Twyford Phil: Road User Charges Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Twyford Phil: Road User Charges Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 07 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:136. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatu) 
: 
 I want to highlight in these closing stages a group of people who will be severely disadvantaged by the passage of the Road User Charges Bill. A number of them made submissions to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and their concerns have not been alleviated and they fear that with the passage of this legislation the provisions that shift the charging of the road-user charges from a nominated weight to a gross weight will threaten the viability of their businesses. In the case of one of the submitters the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association it believes that a substantial number of the 40000-odd members who travel around this country in motor caravans are going to be paying substantially more because they typically have vehicles that have a heavy gross weight and those vehicles are very rarely if ever laden to their full capacity.  
In its submission it points out that typically a vehicle of a mass of about 19600 kilograms would currently be paying $121 for 1000 kilometres and under these changes it will be up for an increase of about $330 on top of those charges—according to the submission by the Motor Caravan Association. That is an outrageous increase—270 percent. It believes there is no justification for it and this will weigh very heavily on as I said the 40000-odd individuals who are members of the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association.  
There were also a number of submitters principally small-business owners who submitted that this change would have the effect of making their businesses no longer viable and I want to read the Committee one or two quotes from the submission by Southern Trucking Ltd which operates four six-by-four tractors and two eight-by-four truck and trailers around the country: “If this law passes the company that my wife and I started with one truck 7 years ago and have poured our heart and soul into will no longer be viable.” 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Off to Aussie! 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: Yep that is right. Off to Aussie; off to Aussie. McLean Road Services which specialises in transporting large loads like fibreglass swimming pools which are up to 5 metres wide around the country has large vehicles to do this but they are never fully laden. Therefore the impact of this change which will hit it up for road-user charges calculated on the gross weight of the truck will amount to it believes a huge increase. I quote from Don McLean the proprietor: “Our margins are thin now and if I have to pay RUCs for the GVM it probably won’t be viable.”  
Finally Mike Hermansen says: “The method currently [proposed] would disadvantage operators carrying lighter loads and would … negate the use of multi axle units that operators have currently in their fleets these units have been specifically built with more axles to be easier on our roads. If you [move] to gross weights these units will be disadvantaged and operators will no longer use them.”  
So it is a great shame that these objections were not listened to by the majority on the select committee. The Government has ridden roughshod over the concerns that Opposition members on the committee raised throughout the process through all readings to this point. The Government has failed to take on board those concerns and the passage of this bill will impose a terrible burden on many small businesses around this country that cannot sustain the kinds of costs that this bill will add to their bottom line. So I do not believe that the Government and the majority on the select committee have adequately considered the consequences albeit unintended of this change—