News Release from The Republic of New Zealand Party

Sunday 14 October 2006-10-15

For Immediate Release

Toll Roads Rip-off

The Republic of New Zealand Party (The Republicans) has called on New Zealanders to rise in protest against plans to charge tolls on new roads.

“This is nothing more than theft from the taxpayers,” says Wayne Hawkins, Deputy Leader of the Republicans

He referred to the recent increase in petrol tax of 5 cents a litre which brought tax for roads on a litre of petrol up to 41.2 cents.

“We were told the increase was to pay for new roads, so what’s happened to that?”

He said taxpayers have been paying for roads for decades through taxes on petrol, but the money has been put into the consolidated fund rather than used on roads.

“So here we go again, we the taxpayers are going to have to carry the can for their corruption, bad management and misappropriation of the taxes they’ve collected from us.”

He said the message that should be sent to Wellington is clear..

“You raise money for roads either by taxing petrol or imposing tolls, but you can’t have both.”

Mr Hawkins said the Republicans would ensure that all monies collected for roads were spent on roads.

“It’s a simple proposition. If you collect taxes for a specific purpose, you use them for that purpose. We are happy to be accountable for that.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media