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Speaker 1: Government shifting all light vehicles off fuel excise and into

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Speaker 1: the road user charges system the rucks from as early

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Speaker 1: as twenty twenty seven. There's a bunch of other stuff

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Speaker 1: going on too, like more toll roads coming your way,

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Speaker 1: new toll roads, I should add, so it's not like

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Speaker 1: they're going to toll existing ones. And also council is

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Speaker 1: going to get more power to up parking fines. Jeff

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Speaker 1: Upson is the Rodney Local board member and road safety campaigner.

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Speaker 1: He's with US Live this morning.

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Speaker 2: Jeff, morning, right, how are you doing? Good?

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Speaker 1: Good, Good to have you on the show. What do

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Speaker 1: you reckon about everyone? It's an even playing field with

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Speaker 1: the rucks, I suppose.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean it's a fear system. So what

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Speaker 2: it means is that it doesn't matter how big your

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Speaker 2: engine is, you're now going to be paying per kilometer traveled.

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Speaker 2: And this is a system that we've had for years,

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Speaker 2: for decades for all diesel vehicles, and obviously all the

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Speaker 2: battery powered cars have now moved to the system as well,

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Speaker 2: where where they pay a rate per kilometer t on

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Speaker 2: the roads. And and so this way we will be

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Speaker 2: able to collect the money will still be collected for

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Speaker 2: road maintenance, you know, fixing potholes. Unfortunately, when labor gets

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Speaker 2: back in, it'll be used for building speed bumps. Again,

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Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not looking forward to that part of it,

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Speaker 2: but in the meantime it will be used for road maintenance. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: What about the if you're filling up a lawn mower

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Speaker 1: or a boat or something at the petrol station, would

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Speaker 1: that be cheaper then?

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Speaker 2: Well? Absolutely, yeah, because at the moment, if you're filling

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Speaker 2: up your boat or your law mower or you know,

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Speaker 2: your you're whatever you're filling up, you're paying road tax

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Speaker 2: on that. And so, so what what it means is

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Speaker 2: that once this shift happens, it'll be cheaper to mow

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Speaker 2: your lawns, It'll be cheaper to take the boat out fishing,

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Speaker 2: It'll be it'll be when quad bikes on the farm.

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Speaker 2: So so farming will then become a little bit cheaper,

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Speaker 2: which which will obviously help the the food production costs.

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Speaker 1: I suppose the worry would be people who can't afford

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Speaker 1: to pay them. You know, I can't apport forward to

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Speaker 1: pay the road user charges.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is something that I've been talking

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Speaker 2: about since March when Simon Brown originally announced it in

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Speaker 2: the government policy statement on Transport, and I have heard

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Speaker 2: from from certain people that it will be quite difficult,

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Speaker 2: you know, especially the lower socio economic areas. It'll be

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Speaker 2: quite difficult for people to manage manage their spending, you know,

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Speaker 2: because at the moment it's very simple. You know, you

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Speaker 2: fill up your car at the pump and everything is included.

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Speaker 2: Whereas this new system, it does mean that people will

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Speaker 2: have to pay for the petrol at the pump and

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Speaker 2: then they have to pay for their kilometers separately. I

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Speaker 2: have heard there's a bit of issue there, and I've

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Speaker 2: heard that people are going to try and steal from

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Speaker 2: the government, you know, which already happens with diesel vehicles,

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Speaker 2: where people wind their speedos back to try and get

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Speaker 2: away without paying the road user charges and things like that.

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Speaker 2: But I think, I mean that that is a reality

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Speaker 2: that is going to happen. But I think with modern

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Speaker 2: technology now it's a lot more difficult to wind your

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Speaker 2: speedo back. And also every time a vehicle goes in

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Speaker 2: for a war on a fitness that they'll be checking

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Speaker 2: the kilometers and if a vehicle is at arears, this

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Speaker 2: is it already happens with diesel vehicles, if a vehicle

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Speaker 2: is in areas the transport agency simply sends an invoice

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Speaker 2: for the different kilometer, So wherever you're overdue, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Kind of comes out in the wash. Jeff, thank you

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Speaker 1: for that. Jeff Upson, Rodney Local Board member, just the

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Speaker 1: guy that is to draw giant penises on the road

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Speaker 1: to identify where the potholes were so that they would

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Speaker 1: get fixed. He is now with the Rodney Local Board.

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