The last thing hardworking families need is fuel tax

Todd Talks
with Todd Muller
National MP

On July 1 the Government’s Regional Fuel Tax came into effect after the Labour Government put the House into urgency so they could rush it through. The law was passed to allow an additional fuel tax in Auckland, but the Government has left the door open for other councils to follow suit – and a swathe of other councils right across the Bay of Plenty and Waikato, and much further south, have already signalled they are interested in doing just that. In my view, the last thing hardworking families, who are trying to get ahead, need is another tax!

My concerns about this Government’s economic agenda are continuing to mount. Already we are seeing business confidence plummet, thousands of workers across New Zealand on strike, or announcing their intentions to, and the borrowing of $17 billion more than the previous National Government planned. That’s the equivalent of what we invested rebuilding Christchurch following the Canterbury earthquakes. An eye-watering figure.

The Government is borrowing more, taxing more and spending more – but the borrowing isn’t the result of a global financial crisis or a natural disaster. Its business-as-usual spending driven through the roof by loose and untargeted promises fired from the hip on the campaign trail or negotiated in secret behind closed doors to get New Zealand First and the Greens on side.

They have no plans for how we as a country can earn more – and, in the meantime, it’s reducing New Zealand’s ability to cope with future shocks. We need to continue to prudently manage our finances as a country to ensure we’ve got enough in the bank to cover the next unexpected event, just like a family does with their own weekly budget. You never know when you’ll need a new set of tyres for the car or see an unexpectedly high power bill.

But this Government doesn’t understand the concept of living within our means and are instead spending billions on diplomats, a tertiary fees policy that doesn’t deliver any more students, and a train set for Auckland – all the while they neglect key roading projects right across regional New Zealand. They’ve said ‘no’ to vital projects like Nationals Roads of National significance from Tauranga to Katikati, Piarere to the foot of the Kaimai Range, and Cambridge to Tirau – despite overwhelming numbers from those communities petitioning.

This isn’t an issue of lack of funds, it’s an issue of poor priorities. National would have broken soil on many of these projects already. All the Government seem capable of doing is breaking the bank.

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