The fuel tax retreat

The Government is pushing through Parliament legislation allowing local bodies to impose additional petrol taxes of 10c  litre to fund roading and public transport in their areas.

There is nothing in the legislation suggesting this will be phased in, but suddenly Helen Clark is claiming it is ridicolous to suggest people will be paying more next year for their petrol, and any new taxes will be phased in over many years,

I challenge anyone to go back to when this law was announced and see if you can find any reference to phasing such taxes in and not allowing it to be implemented in one go.

They say they won’t allow any big increases in the fuel tax.  That pledge will last as long as Labour’s 2005 pledge to cut taxes – until the day after the election.