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James Smith: Road Carriers Association Advocacy Head on the Government delaying fuel excise hike · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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  Speaker 2: No surprise at all, the government has today ditched next
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  Speaker 2: year's planned fuel tax rise. This is as well as
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  Speaker 2: the planned increase in road user charges. The coalition government
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  Speaker 2: will scrap it for one year. Labour has pledged to
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  Speaker 2: scrap it for the entire term should they form government.
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  Speaker 2: James Smith is with the Road Carriers Association and with
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  Speaker 2: us now.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, James. Greetings, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: How do you feel about this?
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  Speaker 3: It's just a political reality of an election year. It
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  Speaker 3: just means that the gap in the National Land Transport
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  Speaker 3: Fund is going to come out of general taxation for
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  Speaker 3: yet another year.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, does it make it better that it is going
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  Speaker 2: to be topped up and not just left to run dry?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, because we've seen what happens when you run maintenance dry.
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  Speaker 3: You end up with an absolutely stuffed network.
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  Speaker 2: Does mean we're falling further behind though, aren't we?
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  Speaker 3: We are. We're not addressing that problem we've got where
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  Speaker 3: the cost is increasing beyond the revenue coming in. That
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  Speaker 3: problem still exists.
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  Speaker 2: So it hasn't been put up. Was it in 2020
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  Speaker 2: that we deferred it the first time?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, it's been kicked down the field, to use a
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  Speaker 3: rugby analogy. It's been kicked down the field. Successive governments
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  Speaker 3: have kicked it down the field.
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  Speaker 2: James, have you guys done the numbers on where it
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  Speaker 2: would be sitting had we put it up every year
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  Speaker 2: as planned as opposed to where it's going to be now?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it'd be about 20% above where it is now
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  Speaker 3: if it had just kept pace with inflation. Because what
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  Speaker 3: you've got to remember is the cost of just fixing
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  Speaker 3: roads and rail, for that matter, has gone up due
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  Speaker 3: to inflation and the costs of components. That's gone up.
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  Speaker 3: So you've got to address that.
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  Speaker 2: What's going on with the bitumen cost?
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  Speaker 3: Well, thanks to Trumpflation, it's likely to could be as
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  Speaker 3: high as double. So it just depends on when they
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  Speaker 3: have to buy it. So the good thing is with
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  Speaker 3: that is they can be a little bit strategic as
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  Speaker 3: to when they buy it. So Fingers crossed we'll see
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  Speaker 3: world peace break out and the price will settle back down.
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  Speaker 2: Fingers crossed, James. There's not much to go on. I
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  Speaker 2: appreciate your time. That's James Smith, Road Carriers Association Advocacy
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  Speaker 2: General Manager.