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Andrew Dickens: You can't escape tax · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop is in the United States
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for a range of meetings across housing, planning, development and transport,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and he's in fact in New York right now to
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: speak to city officials about their congestion pricing. And that
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: makes it seem as though congestion charges are inevitable in
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: this country, and not just for the basket case that
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: is Auckland. I think Totalagner and Wellington will be in
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the firing line as well, and the point about them
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: is not just to ease congestion on our roads, but
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: it will be a white lie to assertain that it's
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: not a money maker as well. So when not if
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Chris Bishop comes back and pulls the pin on congestion
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: charges in this country, the question is who will get
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the money? And I think it's a no brainer that
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: any money raised in a district should be reinvested in
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: that district. That's Wayne Brown's position on the matter, and
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the legislation that has already been proposed to do that
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: says that. But never under estimate a government's ability to
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: hold on to any revenue, So stay vigilant on this now.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: The other thing to note about congestion charges overseas is
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: that the cities that have them have alternative transport options,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: you know, the underground or the subway. Auckland CRL rail
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: project means the city will have an alternative, but introducing
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: it elsewhere id like Teldonger, maybe even Wellington would be unfair.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: And it's an irony that the electorate's unwillingness to invest
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: tax money into public transport means that pressure is now
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: mounting to take money off them for congestion. And you
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: know you can't escape tax, and make no mistake about it,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: congestion pricing is a tax? Is it a tax? Technically,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: taxes are used to raise revenue for broad public spending.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Congestion pricing designed to manage demand and change behavior. But
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: it's still the government taking money off you. It feels
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: like a tax and therefore it's a tax. So it
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: would be very rich for a national party to claim
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: in the next election we are not the party of taxation,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and that just on arrests only with the left wing. No,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: they're going to tax us for driving on roads. And
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: you know what, I haven't any politician from either side
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: who actually, in their heart of hearts doesn't like a
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: good text but some are just too shy to admit it.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
• 2:13
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• 2:16
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