Majority of NZ motorists will pay more to drive
No amount of semantic hair-splitting by ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway can change the fact that the majority of New
Zealand motorists will be paying more when his motor vehicle levies increases come in, National’s ACC spokesperson Tim
Macindoe says.
“The Minister has admitted that the majority of vehicle users will be paying more when it comes time to renew their
registration, although he claimed that ‘across the motor vehicle levy, there’s no change’.
“The reality is that 68 per cent of levy payers will pay more to register their vehicles next year - despite ACC and
NZTA’s statistics showing that those drivers proportionately require much lower treatment costs than other road users.
“The levies from owners of safer cars – which make up two-thirds of the vehicle fleet - will be propping up the minority
of owners with older, less reliable vehicles. Some of these owners face an increase of over 150 per cent next year.
“The Minister continues to give evasive answers to important questions that New Zealanders are asking – he won’t say
what, if any, data was used to justify these increases which leaves the public wondering why exactly these changes are
being made, especially considering they come at a time when ACC’s fiscal position is strong.
“The Minister is also undermining his own Government’s taxpayer-funded advertising campaign with the tagline ‘the safer
the car, the safer they are’, by hiking costs for those who are helping to make our car fleet safer.
“It would be interesting to know what the associate Transport Minister with the delegation for road safety thinks about
the move that sees the cost for safer cars increased.
“This is typical of this Government, which prefers blanket approaches to levies and taxes, and it punishes those who
have taken steps to make themselves and their families safer through choosing safer cars.
“The Minister planned to increase ACC petrol taxes until there was a public backlash, so instead he is going around the
back door to extract more cash from Kiwi families’ wallets. It’s yet another Government rip off.”