King Annette: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: 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:10373. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai): I have sat here listening to this debate with some astonishment. First of all there is the lack of debate from the Government in defending its tax increase. But then I was disturbed by the fact that this bill the Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill really needs to change its title. I think the best title that could be given is the “National Party U-turn Bill”. That should be the name of this bill because I was the Minister of Transport who brought in—[Interruption] Yes you can moan over there but at least we had a transport policy I say to the member. We had a policy that took account of roads and rail and coastal shipping. It was not all about one part of transport so maybe that member ought to get up to date about what transport is about. I was a Minister of Transport who brought in a regional fuel tax that was permissive that was allowed to be used by different regions for different projects. It was phased in over a number of years and was to be used only if a local region wanted it if a region had a particular roading transport rail or shipping project that it wanted to use the regional fuel tax for.Let us go back to the 2008 election and the campaigning by the National Party against a regional fuel tax. National said it was a terrible thing because the only place that wanted it—we worked in conjunction with the Auckland Regional Council not needing an accord not needing all these meetings and legislation that we have to bring in on housing; it was worked through with the council—wanted a regional fuel tax because it wanted to invest in rail local rail in Auckland. You know we are now looking at 5 years on and that could have been started—well started. It was to be used for rail and some of it was to be used for public transport other public transport. It was also to be used for a piece of road called the Penlink Toll Road which was going to help open up the Whangaparāoa Harbour into Silverdale so businesses could develop. It was agreed it was wanted and what did the National Party do? It campaigned against it and then when it became the Government the first move by Steven Joyce was torepeal the regional fuel tax a permissive tax based on local people identifying local needs.And what do we have here? We have a regional fuel tax that covers the whole of New Zealand. It is based not on what local transport needs are but on what the Government wants the money for. So we now have 9c going right across New Zealand regardless of whether anyone is going to win out of this. I agree with Moana Mackey. Anyone who represents a rural area a provincial area will be saying: “Hang on a minute this money is going for some roads to serve the cities but what about our road maintenance? What about our public transport? We don’t have any.” This money is going to go across the whole of New Zealand. This bill should be called the “National Party U-turn Bill”. It is such cant that National is putting this bill in the House today passing it through all its stages when National opposed it so much when it was in Opposition.You know National opposed things like the hypothecation of all the money that is taken in from road users to go into transport. National opposed that for a long time but now it makes out it was one of its policies. You see Government members are so unsure of themselves when it comes to transport. What we do know is we need to protect our rural and provincial area so that they get a fair suck of the sav. We need to ensure that we invest in rail and that we invest in roads and coastal shipping. What has this Government done? It has put its money into roads and it has now brought in a regional fuel tax across New Zealand. Well I have to say that this is the “U-turn Bill”. That is what its title ought to be and the National Party has not got the bottle to stand up and defend this tax which it opposed only 5 years ago.