Road-user charges ‘not for Railways?

Press, 15 November 1984, Page 4

Road-user charges ‘not for Railways?

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington

The Government was committed keeping the Railways “New Zealand’s No. 1 freight-hauler,” said the Minister of Transport, Mr Prebble, yesterday..

He denied, however, that this was the thrust of the 46 per cent increase in roaduser charges announced in the Budget. The change was not merely a new form of protection for the railway system, he told the conference of the Chartered Institute of Transport in Wellington. Instead it should be seen as a move to end Government hand-outs to the road haulage industry in line with a

policy of recovering the full costs to the State of providing services. Mr Prebble estimated that the tax increase would add only about 3.5 per cent to the cost of town and rural cartage and said it would have “a minimal impact on the over-all rate of inflation.” He also said that the tax rise would ensure that competition between road and rail was kept on a fair and equitable basis given that the 150 km limit on road haulage was to be phased out.

“The Railways meets the full cost of maintaining its permanent way and so it is only reasonable that the

aviation and road transport industries should do likewise,’’ he said. “I know there will be complaints that the increases should have been phased in. “The problem is that there has been too much gradualism in the New Zealand economy. Too many decisions have been made on a short-sighted, ad hoc basis in response to sectional pressures, with little thought given to the longterm impact” Mr Prebble said State spending should be used to help , those most in need and not to subsidise industries which should be picking up the full costs of the services they used.