National's transport spokesperson has committed to not raising fuel taxes in a potential first term if his party wins the election, but says he wants to "rapidly" legislate to allow major centres to roll out congestion charges.
Speaking to Q+A, Simeon Brown also hinted at wanting to shake up central government's system for transport funding, with a greater emphasis on user pays.
This week, the Government unveiled its transport policy statement, which charts out how tens of billions will be prioritised in spending over the next three years.
As part of the announcement, Transport Minister David Parker said petrol taxes would go up 12 cents per litre — beginning in yearly increments from July next year until 2026. This would go towards funding road maintenance and new transport projects.
The announcement drew a hectic reaction from the opposition, which slammed the decision as "more pain at the pump" amid a cost of living crisis.
National retorted that it would only consider raising the tax once inflation was under control, but Parker hit back, pointing out that estimates showed that milestone occurring at roughly the same time as the Government's proposed introduction of hikes anyways.
Brown told Q+A today: "We're making a commitment to New Zealanders that we won't be increasing fuel excise and petrol taxes in our first term.
"[We will consider raising them] when we write the following government policy statement on transport, which won't be until our second term.
"We have a range of other funding tools that we will be implementing. They're all based on user pays, so that people who benefit from those projects are contributing towards them."
He said that a National government would rewrite the transport policy statement in the first three-to-six months it was in power, and that during that period "inflation will not be within" the 1-3% band.
In a statement, earlier this week, Parker said: "National would increase the tax when inflation gets back below 3%. The Reserve Bank forecasts inflation will be down to 2.7% in the September 2024 quarter, which begins on 1 July 2024."
Congestion tax to 'drive change of behaviour' - Brown
One of the revenue tools being pushed by National and Labour includes congestion pricing — an extra charge for drivers using the roads during rush hour.
For example in 2020, officials drew plans to charge drivers $7 a day to arrive and leave Auckland's city centre, with the scheme then potentially expanding to arterial corridors.
Brown said: "The solution to induced demand is actually using congestion charging to help manage demand and that is in our plan — a commitment to introducing congestion charge to help manage that.
"Auckland, Wellington and Tauranga have all expressed interest in a congestion charge being implemented. We're going to allow for that process to start to legislate for it. And then to work with them around what that funding has been used for."
He said National would work quickly to allow councils to enact the new charge.
"We'd be legislating for it pretty rapidly," Brown said.
"The Government has already drafted legislation which we will make some amendments to, but ultimately then it needs to go through a process in terms of, council will need to consult on the routes, the costs — all of those things."
He said the new system would help incentivise people to switch to more efficient modes like public transport.
The National leader says the devil is in the detail about whether the proposed fee will work for Auckland. (Source: 1News)
"Congestion charging is a tool which will help drive change of behaviour. We are committing significant investment into public transport in Auckland and Wellington, and we're committed to investigating rapid transit in Christchurch as well."
The transport spokesperson also hinted that a potential National government would look at reforming how the transport system was funded.
"We need to move all vehicles away from excise towards a road user charge, which allows us to charge based on the kilometres of travel, rather than the number of litres of fuel being used," he said.
"That's a piece of work we're going to start immediately on coming into government.
"The timing that it takes to actually do that? We don't have all the information, but that will take probably a few years to actually get underway and to get done — there are a range of questions on technology and how that will be implemented."
Q+A with Jack Tame is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
SHARE ME