Brown SimeonROAD USER CHARGES (LIGHT ELECTRIC RUC VEHICLES) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Transport): I move That the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. [Interruption]SPEAKER: I don't want to interrupt; the member will start his time again. Could people please leave the House without the conversations on the way through.Hon SIMEON BROWN: Thank you Mr Speaker. Would you like me to move the bill again?SPEAKER: Oh look I think we'll take that as done. Hon SIMEON BROWN: Take that as done—well thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to bring the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill to the House. I just want to start by outlining the purpose and intention of this legislation which is to ensure that all users of our roading network—whether you drive an electric vehicle a diesel vehicle a petrol vehicle a hybrid vehicle a plug-in hybrid vehicle—pay your fair share of and contribution towards building and maintaining our roading infrastructure here in New Zealand.Of course it was the last National Government which provided the exemption for light electric vehicles back in 2009. And that was when I believe there was around six or eight electric vehicles actually on the roads at that time. The intention was to have that exemption in place until the number of light electric vehicles—and I think it was possibly you Mr Speaker or one of your predecessors who put that exemption in place as Minister of Transport. But the intention was that once the number of light electric vehicles reached around 2 percent of the vehicles on our roads that the exemption would stay in place. Of course we now know that the number of light electric vehicles is above the 2 percent threshold and so therefore this exemption runs out and this legislation is needed. And so of course the exemption runs out on Monday 1 April and this piece of legislation helps to transition those vehicles into the road-user charges (RUC) system by ensuring that they are required to pay road-user charges and that importantly there is a lower rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles acknowledging the fact that those vehicles use both petrol and are plugged in and use electricity. There is a transition period of two months for people to be able to purchase their first RUC licence whilst continuing to keep an exemption for very light electric vehicles which are less than 1000 kilograms which is still in place due to the very small number of those vehicles on our road.Of course this legislation is needed to ensure that that smooth transition takes place firstly because otherwise plug-in hybrid vehicles would have to have paid the full RUC rate which of course would have been unfair due to the fact that they also use petrol. It also allows for a two-month transition—and of course there's over 100000 vehicles which are going to have to come into the system from Monday 1 April. So this provides a two-month transition period which I think allows for the systems—for people to understand their obligations and to be able to enter the system which is very important. And so this legislation helps to provide for that transition and which otherwise could have been quite clunky.And of course the last Government didn't do much but I do acknowledge their support of this legislation thus far into the House. I do want to acknowledge that they have supported this legislation thus far but if this legislation wasn't put in place owners of plug-in hybrid vehicles would have to pay a full RUC rate. They would then have to claim exemptions on any petrol that they did use. That would of course mean that the New Zealand Transport Agency would have to hire huge numbers of people to process that and of course there'd be opportunities for fraud throughout that which of course is not ideal. This system I think helps with that transition whilst ensuring that the plug-in hybrid rate is set at a fair rate. We sent the bill to select committee to consider that. The last Government consulted on a 20 percent rate reduction based upon what the manufacturers say the fuel efficiency of those vehicles is. In the legislation we brought to the House we increased that to a 30 percent reduction taking into account the actual variableness in terms of plug-in hybrid vehicles; of course that has now been changed to 50 percent to ensure that is a fair transition.What I would say is that this is a temporary transition period. This Government does intend to shortly make the next steps which is to actually move all vehicles to a road-user charge system. This bill whilst it deals with the immediate issue in front of us which is ensuring that those light electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles are brought into the system we do acknowledge that there are variances in the system. There are variances based on what type of fuel that you use. So this Government has made it very clear in our draft Government policy statement on transport and in bringing this legislation to the House that we need to make further reforms to how we pay to use our roads here in New Zealand. That means ensuring that—it doesn't matter what type of fuel your car has whether it's a petrol car whether it's a diesel car whether it's a hybrid whether it's a plug-in hybrid whether it's a full electric vehicle whether it's hydrogen—actually we want to ensure that everyone pays the same based on the number of kilometres they drive on the road and the weight of their vehicle rather than what type of fuel they use. So that is a significant piece of reform which we're currently receiving advice on and which decisions will be made on shortly. But I want to make that very clear that this is a transitionary period that there are still variances in the system and that this Government is committed to continuing with this reform and we look forward to receiving support from across the House as part of that reform to ensure the future sustainability of the National Land Transport Fund and to ensure that the revenue that is used and that is raised by road users is put back into maintaining and building our roads.So this piece of legislation is an important piece of legislation. It is the first step in making those reforms. I do want to acknowledge all of the submitters who submitted as part of the select committee process. I do want to acknowledge the support of all of the parties of the House who supported this bill. I do particularly want to acknowledge our coalition partners and the ACT Party who have as part of the coalition agreement made it clear that it is part of the agreement to move all vehicles to road-user charges. I do want to acknowledge their support in particular and I want to commend this bill to the House.