Watts Simon; Court SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore) (remote): Thank you very much Madam Chair. Two questions if I may in building on some excellent contributions from my colleague Simeon Brown. I refer you to clause 4 and new section 42D in regards to when assessments may be issued. I'm interested in a little bit of context from the Minister just around some of the considerations around enforcement of these assessments and in particular the practicality of enforcement taking into account such a short period of time at which these changes will be in effect which has been noted as three months. So that's the first question. The second question is in relation to clause 4 and new section 42B. I think this was touched on a little bit earlier by one of my colleagues—probably again no doubt Simeon Brown. But in regards to the cost-benefit analysis or lack of that was undertaken in regards to this portion I would be interested from the Minister in terms of what was undertaken in that regard. What assumptions were made in particular around how the underlying fuel price would change over the next three months? I'd be interested to understand particularly what officials had advised around the forecasted changes to fuel prices and how that allowed the Government to come up with the position of where they've set the price in terms of that cost-benefit analysis. So those are the two questions and I'd appreciate a response from the Minister.SIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. Minister earlier this evening I asked you whether you had considered or whether officials had considered alternatives to the methodology that was arrived at for the temporary reduction in the rates of road-user charges (RUC)—in particular the administration of them. Stakeholders have written concerned that the RUC system is already excessively complex. It doesn't lend itself to the administration of discounts. The framework for claiming a discount will be resource-intensive for those businesses which need to claim discounts—particularly for those that have many vehicles like the kinds of road transport operators who say haul food to supermarkets haul gravel from quarries to roading projects or even who haul fuel around the country or concrete and other materials for building. So their concerns were quite valid and other methodologies were proposed which included not necessarily giving a cash discount of 36 percent but potentially extending the kilometres available for road-user charges holders—people who have already paid for kilometres—extending them by 36 percent because that seemed to be a much more efficient way of administering the scheme by giving people who have already paid for road-user charges and who have large fleets of vehicles on the road bringing things to shops and building sites and to people's homes and who are using diesel-powered vehicles a 36 percent extra distance. So Minister those are concerns raised by the peak body Transporting New Zealand. They're valid concerns and Minister could you please respond to those concerns—that is what alternatives were considered and is this the most efficient scheme that officials considered could have been delivered?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): Addressing the questions from Messrs Watts and Court I believe in respect of the question about how assessments might be carried out—for Mr Watts—I have addressed that now on several occasions to other members. In respect of the question about cost benefit it doesn't necessarily fit into clause 4 nor do the questions about what forecast we might have about fuel prices going into the future. I think the best that I can say there is that the advice from officials is that there is still considerable uncertainty given the international situation as to how fuel prices will track and so we believe as a Government it's best to be decisive and provide a good discount at this stage to assist people with those cost issues.In respect of Mr Court's questions my response really is that in a very short space of time we have been able to stand up this reduction which will be available to the sector. So while there are some complexities I think the current system will work well and it will provide that 36 percent discount on road-user charge rates to the sector. It wouldn't necessarily be easier or simpler to do this in a different way like for example extending mileage. There would still end up having to be an interaction between those holders of road-user charge licences and the agencies to do that so I don't know that there would actually be any efficiency there. I also note that in fact most large fleets are generally already on e-RUC so the administration is automated and carried out by electronic service providers. So it's often quite a simple and seamless process for them.