Fenton Darien: Road User Charges Bill — First Reading 
Fenton Darien: Road User Charges Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:670;Page:16777] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 As my colleague Shane Jones has said Labour will support the referral of the Road User Charges Bill to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. I record my appreciation of the addition of Shane Jones and Chris Hipkins to the select committee. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: That’s not what you said last week. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: It is what I said last week actually. I think it will be very challenging for the chair of our committee David Bennett who thinks the Government is not here to make peoples’ lives better. Having listened to his speech he is apparently here to make better the lives of— 
Chris Hipkins 
: Truckies. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Well some truckies but not all. As my colleague Shane Jones has said Labour will support the referral of the bill to the select committee. We have reservations about some parts of the bill but we strongly support other parts. I look forward to hearing from submitters and I hope the concerns that I am about to outline will be addressed in that process. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I thought you had finished. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: I am sure that Mr Henare will listen carefully to the submitters who appear before the select committee. 
It is very disappointing once again to see the same rushed process put on to the select committee. We could be called to meet at any time. What is the hurry? What is the panic? Why is the Government doing this? It is an abuse of the process. Once again this has happened to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. This sort of resolution is put forward by the Minister of Transport and sometimes the Minister of Labour. Why is it always the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee that is required to meet at any time while the House is sitting blah-blah-blah? Why is it so important to do that? Quite a number of things in the bill need to be carefully looked at. 
I make it clear that Labour supports reform that will improve compliance with and recovery of road-user charges. I will talk about that reform a little more later on. We support the establishment of the framework for the electronic management of road-user charges. We know that that is the way of the future. I have seen what is possible with electronic management of the road-user charges and that is a good thing. 
We agree that road-user charges should be simplified and modified but we have some concerns about the changes to the vehicle weight definitions. First of all there was only limited consultation over those very significant changes which will have an impact on people in the road freight industry. The consultation on those changes was limited to larger organisations and larger operators. At no point have those changes been fully explained to smaller trucking operators. Exactly what those changes will mean in the end is still a mystery to many people in the industry. The changes are being widely discussed throughout the industry—there is no doubt about that—but very few of the operators that we have been speaking to are clear about what it will mean for them. What is the difference between the old system and the new system? Nobody knows exactly how those changes will impact on their business. None of that is clear in the regulatory impact statement either. There are no comparisons between the old and the new. 
This bill changes the system where road-user charges are based on the distance travelled and the weight carried. Currently operators have to estimate in advance the actual gross weight to be carried. Under the proposed changes the usual maximum allowable weight of the vehicle will be decided in advance and the road-user charges will be charged on that figure. That is supposedly to simplify the charges and it sounds simple when one hears about it. I think there have been problems around the road-user charges system. The existing truck fleet has been purchased to work within the existing system so reclassifying the national fleet will have unknown impacts. 
Under the present system the first tonne of weight is charged at a much lower rate than the last tonne. The last tonne is charged at a higher rate because the weight at the top end of the scale does the most damage to the roads. Under the new system those charges will have to be set for an average weight in each class. We presume that the Government wants to collect the same amount of road-user charges in each class but that means that the operators with trucks within that average weight band will have to pay more to cover the lost revenue from heavier trucks at the top end of the scale. Those with heavier trucks will pay less. So the winners will be a minority of operators who carry the heaviest loads and therefore pay the largest amount of road-user charges. They will enjoy large windfalls with reduced rates. 
Our estimate is that up to 70 percent of all trucks are not loaded to the maximum carrying capacity. They commonly run at about half or two-thirds their potential capacity simply because the goods being carried are not as heavy as that. For example how much does a truckload of Pink Batts weigh? All these operators who run trucks at less than capacity will have to cross-subsidise operators who run trucks at maximum weight. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Who wrote this? 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Why do those members who are on the select committee not listen and take this seriously? 
Just how much extra will those operators have to pay? We do not know. The truth is that nowhere in the Road User Charges Bill or anywhere that I could find is there a chart that shows the difference in the charges that operators in each band will be expected to pay. Presumably they will be introduced retrospectively under the rules process but Labour wants to know why this process has not been more transparent. 
I move on to talk about the things that we support. We are supportive of the measures to reduce road-user charges evasion. In 2008 just before the election there were mass protests in the transport industry after the previous Labour Government instituted increases to road-user charges. I say shame on the National Party. It was a completely politically driven protest. Since I have been involved as Opposition spokesperson on transport I have spoken to many truck operators who have admitted that they put their truck drivers on the road that day. They paid their truck drivers to get out on the road in protest against the Labour Government. What are employees to do? What are owner-drivers to do? If their company says that they want them on the road will they say no? They might lose their job. They were out protesting because their employers or their contractees told them that would happen. 
The interesting thing about that protest is that during the process—from the protest to the implementation—more than $17.5 million of road-user charge licences were pre-purchased at the old rate. That money was lost to the Crown. If the Government was to spend the same amount on our roading network then that lost revenue had to come from somewhere. The truth is that it comes from ordinary Kiwi motorists. Amid the outrage the truck convoys and the media going along for the ride no one asked Kiwi motorists how they felt about picking up the tab. Labour just wanted the trucking firms to pay their fair share and we still want to see that. 
It would also be nice if they paid the estimated $30 million that has been lost in the collection of road-user charges. Last year I submitted a parliamentary written question to the Minister of Transport and he replied that 6478 operators were prosecuted between December 2008 and April 2010 for not paying their road-user charges. The total fines associated with convictions totalled more than $12 million. That figure does not include the fines that were not paid and were outstanding. Labour is really really pleased that we have a bill that will improve the collection of road-user charges and the enforcement of those charges and will stop the evasion that has been going on. 
However I say in closing that I am worried and Labour is concerned about the trucking companies that do not know about this legislation. We estimate that about 70 percent of trucking firms will end up paying more under this bill. The large companies—the ones with the big trucks—will do well but the little companies will not do so well. Is it not a bad time to introduce a change like this? Diesel charges have gone up and all of those operators are being affected by the cost of living. We do not think that this particular bill has been properly researched so we are looking forward to the select committee process where we can find out what people are saying. Thank you.