Government plans universal road user charges for all vehicles by 2027
The Government's proposed changes to switch all vehicles to RUC will mean they no longer have to run two different schemes and vehicles will be taxed at more equal rates.
It will also update RUC's paper-based recording and payment system, to a digital one that is easy to use. 'As simple as playing a Netflix subscription', Transport Minister Chris Bishop says.
So, the ultimate goals seem good but how this is going to work in practice is going to be an important thing to get right. Not least because the money people and businesses pay as fuel tax or RUC goes into maintaining existing roads and building new ones via the National Land Transport Fund.
The AA supports the move to universal RUC over time, as a fairer way to charge for road use.
AA members have shown over many years that they want to see improvements made to the road network.
An efficient collection model is hopefully part of the funding system that will deliver roads that are well looked after, resilient and reliable for communities like ours in Northland.
Roads like the Warkworth to Whangārei Northland Corridor are going to be critical to our region's future but they come with a hefty price tag.
The new RUC system will be crucial to gathering funding for infrastructure that will help people build better lives.
There are aspirations that the new technology used under a single RUC system will also allow other road charges like, tolls and time of use congestion charges, might be able to be incorporated into a single payment system.
This possibility seems logical, but also raises some privacy issues most particularly around tracking individual vehicles and what data is actually collected.
Cost too is an issue. The average age of the New Zealand car is 15 years.
There is a great variation in existing technology, and how this new system will fit into all of that.
The question also arises about how easily people will transition to a new way of paying for the right to use the road. Excise is collected at the pump while RUC is currently paid for online.
There is a question about how the legitimacy of road use is policed.
The possibility that RUC will be checked every time you get a WOF raises the question about policing of WOFs. The integrity of the collection system needs to be sound for us to be comfortable that we are all being treated equally and fairly.
The AA will be following the work on moving the whole fleet to RUC closely. We want to see costs that are fair and strike the right balance between being affordable, to enable people to travel at a reasonable cost, while also funding the critical road infrastructure our country needs.
New Zealand is the first country in the world, to propose a universal RUC, so there is a lot of territory to cover and we are in relatively uncharted waters. My thanks to the NZAA advocacy team for their help with this independent and helpful assessment about how the system might work.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Auckland Airport's net income lifts strongly after last year's results hit by tax bill
Auckland Airport showed a net profit of $420.7 million compared to $5.5m last year. Photo: 123RF Auckland Airport's bottom line has lifted strongly after last year's results were affected by a tax bill, while underlying profit also rose, as rental income improved, it increased aeronautical charges and had lower interest and tax expenses. Key numbers for the 12 months ended June compared with a year ago: Airfield income rose by $20.4 million, passenger services income increased by $36.6m and rental income was also up, by $22.6m. The previous year's bottom line was affected by a significant tax bill due to a change in government policy on depreciation of building structures. Passenger numbers were only slightly higher due to the soft recovery in travel volumes, with the airport saying international seat capacity stabilised at 92 percent of 2019 levels. Auckland Airport chair Julia Hoare said recovering and growing airline seat capacity was a top priority for the airport. "International airlines continue to have to prioritise their available fleet in the short term, but the future outlook remains positive with New Zealand well-positioned for growth - boosted by several airline partners announcing new routes and expanded capacity for the coming summer." Overall domestic capacity was steady despite Jetstar growing its capacity by 14 percent, largely due to Air New Zealand's ongoing engine and fleet issues. Chief executive Carrie Hurihanganui said it was a solid performance despite seat capacity constraints. "As we navigate through these challenges, we continue to be focused on prudent cost management and delivering the resilient and fit-for-purpose gateway New Zealand needs to maintain our competitiveness as a nation." Looking ahead, Hurihanganui said airline seat capacity constraints, a weaker domestic economy, global geopolitics and ongoing construction due to the terminal rebuild would contribute to uncertainty around the outlook. Auckland Airport projected domestic and international passenger numbers of 19.2m in the year ending June 2026, and an underlying earnings guidance of between $280m and $320m. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
3 hours ago
- NZ Herald
The importance of clear laws shown in impressive evidence from Italy
If New Zealand's laws were as ambiguous, we would be worse off by $20 billion – or about $10,000 per household – every year. What family would not welcome avoiding that? What is 'poorly drafted' law? The researchers used 10 indicators of writing that likely lacks clarity. It assesses each of over 75,000 Italian laws. One measure is sentence length. According to experts, sentences with more than 25 words are likely to be unclear. The authors found that 85% of the millions of sentences in all of this law exceeded 25 words. That might seem staggering for those who do not read law books. Authors of children's books might think it was absurd. Lawyers are likely less surprised, but still disturbed. Greater clarity in drafting should be easy to fix. So why isn't it? The paper's answer lies in law-making imperatives. These include haste, compromise, personal career aspirations and short-term expediency. Ambiguity conceals likely outcomes. It shields blame and defuses critics' attempts to pinpoint a proposed law's problems. Even lawyers cannot be sure how courts will interpret unclear laws. Nor can judges in a lower court be sure about how a higher court will interpret them. This uncertainty creates a cascade of problems throughout the legal system. The authors examined 620,000 Italian Supreme Court judgments between 2004 and 2017. They found 32% of them reversed a decision of a lower court solely on legal grounds The rule of law is a precondition for national prosperity. The law should be clear and accessible. When it is not clear to judges, it cannot be clear to those who must obey it. The paper next assessed the effects on over 700,000 Italian firms of reversed court decisions. It looked, for example, at changes in their investment spending and output growth. This aspect was another exhaustive, path-breaking achievement. It found the adverse effects were significant. The estimated permanent 5% drop in Italian national income encapsulates that. The paper's approach is ingenious, but too complex to explain here. Are New Zealand's laws better drafted in these respects? It would be good to know, because low productivity is holding New Zealanders back. It should be easy to improve drafting quality. The bigger the gains, the more it should be a priority. To better inform this article, I used AI to count the word lengths of sentences in two of New Zealand's acts. From an Italian perspective, the results were encouraging. The proportion of sentences in the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 that exceeded 25 words was 'only' 70%. For the Resource Management Act 1991, it was 53%. Even so, the implication is that most New Zealanders would not find the Resource Management Act (RMA) law clear and accessible. Parliament could be more insistent about improving clarity. The Government's Regulatory Standards Bill would increase this discipline. One part requires the Government to tell Parliament if a bill is unclear and hard to understand – and explain why. Small comfort, but better than nothing. Of course, there is more to good law than just clear drafting. Its content surely matters even more. Prominent symptoms of content problems include unaffordable housing, and infrastructure delays and inadequacies. However, much more is hidden or accepted as 'part of the woodwork'. Content problems have many sources. Public pressure on governments to 'do something' about the latest adverse headline is one source. Appeasing that pressure can be the easiest option. More mundane are the relentless daily calls on ministers to regulate or spend for this or that partisan or public-spirited cause. Such calls often fail to consider the costs to others. The Italian paper acknowledges that content also matters. It cites literature that shows property rights and institutional quality are key determinants of economic prosperity. The RMA is deficient in both respects. It offends almost everyone. The Regulatory Standards Bill also recognises the importance of protecting private property. Ministers must tell Parliament of any grounds for concern but Parliament can ignore this information at will and continues to be supreme lawmaker. (Most public opposition to this bill ignores this limiting aspect.) Greater transparency about these matters could help inform voters. Governments would spend and regulate more judiciously if more voters rewarded them for doing so. This exhaustive Italian research helps make the potential gains more concrete.
Scoop
17 hours ago
- Scoop
Rotorua Lakes Council Calls For Fair Share Of Online Gambling Profits
Rotorua Lakes Council wants communities to get a share of the profits under the Government's Online Casino Gambling Bill. The controversial bill has sparked concerns from sporting organisations, who fear it will impact existing funding models. However, the minister presenting the bill has argued there is little evidence to support the case and warned that community funding provisions could do more harm than good. New Zealanders can currently gamble on offshore websites, but it is largely unregulated. The proposed bill, which passed its first reading in July, aims to regulate offshore online casino gambling and license up to 15 international operators. At present, the bill offers no obligation for operators to provide community funding. In its submission on Friday, Rotorua Lakes Council urged the select committee to consider adding a policy requiring a percentage of profit to be returned to communities. The council also wanted a proposed 12% online gambling duty to be reinvested into local problem gambling. 'It is only right that where possible, profits generated from gambling [are] reinvested into local communities through initiatives that aim to uplift and provide long-lasting change,' the council submission said. The submission also raised significant concerns around online and social media advertising and its impact on younger and inexperienced gamblers. At present, proceeds from Class 4 gaming machines, or pokies, are managed by community gaming trusts. Legislation requires they return at least 40% of net proceeds into the community in the form of grants, with more than $300 million distributed annually to community groups, including those involved in sport, education, health and the arts. Sporting organisations believe they are particularly vulnerable to the new bill, with gaming trust funding playing a huge role in grassroots activity. Last year, sport was by far the leading recipient of such grants in Rotorua, receiving $3.25m of the $7.4m available – more than double the next highest category received. Regional sport trust Sport Bay of Plenty received nearly $360,000 in grants from the Lion Foundation and the New Zealand Community Trust in the 2024 financial year. The trust is one of more than 50 sporting organisations nationwide that have formed a 'collective sport voice' urging the Government to ensure online casino profits return to communities. Sport Bay of Plenty said the organisation opposes the current form of the bill, which 'fails to uphold the long-standing principle that gambling profits should benefit the community'. It highlighted that roughly half of the funding from sport grants goes to clubs, covering expenses such as equipment, uniforms and coaching, with none going to high performance. Sport Bay of Plenty would not comment on the ethical concerns raised regarding gambling money largely funding community sport. A 2020 white paper by the Problem Gambling Foundation, Hāpai te Hauora and the Salvation Army warned that the current model is ethically and financially unstable, with funds disproportionately sourced from vulnerable, problem-gambling populations in deprived areas. Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden expressed concern this week in Parliament over repeating the same model with online gambling. 'When community groups are reliant on funding from the proceeds of gambling, there is an incentive to increase gambling in order to increase revenue for those organisations,' van Velden said. The Department of Internal Affairs had advised the minister that this model would make it harder to reduce gambling, because 'community organisations are dependent on the funding that they receive'. Van Velden also said there is 'no evidence' that regulation of online gambling will reduce the current funding pool, but remained 'open' to the idea of community returns. She will meet representatives from the sporting community this week. Rotorua has 24 Class 4 venues. This is higher than the national average by population proportion. The current Class 4 and TAB venue policy caps gaming machines at 350, but that is currently exceeded with 362, with 74% of pokies in the district's poorest areas. Annual gambling losses in Rotorua exceed $26m and in 2022-23, 5.33% of gambling interventions were in Rotorua, ranking third nationwide, above Wellington, Hamilton and Tauranga. Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell supported the council's submission but previously admitted deep concerns from the community 'around the morals' of the current model. 'Even though it benefits the community, we know it is being collected by an activity that causes significant harm in our community,' Tapsell said in a council meeting in late July. Submissions for the Online Casino Gambling Bill closed on Sunday, with a subsequent report due in November. Note: Mathew Nash was previously employed as communications manager at Sport Bay of Plenty.
