Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop has defended not campaigning on the increase to vehicle registration fees, and says it's not a broken promise.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown unveiled a new draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport on Monday, setting out plans for 15 new Roads of National Significance, and a $500m fund for fixing potholes.
This would be paid for in part through a $50 increase to the cost of vehicle registration, with $25 increases next January and again the following year - something National never campaigned on.
The party had also criticised Labour over a gradual 12-cent increase in fuel taxes, and promised not to increase fuel taxes in its first term. Brown kept that promise - but set out a plan for a 12-cent increase to kick in from January 2027, with further increases bringing the total to 22 cents in 2029.
Labour accused the government of having broken two promises, and saying it would only worsen the cost of living.
Heading to a party caucus meeting on Tuesday morning, Bishop disputed that.
"It can't be a broken promise when we did not talk about it during the campaign," he said.
"Look, you can't spell out in explicit detail every single thing you will do in government. You have to campaign on core policies and commitments ... we campaigned on an extensive and comprehensive manifesto which we are seeking to deliver.
"Ultimately New Zealanders will get a chance to judge National on that plan at the 2026 election."
He said the promise they had made was that they would not increase fuel taxes in their first term, which they were living up to.
"We're raising the fee that hasn't changed for 20 years, I think it's completely legitimate and ultimately New Zealanders will get to make their decisions around whether or not they think it's a good idea or not in due course."
Asked if there were any further fee increases the government was considering, he merely said: "well, we're working through our Budget process now and I'm not going to get ahead of the minister of finance, it's not that long to go till the Budget".
He said the registration fee increase was a pragmatic response to the need to invest in roads and maintenance.
"It's not surprising that people don't like paying for stuff, there's no doubt about that, but also there's no free lunch. The roads have to be paid for, we have to account for how we will pay for those roads. We need to set the long-term funding environment and the funding settings to make sure that we can deliver on those projects."
"We campaigned on no increase to fuel tax .... the reason we did that is that inflation then, as now, is still high. It's coming down, we need it to come down quicker and we need it to get down to the 1-3 percent rate.
"We've laid it out in a very upfront and transparent plan, and New Zealanders will get a chance to assess that plan as the months and years go by."
Finance Minister Nicola Willis, when asked why they had not campaigned on the fee increase, said the party "hadn't considered that at that time".
"We did not contemplate this prior to the election because we hadn't looked at vehicle registration fees," she said.
"As New Zealanders know, we have made a commitment not to increase petrol tax, we are keeping that commitment. We're also removing the Auckland Regional Fuel tax.
"What we've also done is looked at the fact that this is a fee that hasn't been increased in a long time, it's fallen behind inflation and we're making that adjustment."
The increase would have less impact than the increase to fuel tax the previous government had proposed, she said.
Brown said National had been "very much, very clear about what our priorities are, our priorities are to build and maintain the roading network and the motor vehicle registration will help contribute".
"We're not increasing FED and RUC during this term, we're keeping to that commitment, we're going to make sure that we have the funding to actually build and maintain the network and those funds are going to go straight back into making sure we fix the potholes on our roads."
He said the annual cost of registering a vehicle had not been increased since 1994.
National's Transport Minister Simeon Brown announcing the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Asked if National should have campaigned on the registration fee increase, he said the party had "been really clear about what our priorities are, and that's what we've outlined yesterday around motor vehicle registration fee".
"What they voted for was building and maintaining our roading network and that's what we're delivering."
When asked, he would not say when the government had made the decision to increase the fee.
"We made those decisions through the Cabinet process and those Cabinet decisions were confirmed yesterday, I'm not going to go through every single detail," he said.
He also confirmed the motor vehicle registration cost included several components including contributions to the National land Transport Fund, ACC, and a fee to pay for the register's administration.
Labour's Transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said National should "absolutely" have warned voters about the increase in vehicle registration fees during the campaign.
"The National Party campaigned on cost of living pressures and reducing them. To effectively tax drivers, by whacking an extra $50 bucks on them and lumping up the fuel excise by 22 cents is not what New Zealanders were expecting."
Labour's Transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
He said National made a big deal of saying its transport policy would be fully funded and fully costed.
"Just a couple of weeks ago they were critical of Labour in that space. What we're finding now is that they simply cannot make their numbers add up and they're scrambling to try and pull everything together.
"National went to the election saying that they were not going to introduce any new taxes, this is a drivers tax that Kiwis were not expecting and many will be very blindsided by it."
They were also showing they did not value climate action, he said.
"What they're doing is effectively taking money out of a bunch of different activities ... they're looking to effectively raid some of the public transport funding activity, these are not good moves in terms of the future and protecting what is important for many Kiwis."
He said the plan was about prioritisation, and what National's one signalled was "that actually they don't care about many things including the cost of living pressures. They're very happy to make decisions that will have huge impacts on households and Kiwis deserve better."
"They're clearly looking for where they can find money because their figures have not added up ... it's very clear that they cannot do maths."
Labour's David Parker, who unveiled the previous draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport in August, said National had just said anything they needed to, to get elected.
"I think this is a pretty serious issue, this one" he said. "I don't think the National Party were straightforward with New Zealand electors before the election.
"There was plenty of evidence out there before the election that they were undercooking the costs of the roads of National Party significance by many billions of dollars, there's since been a report provided to the government by a government department to say that the amount they're short of is between $8b and $22b on the spending side.
Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
"They always knew that they didn't have enough revenue, they pretended they weren't going to put up road user charges and petrol tax and now they have."
He said National "said anything that they thought they needed to, to get elected, and now their lack of candour is coming home to roost".
The 12-cent increase in January 2027 to fuel excise and road user charges - and the subsequent increases up to 22 cents in 2029 - would be harder on people than if it was brought in more gradually as Labour proposed, he said.
"None of us want an increase to our excise duty and road user charges but you need the money to pay for roads - which is what we said. It would have been far better if this came on gradually rather than one big hit as it's going to, because people will feel it a lot more in the pocket."
Labour's leader Chris Hipkins said National should have been upfront about how they were going to pay for their transport plans.
"Everybody told them before the election that their numbers didn't add up," he said.
"You can go back and you'll find a litany of quotes from Christopher Luxon saying 'nope, they're all rock solid, we're being transparent, we know how we're going to do this, we understand the economy', turns out they actually had a secret plan all along they didn't share."
