Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. It is an absolute pleasure to rise on the Road User Charges (Temporary RUC Reduction Scheme) Amendment Bill (No 2). I want to just call out the speaker Simeon Brown for his articulation in regards to this bill which—while National will be supporting this bill because it obviously deals with a key element of inconsistency in the charging process it reinforces a Government that does not have a plan to deal with the underlying issue—the number one issue in this country—which is inflation and that is the reality. So this bill's coming in and it's going to be an adjustment to extend this reduction for diesel users and I think as has been canvassed previously in effect the element that surprisingly the Minister did not mention in his speech—which is a key component—is that he's given himself an open cheque book of five years to continue to extend this temporary" reduction. I don't know what time is it? Are the kids back from school? The kids will be back from school now. But I can tell you what I'm not sure what the definition of "temporary" is for those at home but the last time I looked—Simeon Brown: This Government is temporary.SIMON WATTS: —five years is not temporary right? Simeon Brown is saying "This Government's temporary." Well we'll just have to wait and see but I know that Kiwis are sensible and they can see through this.The reality is that in regards to this legislation there is no doubt that people are hurting out there across this country as a result of the cost of living crisis. But this Government is responsible for much of that hurt and for driving elements of this cost of living crisis that we face today. But they continually say "It's because of overseas factors; it's not our fault." They sort of forget that as Government you sort of have the levers to be able to make decisions in fiscal policy implications that actually change and have influences on what happens here in New Zealand. But no no no: "It's a result of global factors." Well I'm sorry the most recent—and we challenged today around some of this stuff around the fact that actually when you look at those global constraints they are cooling. A number of those factors that are driving the constraints which are feeding the cost of living crisis which this bill is trying to address are actually cooling in the international arena. So that reinforces that this Government are out of ideas. This bill is the only idea that they have managed to come up with to deal with the cost of living crisis. And have they had a little bit of time to prepare this plan to deal with the cost of living crisis? Have they had time between when this last came through the House and now to come up with other options? Well of course they have. But have they done anything about it? No of course not. All they've done is "You know what let's just renew this let's kick it to touch let's buy time"—buy a temporary amount of time which is five years which in itself is completely inconsistent—and they've done another example of band-aid economics. This is a band-aid; this is of no substance no sustainable basis in order to deal with the core elements driving our cost of living crisis. And that's a real shame. That is a real shame for those people across this country that are hurting due to the implications of that cost of living crisis that this Government is not taking their role seriously. They are not taking accountability. They are not taking responsibility for putting in place tangible solutions other than this road-user charge temporary amendment—no tangible solutions to actually deal with the core root cause of inflation which is crippling Kiwi households across this country. And that is completely unacceptable. One example—let's just throw some ideas out there. Of course National have articulated our five-point plan for dealing with the cost of living crisis and we put it out you know last year so it's not like it's anything new. It's just a shame that the Government actually haven't literally read it and decided to implement it because I tell you what New Zealand would be far better off today than where we are if the Government had simply taken a little bit of advice from this side of the House taken a little bit of leadership listened to Kiwis across this country who are hurting and actually implemented some changes. One of those changes quite simply is getting rid of the waste—the bureaucracy; the bureaucracy and waste—hard-earned taxpayer dollars coming out of the back pockets of hard-working Kiwis. You know what in regards to this legislation where they think the solution is a road-user charge amendment bill they haven't thought about the fact "Why don't we fire those high-priced consultants that are undertaking advisory work on the three waters legislation?" which the majority of Kiwis think is an absolutely wasteful idea—$30 million of consultants hireage of offices in Freemans Bay in Auckland. That is an example of wasted taxpayers' money which this Government have not done anything about. It is on their watch that instead of taking sustainable solutions to deal with the cost of living crisis and inflation they resort to just simply amending a band-aid solution. That again reinforces that the cost of Government is driving up the cost of living—the cost of that Government is driving up the cost of living. That Government spends $1 billion dollars more every single week than what occurred before they came into this House. A large majority of that is wastage which is driving up the cost of living. As a result of them failing to recognise that their actions are driving the situation which Kiwis are facing at home they have to resort to this type of band-aid legislation in order to simply temporarily—"temporarily" is as we've said undefined or has got a new definition under this Government—increase the charges. And that is you know a great shame. So we talked about the high-priced consultants in three waters and those ones that are in those lovely offices. We talk about that $2.5 billion of "no worse off" funding for three waters we talk about that and all of the other things. I want to talk about the cycle bridge—$51 million. I heard the member from Northcote before saying "Look don't bring politics into that." But the second sentence after that was about the cycle bridge or the harbour crossing so a little bit ironic. The reality is that that wastage and this Government is driving up the cost of living and that is unacceptable. As my colleague Simeon Brown said right from the start the element of driving consistency in terms of this legislation is important. We will be supporting it but I think Kiwis can be under no illusion that this is a band-aid solution. The cost of this Government is driving up the cost of living Kiwis are hurting and this Government is responsible for much of that hurt. Thank you."