To be fair, Labour made an absolute pig’s ear of almost every infrastructure project they had a go at during their term, it seems a bit churlish of them to complain about National turning around and building roads.

If they and our councils had actually been competent at delivering infrastructure, we’d have trams in Auckland and Wellington, new ferries arriving next year with new terminals waiting for them, as well as better rail infrastructure.

But no, that’s not the world we live in unfortunately.

Definitely very strange.

It’s owned by Westland Mineral Sands Ltd, although I’m not sure if that means they are the legal owner, or lease the vessel. It’s very odd, that’s for sure.

Yes, the amount of excise added to fuel is public information.

Also, our fuel market is quite competitive, as long as you have one of the independent retailers in the area at least. Someone will be the first to move, and the others will follow.

I definitely agree with you there.

I’ve got a diesel vehicle myself, I’d love a system that automatically pays RUCs. They exist, but are aimed at businesses with a fleet of vehicles.

With electric vehicles, while they operate purely on electricity, taxing it would be a nightmare as you can “refuel” an EV anywhere.

Given an ever increasing amount of vehicles are either plug in hybrid or EV, this is probably the best way to do this.

It’s also an election promise, and part of the coalition agreement, so not really a surprise.

Or a flatmate.

$3250 a year, which is steep, but that’s the cost of doing business for a small council.

I mean, the alternatives are far worse.