News Release from The Republic of New Zealand Party
Sunday 14 October 2006-10-15
For Immediate Release
Toll Roads Rip-off
The Republic of New Zealand Party (The Republicans) has called on New Zealanders to rise in protest against plans to
charge tolls on new roads.
“This is nothing more than theft from the taxpayers,” says Wayne Hawkins, Deputy Leader of the Republicans
He referred to the recent increase in petrol tax of 5 cents a litre which brought tax for roads on a litre of petrol up
to 41.2 cents.
“We were told the increase was to pay for new roads, so what’s happened to that?”
He said taxpayers have been paying for roads for decades through taxes on petrol, but the money has been put into the
consolidated fund rather than used on roads.
“So here we go again, we the taxpayers are going to have to carry the can for their corruption, bad management and
misappropriation of the taxes they’ve collected from us.”
He said the message that should be sent to Wellington is clear..
“You raise money for roads either by taxing petrol or imposing tolls, but you can’t have both.”
Mr Hawkins said the Republicans would ensure that all monies collected for roads were spent on roads.
“It’s a simple proposition. If you collect taxes for a specific purpose, you use them for that purpose. We are happy to
be accountable for that.”
ENDS