SpeechLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): It's a pleasure to take the final call on this side of the House on this bill. I sort of am somewhat incredulous as to what I'm hearing today about how important this is in the scale of things; how important it is to households; and how much the cost of everything is important particularly in the post-COVID environment. On the very same day that fuel taxes are being hiked again road-user taxes are being hiked again—and as we know hardly any new roads have been built by this current Government—so on the very same day. Where's the money going and what is it going to be spent on?I venture to suggest that if this review had been done right at this point when fuel prices had dramatically reduced then the Prime Minister wouldn't have said that they're being fleeced at the pump—there wouldn't even be a priority for this. The fact of the matter was that a whole lot of market conditions ended up at a very high fuel price that's where we ended up and suddenly the Government has to do something; so the Government commissioned a review. We will support this going to the select committee; however the Government commissioned a review on the basis that somehow everybody was being fleeced. Well I tell you what in the last six months I think you'll find most oil traders companies and anybody involved in the oil industry will think they've been fleeced because if you've seen what's happened to the price of crude what's happened to the market what's happened to the futures for a period of time the forward price of fuel was in the negative. It had gone from $50 a barrel into the minus.So the biggest impact of fuel prices is not what happened in this space it's what's happens in global markets and global supply and demand and it's what happens with taxes. Today this Government without a blink of an eyelid has just piled on more taxes on to the New Zealand citizens and it goes right to the heart of affordability in households. Liz Craig commented that this is what this is all about because people are being fleeced at the pump. She said that in this very House on the same day as they stick everything up all the prices go up—the prices go up—not to mention the productive part.Today road-user charges go up as well. Every single part of the New Zealand economy will be impacted by road-user charges.Hon Nathan Guy: Bad for Hawke's Bay.LAWRENCE YULE: In Hawke's Bay exactly—our whole productive economy. At the same time where in Hawke's Bay the place I represent we've had zero investment on the State highway network apart from some safety rails—some safety rails. So the Napier to Hastings expressway cancelled.Hon Nathan Guy: What's happened?LAWRENCE YULE: Cancelled; not even on the programme. So it's all very well at the same day to cry that the issue that fuel prices are impacting on households. I understand households are struggling but the same day that fuel prices we are told are impacting on households this Government just sticks the price up on households again on the very same day under urgency—they bring this bill under urgency. One could be tempted to think that it's been brought into the House under urgency to try and mask the fact that on 1 July all these fuel prices are going up.If I look at what are in these recommendations generally Minister Faafoi there's a lot of good things in the recommendations about transparency accountability and all those things. So I'm not against that. What I am saying is I don't believe this will make a material difference to the price of fuel to mum and dad Joe Citizen and their kids who rock up to the pump.Hon Nathan Guy: What'll they think in Mana?LAWRENCE YULE: They won't be worrying about it now because the price of fuel has dropped largely because market conditions have changed.I look at some of the things on here and I'm quite intrigued. We're going to put a sticker on the fuel cap to say what is the minimum fuel grade to be used in vehicle. We're going to require that 96 is put on the advertising to know what the price of 96 is. I don't know of anybody that uses 96; there'll be the odd person but I don't know.Hon Nathan Guy: An older car.LAWRENCE YULE: An older car maybe—an older car maybe. Then there are all sorts of recommendations. Minister Faafoi I do support personally the terminal gate pricing regime. I think that is a useful addition to the market.But what I'm trying to get to is that it's all very well to spend a lot of time and effort changing the regulations but this is a complex industry. The existing players—the big ones: Z Energy Mobil and BP—largely are responsible for building all the infrastructure for our fuel system in New Zealand—all of it. Hundreds of millions probably billions of investments including support for the refinery that has been built by these companies. A lot of capital has been involved and they have generally made it because they need a return on that capital.It is harder for new entries to come in. It's really not a lot different to the electricity sector. It's harder for new entries to come in because you've got sunk capital a distribution and refining network and then you've got new players coming along seeking to undercut those key players and they need to manage and pay their share of those costs.If you look at what has happened in New Zealand in the last period of time and I read this out from the work that was given to the Commerce Commission for example in the last five years Allied Petroleum has opened 16 new South Island service centres for distributing fuel and 13 in the North Island. NPD has opened 21 new sites in the South Island. Gull has opened 12 new North Island sites and Waitomo has opened 14 new North Island sites. That is competition. That is competition working. The balance for this House to consider—and Minister Faafoi in your work—is to what degree do you interrupt that competition or change it or sort of nationalise the pricing structure and what degree will that make a difference? Ultimately that is running squarely up against what the large retailers and distributors—BP Mobil and Z Energy—have been doing for years.It's fair to say also that Waitomo—and I listened to them at the select committee earlier on on the fuel tax increase. So when we looked at the fuel tax increase in Auckland Waitomo came to the select committee and they said they were having some difficulty getting to other parts of the market because they couldn't get at that stage storage facilities in the lower part of the North Island. OK that's what they said and that was probably a year ago. They said that that was causing an increase in the price of fuel. So those things do need to be addressed if you're going to have an open market and you're going to give best competition for all the operators including Waitomo and others then there does need to be a levelling of the playing field. But once again that needs to be measured against what the large players have already invested.So we will support this to select committee but not necessarily beyond that point. I remind the House and members of the public of New Zealand that we are doing this under urgency. There is a shortened select committee process. The Government is trying to get this done before the election as one of their priorities. I'm questioning that as all the other things that New Zealand needs to deal with post-COVID on the very same day that the same Government puts up the price of fuel and road-user charges on the very same day we're in urgency trying to get this piece of legislation through.I just can't understand in the priority of things why this is such a priority for this Government. I accept that work needs to be done and I accept that a select committee is probably good to look at this. But when you look at what has happened to the price of fuel and I think you can buy diesel probably in Hawke's Bay now for under a dollar a litre retail at the pump and petrol is a dollar 60-something—around that. When you look at what happened the pressure that fuel was placing on families is not nearly as great as it was about nine months ago. So I'm questioning the Minister and the Government of the need to put this through urgency with a truncated select committee process and for what. The last thing I'd say as I close is there's a whole lot of recommendations on this sheet which is a summary sheet on reviewing arrangements for the directive—sort of disincentivisation investment in shared storage. Now that is the issue that Waitomo tried to raise with us at select committee because basically what we were being told at that point was that the price of fuel in other parts of New Zealand that weren't serviced by Waitomo was expensive because there wasn't the degree of competition and I have some sympathy for that. So we need to find a way of managing the distribution and the storage. I think if this bill and this select committee hears about that and finds a way of doing that that will be helpful to New Zealand. But ultimately the private sector will invest and provide a competitive market and I believe will have more impact on the price of fuel than this bill will ever have. Thank you Madam Speaker.