
The tax will be 10cents per litre and paid for by road users. Not only will this hurt Auckland businesses but it will also fuel price inflation. Businesses will have to pass on the extra costs to all their customer thus hiking the price of even the most basic essentials, thus hurting the poorest in our community. $20 billion of imports came in through Ports of Auckland in the last year. These all have to trucked or railed around the country. The extra costs of doing so will be felt Nationwide.
Even after the useless trams are up and running, like the electric trains, they will to be subsidised by the hapless motorist. Having already made the investment in another rail line to Onehunga, it defies belief that a slow tram is preferred to a fast train.
Only a Socialist can think it’s a good investment.
- The journey time will be long. Those arriving at Auckland Airport after making long distance trips from overseas (50% of international arrivals) do not want to add another hour to make a slow trip into the CBD.
- It is unnecessary now that the Waterview Tunnel is open. This excellent investment by National (and in only cost $1.6 billion compared to the ridiculously expensive Tram option estimated at nearly $5billion – it will be much more) has cut journey times from the Airport by half. This one project alone has helped solve Auckland's traffic woes at a fraction of the combined cost of the CRL ($5 billion and counting) and saved businesses money.
- $5billion to appease the Green Party cycle lobby, who want more cycle lanes, and believe trams are somehow, magically, more ‘sustainable’ than cars is a hell of a lot to pay for increased traffic congestion and the busted myth of climate change.
Aucklanders were promised the extra tax (Transport Levy) that raised rates by 3.5% per year for three years would be used to fix their crumbling roads, but of course it wasn’t. The state of Auckland roads should be a source of shame to the mayor and Auckland Transport. Socialists cannot be trusted.
As usual the cost of increased State Control (Socialism) is very high indeed, especially for the poorest.
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has launched a petition saying 'Hands off our petrol money’. Please sign it.
HANDS OFF OUR PETROL MONEY
The new government plans to introduce an Auckland fuel tax to help fund a five billion dollar tram through West Auckland to the Airport. The tax will see every Aucklander charged 10 cents more per litre at the pump.
Putting aside the congestion issue trams will cause to existing roads, our issue is how the Government are choosing to fund it. For decades, New Zealand has rightly ring-fenced petrol taxes to spend on roading maintenance and investment.
Auckland's transport infrastructure desperately needs more investment. But this policy will see motorists pay for politically motivated rail, tram, and cycle projects they don’t benefit from.
Auckland Council wants to use fuel taxes to grow its budget. But we’ve heard this all before – when Len Brown introduced his ‘transport levy’, capital investment by Auckland Transport plummeted and the money was wasted. How can we trust Auckland Council not to do it again? This is why we have launched a campaign against a regional fuel tax in Auckland.
If the Council found just 3.9% of efficiency within its $3.8 billion budget, the fuel tax wouldn’t be necessary.
If you agree that road taxes should be spent on roads, sign our petition at www.ratepayers.nz/petition_regional_fuel_tax.
Petition available at http://www.ratepayers.nz/say_no_to_a_regional_fuel_tax.