Roading
Road Users Should Pay
Roads are important for economic growth and for people to be able to get from A to B quickly, safely and easily.
Federated Farmers thinks that all money collected from road users, such as petrol tax and road user charges, should be spent on roads. After many years of lobbying, the government has agreed with us. The challenge is to get all roads - including local roads - funded by road users, not ratepayers.
To achieve this, Federated Farmers' work includes the Rates Inquiry and submissions to government on transport legislation and the New Zealand Transport Strategy.
What Can I Do?
You can get involved in this issue by a writing submission to your council's annual plan and making comments on its roading policy. You could also lobby your local Member of Parliament about the need for the government to change the way roads are funded.
Who Can Help?
The spokesman for roading and transport on the National Board is Donald Aubrey. You can contact him: daubrey@fedfarm.org.nz
Our roading and transport policy advisor is William McGimpsey. William grew up on a Southland farm so has a good understanding of what farmers need. You can contact him on 0800 327 646 or email: wmcgimpsey@fedfarm.org.nz.
Road User Charges
In the wake of the truckie protest the Government announced that there would be an independent review of the Road User Charges (RUC) system. Among other things, the review will be looking at RUC and whether it should be replaced by a diesel tax.
Supporters of a diesel tax argue that:
- RUC imposes significant costs on the road transport industry and government.
- The introduction of a separate regional fuel tax means that there will be two administrative systems which will add further costs.
- Currently RUC overcharges heavy vehicles and is not achieving efficient use of vehicles.
- There is widespread avoidance of RUC within the industry.
On the other hand, supporters of RUC counter that:
- RUC is a more accurate way of pricing road use than a diesel tax. A diesel tax would not take into account fuel efficiency of a vehicle or its weight.
- As technology improves RUC should become more efficient.\
- The advent of GPS should also enable electronic road pricing tied to RUC - which would be more efficient.
- As the demands on roading infrastructure increase and the fuel efficiency of vehicles increases, using fuel taxes to fund roads will become unsustainable.
- Diesel is used heavily for off-road purposes and in 1989 the Government abolished the diesel tax as it had become inefficient to run the refund system.
So far, Federated Farmers has advocated against a diesel tax and for RUC to be retained. This is due to the fact that farmers use diesel on-farm and if there was a tax on it, farmers would have to apply for a refund on the tax - a significant compliance cost. The Federation would like to get your views - participate in our online poll.
