SpeechThird ReadingHon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): I move That the Road User Charges (Temporary RUC Reduction Scheme) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. Can I thank members from across the House for their participation in the debate that we have worked through this evening. Some useful points have been brought out over the course of the discussion. I think the House has conducted itself generally well. You know from the Opposition there has been a little bit of a foot in both camps. They are voting in favour of this legislation and I thank them for that. At the same time they sort of had to put up a bit of a show and try and raise points of opposition. I understand why that is but none the less I thank them and other parties who are supporting this piece of legislation.The reality that is in front of us I think was well summed up by the Government chief whip in a contribution that he made earlier which is that I think that New Zealanders expect that in these extraordinary times sometimes we as a Parliament do just get on with it and do what is needed to support families and communities and households at challenging times. The reality is that this is an extraordinary era that we are living in and I think sometimes we forget that in the midst of it. We are coming through two years of a global pandemic that has knocked international supply chains around enormously. We are dealing with a massively disruptive international event—that being the abhorrent Russian invasion of Ukraine that is having profound impacts on supply chains including the cost of fuel around the world. We do know that Kiwis have been feeling the pressure of that and that is why it was very important for the Government to move forward with our package of changes to assist Kiwi families and businesses with those increased costs caused by the war in Ukraine. The package includes the 25c reduction to fuel excise duty which we turned around within about 12 hours of a Cabinet decision on 14 March. It includes the half-price public transport fares which came in effect from 1 April which have gone down very very well in towns and cities all around New Zealand. It is reducing costs for those public transport users and is also incentivising and encouraging people to give public transport a go. The third part of the package was the bill that we have been debating tonight—that is the equivalent reductions to road-user charges (RUC). This will be of significant benefit to households but of course our freight sector as well is a very significant user of diesel and therefore road-user charge licences and we'll see that benefit going there and reducing costs that go down the supply chain. The benefits do add up over a three-month period. As I outlined in the debate earlier on a person with a light vehicle who purchases a 5000 kilometre licence will save around about $135. Now that's not everything but that is a useful contribution for a household that is dealing with some increased costs at this time and combined with other changes that we have made that will make a real difference. There is a broader package of initiatives that the Government has brought forward alongside these changes including the 1 April changes to a range of supports that we are providing to families. When you put those together they do make a real difference. I do want to acknowledge the arguments made by the one party in the House that has decided it will not support this piece of legislation which is the Green Party. While I disagree with their position because I think it is important that we do deal with the very real cost of living challenges in front of people I do understand where they are coming from and I just wish to convey confidence that as a part of this package we are sending a clear message through the funding that we have provided for half-price public transport fares to incentivise the mode-shift—the shift towards more sustainable transport that we know is necessary. And of course we are working very hard on the emissions reduction plan that will be confirmed next month as well. So I just wish to acknowledge that point despite disagreeing with their vote on this particular piece of legislation. Finally I do wish to acknowledge and thank officials from the Ministry of Transport and Waka Kotahi who have worked on this piece of legislation. In the course of this debate we sort of sometimes heard from speakers that we should have just clicked our fingers and jimmied this up one or two days after the Cabinet made its decision on 14 March. In reality it is not that simple to change a piece of legislation like this. The RUC system as we heard from Mr Court does have some complexities. There are around about 200 different rates applying to over 80 different kinds of vehicles. Those rates are currently set through a complex regulatory mechanism. There is a provision in place which means that those regulations can't be changed in a shorter period than 42 days. For officials to pull together a piece of legislation that deals with that deals with the questions of transition that we have discussed over the course of this debate deals with the questions of system integrity and deals with the questions around equivalence—because we determined that we wanted to make this reduction equivalent to the fare reduction and that's not a totally simple or straightforward question either. For officials to turn all of that around and come up with a well-formed piece of legislation that we will pass into law tonight and that within a couple of weeks will provide a significant reduction to Kiwi families and businesses that is a good piece of work at a time when they are already very busy because of the Government's programme and I do just wish to thank them for turning that around so quickly. So once again can I thank members of the House for their participation in this debate. We only move forward with urgency on issues like this when we really need to and I thank members for their understanding of that—for the most part—and thank them for their participation in the debate and say to Kiwis that this is a Government that does hear the challenges that people are facing with the cost of living and does hear the challenges around the increase in fuel costs because of the war in Ukraine. People can see that we are taking action and I trust and hope that this measure will be of assistance to Kiwi households and businesses. Thank you Madam Speaker. I commend the bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to.