflation rate and well above the CPI so to some degree we are playing catch-up. In other words the 2007 dollar will go nowhere near as far as the 1990s dollar and it is not just inflation that has taken care of that. 
We welcome this bill for a number of reasons. We have no problem with Land Transport New Zealand merging with Transit. We think that probably makes good sense. I know that the Hon Maurice Williamson objected to that because basically he was the Minister who split them up. But we see some common sense in combining the two entities and making one organisation totally responsible for road building and other matters in this country. We think that is a move in the right direction. But we have one concern and that is in this bill—and I want to record it here—the Treaty of Waitangi principles are mentioned. I challenge anybody in this House to tell me— 
Hone Harawira 
: I’ll be next. 
PETER BROWN 
: Oh the honourable member will tell us. I will listen with interest when he tells us what the Treaty of Waitangi principles are and how they should affect a Land Transport Management Amendment Bill. I can tell members that at the select committee we will be asking officials and indeed anybody there who thinks they have an interest in this sort of legislation what the Treaty of Waitangi principles are all about as they pertain to roading or indeed as they pertain to anything. So I forewarn the House that that will be a concern that New Zealand First will take on board and try to address. 
A little bit in this bill that pleases New Zealand First no end—and the Minister made reference to it the other day in a question and answer session—is the part the Minister has taken directly from our transport policy. I want to read that policy because it says it all. I am reading from the section headed “Recreational Boating” which states: “The New Zealand Coastguard provides an essential service but is dramatically under funded relying heavily on donations and voluntarily raised income.” It goes on to state—we have a couple of options here but it is the second option that the Minister has taken on board—“New Zealand First will … allocate petrol taxes generated by boating activities to these operations.” Again we say it is about time. This has been a long time coming. The leisure boat industry is a major industry in this country. It is also a cause for concern to professional mariners such as myself. We go out on the harbour we know and understand the boating rules and we might see a group of individuals out on the harbour or sometimes further afield with a case of beer or what have you thinking they can manoeuvre or meander their craft anywhere they want. They are very dependent on the coastguard coming to their aid when they get into real trouble. We think it is about time that some official funding went to help that organisation and indeed other organisations that are involved with recreational boating. 
So we compliment the Minister on taking that initiative. She read our policy. She admitted in a question and answer session in the House that it was a New Zealand First policy and we think that is a good move. There is much more to this bill than we have had time to cover right now but New Zealand First will most certainly support this bill’s referral to the select committee.