Newman Muriel: Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Newman Muriel: Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:621;Page:16618] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the ACT party to vote against the Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill. We do so based on a number of principles. 
The first is that the party disagrees with this tax-grabbing Government’s move. The Government has told the country that this increase in petrol tax is to fund the transport plan to fund roading. But when I look back to 1 March 2002 I see that when this Parliament passed a bill to increase petrol tax by 4.7c per litre that increase was intended to fund the Government’s road transport package. I ask what has happened to all those millions of dollars that the Government told the country would fund roading. Here we are again passing another bill to fund roading. What has happened? Is this Government so careless that it has managed to lose that money? Why did that money not go into roading? I would like the next speaker from the Labour Party to explain to us what happened to that 4.7c increase. Back in April 2002 we had a 30 percent increase in road-user charges for those people who had diesel vehicles. A 30 percent increase is a huge amount and this bill that we are passing now provides for a 24 percent increase in road-user charges for vehicles under 5 tonnes. Back then 2 years ago we were told that all of that money was going to fund roading to fix the transport problems in this country and here we are again—we have a sense of déjà vu. 
This bill to increase petrol tax and road-user charges makes the fifth increase in taxes on motorists since Labour has been in power. What does this Government have against motorists for goodness’ sake? Why is this Government picking motorists as the group of New Zealanders who should be socked with increases in taxes? That is pretty unfair particularly if one sits in Auckland or Wellington rush hour traffic day after day. One can hardly tell one is sitting on a motorway; one probably thinks one is sitting in a great big parking lot. The traffic problems in this country are pretty diabolical and in 5 years this Government has failed to fix those problems. 
The Hon Lockwood Smith spoke in his contribution about a particular road that affects his electorate—the Albany to Puhoi realignment B2 which is the extension of the northern motorway. That road is the gateway to the north which is where I live. I think it is an absolute disgrace that the requirements to get planning permission for that road were completed in 1996 but it was held up for 6 years before the Environment Court and through Resource Management Act problems. The Government has failed to address that major barrier to progress in this country. For 6 years that road was held up. The tragedy is that if permission to build that road had come through back then it would have been seen as a No. 1 priority by the Government. The people of Auckland and Northland were promised that the $150 million—as it was back then—needed to complete that road would be put into it straight away and the road would be built. Now because of that 6 year delay this Government has taken it from a No. 1 priority—knowing that it is State Highway 1 the northern motorway and the premier road in New Zealand—down to No. 10. 
Now the people of that region and of New Zealand have been told that instead of the Government funding it like they were promised all those years ago it will be funded through a toll road. That is completely unfair on those people who all knew that it was a State Highway 1 priority that was to be Government-funded through petrol tax money. That promise has been broken and now it will be a toll road. 
Meanwhile the cost has gone up from $150 million to $350 million. I wonder whether the Government cares about that. I think that sort of increase is outrageous and I would like to know why we have a $200 million increase for 7 kilometres of roading. We are not talking about a huge amount of road. I would expect the Government to be able to explain in this debate that yes it does put all that sort of roading work out for competitive tender and it does get the best value for the taxpayer dollar. I think that in this case the escalation is so extreme that questions do need to be asked. 
The Hon Lockwood Smith talked about the number of stealth taxes this Government has brought in since 1999. I just want to set the record straight: this is the 34th stealth tax imposed since this Government took office. I refer to increases in petrol taxes excise taxes on alcohol and sherry—if members recall this Government rushed up the tax on sherry—and taxes on cigarettes and increased levies tariffs and fees. If members can name it the Government has increased it. That contributes to the $34 billion in extra taxes that Labour has taken since coming into office. It is no wonder that the tax now paid by the average working family equals 46 percent of its gross income. That is far too high. That 46 percent of gross income comes back to Wellington to fund all the things this Government is trying to do. Looking at that one has to conclude that this Government is taking away choices from working families. It is taking away such choices as mothers being able to stay at home and care for their children. Under this Government the pressure on those families has escalated. That is a disgrace and is certainly not in the best interests of New Zealand families. 
If we then go to the issue of petrol tax we find that of the $1.20 or so per litre that we have to pay over 50 percent of it goes back to the Government. It goes into the consolidated account. I understand that around 13c to 14c of that money goes into roading. Of the 60c or so only a very small proportion goes into roading. So I would say to the Government—and maybe Mr Cunliffe can put us right and tell us exactly what the figures are—that if it wants to put more money into roading why does it not just use the petrol tax money that it already collects? Why does it have to add another levy on to motorists? That appears to me to be deceitful and totally unfair. At a time when petrol prices are rising rapidly because of external pressures we have a Government that is putting its own pressure on to motorists and making it almost unaffordable to get into one’s car and drive. I say that is something that the average family that owns a car can well do without. 
This bill is an unfair bill. When the Prime Minister came into office she promised that there would be no tax increases for the 95 percent of New Zealanders who earn under $60000. We know that because of the inflation that has gone on and the creep of taxation a whole load of New Zealanders are now in that high tax bracket and also that a whole lot of them have to pay the unfair stealth taxes that Labour is imposing.