Government must halt Twyford’s Taxes

The Government must halt their planned fuel tax increases as record breaking fuel prices are pushing up the cost of living across New Zealand, National’s Transport spokesperson, Jami-Lee Ross says.

“Record fuel prices are being driven by a Government fixated on new taxes and cherry picked tram projects.

“The Government doesn’t need a new working group or inquiry into fuel prices, they just need to rein in their tax and spend Transport Minister Phil Twyford.

“The Minister was warned regional fuel taxes would result in high costs across New Zealand through price spreading but he ignored the advice.

“In the face of record fuel prices, Mr Twyford has imposed a regional fuel tax in Auckland, and is proposing an additional 12 cents per litre of petrol tax as well as yearly increases in fuel taxes over his term of Government as well as.

“At the same time we are seeing billions of dollars ripped from regional highway projects while more and more people are driving on our highway network all to fund Mr Twyford’s tram-set in the Auckland CBD.

“It is simply the wrong time to be piling more costs onto New Zealanders and the Government needs to halt its plans to impose new fuel taxes.

“National’s transport plan would have provided a stark contrast. We would not be seeing new and increasing fuel taxes and we wouldn’t have seen billions of dollars being transferred from regional New Zealand to fund trams.

“Instead we would have seen investment in cost-effective and flexible public transport options in Auckland and continued investment across New Zealand to support the growth and usage of our State Highway network.”

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