Fenton Darien: Road User Charges Bill — In Committee 
Fenton Darien: Road User Charges Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:676;Page:21770] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I am happy to take a call on Part 2 of the Road User Charges Bill. I thank the Minister in the chair the Associate Minister of Transport for his contribution. Part 2 is about road-user charges and the first clause clause 7 which is about the requirement to pay road-user charges has been an ongoing debate. Thirty years on key players in the road transport industry still say that we should be looking at charges related to diesel and that we should be looking at a diesel tax. So I am really pleased that the Minister and the Government seem to have accepted that our road-user charges system is actually very innovative. 
One of the interesting things for me during the select committee process and in meeting some of the players in this industry was having people report to us that the road-user charges system we have in New Zealand is extremely innovative. It is new and it is different. Even though it has been around for 30 years in New Zealand in Europe and other countries that are starting to consider how they get people to pay their fair share—particularly for heavy vehicles on roads with all the damage they do—they are starting to consider New Zealand’s system of road-user charges. They have had a system based on a petrol or diesel tax and it does not work. 
As innovation occurs as we get more and more electronic use and as we get more efficiency in the trucking industry the truth is that the system we have in New Zealand is now a great innovation that is being made available to the world but not through this Government of course—not through this Government. That was one of the very very interesting things from the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee apart from the fact that there are issues around the calculation of road-user charges which will continue to be a thorn in the side of this Government. Its friends in the heavy transport industry will continue to agitate about this. It will continue through the election and beyond. 
I think it is very exciting actually that we have an innovative system in New Zealand that we are now starting to see picked up throughout the world. It has been picked up throughout Europe. It has been picked up and is being considered in Australia. People understand that with the increasing freight that now goes from one country to another in Europe and with what happens in Australia the charges that have been laid on heavy trucks are not working. New Zealand is an example. It is great that we have an example here. 
The other very exciting thing that we heard during the select committee process was the innovation. We heard from innovators such as EROAD and others. In fact I have visited many of them in this industry. The innovators are determining that there is a market not only in New Zealand but internationally. And they are marketing not only the road-user charges system that we have in New Zealand but actually the innovation we have through things like electronic road-user charges. 
This bill touches on that. It is very much a voluntary system and there was quite a lot of suspicion I have to say from what I might call the backward-leaning parts of the industry. But the forward-looking parts of the industry are demonstrating to New Zealand and the world that we can do things in the road transport industry that are saleable to the world. It is about not only our system and not only road-user charges but also how we monitor them and how we charge for them. 
We heard in the select committee from EROAD and I have to say again that there was a lot of suspicion from the National members. They were suspicious about EROAD’s motives and its opposition to the calculation of gross vehicle weights. But I have been to see EROAD and I have looked at the product it is producing. This is one of the firms—along with others actually—that we should be celebrating in New Zealand. This is one of the firms that is actually developing things in New Zealand that are saleable to the rest of the world. It is out in Australia and in Denmark too selling its product and doing a wonderful job and I think we need to be encouraging that. It was a bit disappointing to see some of our leading companies like EROAD treated with what I thought was disrespect during the select committee process. 
I encourage members in the Committee to support Part 2 “Road user charges”. There are concerns about the calculation of gross vehicle weights. As I said there will continue to be agitation about that. I talked about that matter in debate on Part 1. I think there is a lot of discontent in the industry about the fact that there has been so little consultation about the change from driver-nominated weights to gross vehicle weights. There have been concerns about what it means in terms of road safety in New Zealand and also concerns about good firms being penalised for trying to do the right thing and big trucks getting an advantage. As other colleagues have said the right of no taxation without representation is a considerable concern. 
I am also really concerned because although we support road-user charges a whole part of this bill does not exist. That is the part that relates to what happens for people who drive through the Manawatu Gorge who get up at 4 o’clock in the morning who drive on a 13-hour day as they are able to do at the moment who buy their vehicles who mortgage themselves in an unsustainable way who speed through the gorge who falsify logbooks and who breach work-time regulations. I know that the Minister of Police over there is saying that the police are on to that. Yes they are. 
Hon Judith Collins 
: No no no. They’re blocked at the moment—the Manawatu Gorge. They’re not speeding; no one’s speeding. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: OK; it is blocked. I am sure there are plenty of other highways that we can talk about. 
Chris Hipkins 
: I thought the Government would have cleared that mess by now. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is true. That is right. We would have thought the Government would fix that up especially that Minister over there because she fixes everything. She takes credit for everything and— 
Hon Judith Collins 
: No I don’t. Phil Goff takes credit for stuff that I’ve done. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Ha ha! That is right! Going back to what I was saying about Part 2 there is a problem that this bill does not address and previous bills brought forward by this Government did not address it either. That problem is in respect of truck drivers in our industry who—OK they have to pay road-user charges but all that does is add to the burden that they have of unsustainable contracting. They are required to sign up to agreements with providers that mean that they mortgage their homes and themselves and they have absolutely no way of making a sustainable living because they have no rights. So although there are some regulations about speeding work-time regulations and so on we have a trucking industry where we are seeing every week one or two people killed in a truck-related accident. I am disappointed that Part 2 does not deal with that issue. 
I am pleased that it deals with some other things about building sustainability and modernising our fleet. I am pleased about that but I do not think the Government is addressing the fundamental issue of the link between rates of pay and safety in this industry. There is a link between rates of pay and safety in this industry where truck drivers are not getting full cost recovery including in respect of things like paid waiting times fuel reimbursement and for that matter road-user charges. They are being pushed to make a living. We have had a dreadful few weeks on New Zealand roads. I do not want to blame the truck drivers; they are just trying to make a living. They are just trying to get on and do a job and do their best. But I think this Government is letting us down and letting the industry down by not addressing those issues in this bill. 
Although we support the provisions in Part 2 we think that the Government continues to not go far enough. Until there is an examination and an understanding of the link between pay and road transport safety all of the things that are in this bill will not solve the problem.