Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Bill — Third Reading 
Brown Peter: Land Transport Management Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:613;Page:9815] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
:  
That speech was so short and sharp it even caught Mr Speaker on the hop. Whatever we say about this bill there is certainly a varied range of views. The Greens want to get everybody into trains or buses or on skateboards. I tell the Greens that there is no show of that for two reasons. First the average New Zealander loves his or her motorcar. Let us be absolutely honest about that; New Zealanders like their cars. Second another little bit of information the Greens may like to take on board is that in the UK in areas where a lot of people travel by train they have a major stress problem. People are looking into the stress experienced by those who commute to and from work by train. That is true. Mr Gosche may laugh at that but it is absolutely true. 
Nobody should be ashamed about enjoying driving a car and wanting to drive a car. In an island or two three or four islands as big as these ones there is plenty of room for the number of people who drive motor vehicles here. Approximately 2.6 million motor vehicles are on the roads in this country and there is plenty of room for them. It is in isolated areas—and I have to say large isolated areas when I talk about Auckland—that there are problems. There are problems in Tauranga and as my colleague said earlier in Wellington to some degree and in Christchurch. Those are the areas where the solutions should be concentrated. There are 92000 or thereabouts kilometres of road in this country and only 60-odd percent of it is even tar-sealed. We have motorways up north that end almost in a paddock. We have motorways that come down to little more than two-lane roads in areas of New Zealand where we should have major highways. Why do I say that we should have major highways? Because the motorist has paid for them time and time again. 
New Zealand First believes that we should look seriously at the 18.5 cents per litre of petrol tax that goes into the Crown account. Mr Baldock asked a question earlier on in the House about what New Zealand First did about that etc.—or something along those lines—and I would like to answer that because the Minister could not. I think that he was ruled out of order. When New Zealand First was in Government we transferred 2.1 cents per litre of the petrol tax in 1998 from the consolidated account into the roading account. Had that process continued as New Zealand First intended at the time instead of 18.5c per litre going into the Crown account right now it would be down to 8c per litre and a further 10.5c per litre on a basis of 2.1c per litre a year would have been transferred across to the roading account. As a result of that our problems with roading and with congestion in this country would have been a lot less serious than they are now. 
This country is crying out for a comprehensive roading policy. The average New Zealander is crying out for something positive. Larry Baldock accused Opposition members—I think he was targeting New Zealand First members and he might have singled us out by name—of looking short-term and he then went on to say that this bill was just a tiny part of the solution. When he wanted to explain the bill he talked about the tools in the tool-box saying that this was the tool-box and that was a tool. I guarantee that not one New Zealander who listened to the radio broadcast of this debate at that time would have understood what the dickens it was that United Future was talking about. I do not think its members even know that themselves. They talk of efficiency and then cannot define it. 
It is time that Parliament addressed this issue positively. I say to the Minister—and I think he has actually taken a little note here—that he should specifically identify the major concerns in terms of roading in this country. He should spell them out to let the nation know what they are and he should specify the time frame by which those problems should be taken care of. He should identify the costs and then— 
Hon Paul Swain 
: They’re all in there. It’s called the Transit 10-year plan. 
PETER BROWN 
: The Minister is bursting at the seams here and I can tell he has taken this on board. He should then specify a practical way of addressing the funding because this bill does not do that—and the Minister knows it. He is not nodding now; he is turning away. The Minister should tell us how to solve the problem but he does not know how to do so. 
This bill is about generic road tolling—building road plazas all over the country at the whim of God knows whom. I do not believe that tolling will actually happen to any great degree because basically this legislation is not flexible enough for the private investor. There will not be enough profit in it and the risks are too high. I agree with my National Party colleagues here and say that very very few people will take advantage—if advantage is the right word—of this legislation. It is not the most efficient use of the motorist’s dollar to invest it in concrete toll plazas that are manned 24 hours a day 7 days a week and to pay an administration cost for all of that. It is not the most efficient use of the motorist’s dollar to pay a profit motive and to have to pay interest back to a private investor. 
There is a far better way to address the funding issue and that is to charge the petrol motorist through the petrol tax and the diesel and commercial operators through road-user charges. We believe first and foremost that the motorist is already being overcharged in that 18.5c per litre petrol tax and we welcome that report—the invisible report being compiled by the invisible man—that only the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Transport know anything about. I do not think that anybody has read it. 
Hon Paul Swain 
: It’s coming. 
PETER BROWN 
: Have they seen it? Well if the Minister knows of its existence he should have brought it to the House before this bill was passed. I give the Minister my assurance on behalf of New Zealand First that if that report justifies the 18.5c per litre petrol tax going into the consolidated account we will not argue. We will examine that in detail but we will not argue against it if we are satisfied it is fair. Then we will be pushing for a regional fuel tax as I have outlined on road-user charges in terms of the commercial diesel operator and on the petrol tax in terms of the private motorist. 
This bill was an ideal opportunity to address the core problem of roading in this country and the inconvenience and extra costs that it imposes on motorists and the commercial world. I give the Minister one out of 10. The Automobile Association is more kind than me and gives him two out of 10. I believe in the old philosophy. I am an old-fashioned guy though members would not know that by looking at me. I am a bit old-fashioned but there is a little piece of advice I give to the Minister: do it once; do it right.