Watch: 'The tax is not needed' - National's Simon Bridges commits to repealing regional fuel tax

National Party leader Simon Bridges has committed to repealing the regional fuel tax if the party is elected into government.

With the Auckland Council to vote today on whether to go ahead with plans for the tax, Mr Bridges said he believed it was unnecessary and the majority of Aucklanders opposed it.

"The tax is not needed, the enforcement is complicated, and it will hit you in the back-pocket," Mr Bridges said at the New Lynn RSA in his first major economic policy speech as leader.

"A typical Auckland family will have to pay around $700 extra a year as a result of the fuel taxes the Government has announced."

Last week, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said the fuel tax in Auckland was a key fundraiser for infrastructure projects in the city, which would prioritise public transport.

"We have to fix Auckland for the sake of the country," Mr Twyford said.

"Aucklanders know they're spending hundreds of hours every year in traffic that they'll never get back."

Mr Bridges said in today’s speech that more disciplined spending from both the government and Auckland Council would allow them to properly fund transport projects.

"The Government and Auckland Council should be applying more discipline to their own finances in order to properly fund core services such as transport," he said.

"A National government under me will invest heavily in transport – as a former Transport Minister I know how important it is, and how frustrating it can be when the system doesn’t work – but we won’t be using a regional fuel tax to do so."

Mr Bridges also said the regional fuel tax was not only an Auckland issue.

"It isn’t just in Auckland – the legislation allows for a regional fuel tax to be rolled out in other areas around the country too. Already Christchurch is saying it wants it," he said.