The milieu of commentary is about whether, over the years, Aucklanders have paid petrol taxes which have benefited other regions more than themselves, or vice versa, and who it is that knows what they are talking about.

The fact is that there are many benefits to all of us as a nation (and for the planet) if the reliance on fossil fuels is able to be diminished.

Not least of these is New Zealand's balance of payments deficit.

The regional fuel tax enabled the marginal pricing of fuel to encourage the use of alternatives to consumption where these were available.

The replacement regime has removed $420 million from public transport funding.

Silly "them and us" nonsense such as "it was time that road users had their share" is not going to do anyone any good.

Nice comment #8 - with auckland so synonymous with power cuts recently why provide an even bigger burden on the power grid lol. Seems like we'll be paying to upgrade their power station next - maybe they should put a toll on the bridge between rich and poor cause it's certainly getting longer!! cheers national

This will probably be the first of many tax increases National will impose to help pay for the income tax cuts they promised and said were affordable.

Good - but not enough. Tax it more. Cars pollute the air, cause congestion, road rage, boy racer problems, a sense of entitlement that is unhelpful to community living - and they kill so many people! Bring back public transport, bikes and good walking spaces. Keep cars to a minimum and we will all be much better off.

"C'mon Kiwi's lets just get on with fixing this country and bringing us up the OECD rankings - back to wealth and prosperity. Its bloody hard out there and frankly National can't do any worse than Labour did in 9 years" In reply to Timmys above statement I have to say what a bunch of rubbish, under the previous labour government we had budget surpluses, record low unemployment and economic growth whereas under the previous right wing govt of ruth richardson and roger douglas we had rising govt debt, asset sales,high unemployment, stagnant economy and NZ still dropped down oecd rankings! Lastly in times of recession why is the national govt raising petrol taxes, sacking public servants (making unemployment worse) and no stimulus package of any sort. This is at odds to the proactive approach to managing the recession undertaken by Australia, China, UK, USA and europe.

You have to be a complete and utter moron if you think this means the rest of the country will be paying for Aucklands roads. Considering Auckland contributes more than 1/3 of NZ's tax intake we are subsidising the rest of you!

Regionalising all taxes and government spending would be fantastic for Auckland. Doubly so because we'd get to laugh at all the idiots with tall poppy syndrom crying now.

The Labour Government were going to increase petrol 3 cents a litre over the the same period anyway.Inland places like Queenstown and Wanaka are already paying up to 6 cents a litre more than the metropolitan areas and they are going to be lumbered with another 6 cents. No wonder they are up in arms. It would be fair to all if petrol was the same price over the whole country. It may be a small increase overall but the inland areas would not be penalised to the same extent.

80% of petrol already is TAX we dont need anymore on it on top of that registration is also 1 big TAX and aside from this if the money is going towards things like trains why aint the train commuters fitting the bill??? Road users already have to pay enough for roads with a TAX on a TAX on a TAX so why should we have to pay for trains as well??? we dont ask the train commuters to pay for our roads do we???

@ #25 quite frankly Matthew I think you're full of it.

Sure the country needs good roads, but only where roads are the most efficient way to meet the transport demand Taking Into Account Population Density And Journey Distance. To move people in cities, the most efficient way to do this is by public transport and/or cycle/pedestrian lanes.

In the rural sector, roads and automobiles are the most efficient way to go, again due to journey distances and population density. Also you will find that the roads require less maintainence as they are used less.

You will find that what annoys people from other parts of the country the MOST is not as much that they have to spend money in Auck so much as they seem to repeatyedly make the same mistake. Might as well have a tax dollar fueled bonfire.

"Joyce said regional petrol taxes would have been costly to administer and unfair."

Could he elaborate?

There is a statement from a North Shore mayor in this morning's NZ Herald, giving his "heartfelt thanks to people in the provinces for their generous contribution towards sorting out Auckland's transport problems".

To not endeavour to regionalize the funding for major transportation projects is totally "unfair".

Costly....? Well, there are existing systems for petrol tax, road tolls and road user taxes etc.

John Key mentioned the price of petrol changing at the Bombay Hills. Well, don't have borders with high marginal changes. With modern computer graphics it would be easy enough to map all the retail outlets. It would be easy enough to determine "a spread" for the new transportation asset and have the levy high near the asset and "fading away" with low marginal differences between neighbouring outlets. The levy would be centrally collected and applied to projects as it is now, but there would be much more "fairness".

Steven Joyce made a comment the other day about the elderly "cottoning onto the free public transport available with their SuperGold Cards and the likelihood of consequent increased subsidies in the future". The elderly are not stupid. They are well aware of their SuperGold Card benefit, but most of them choose to drive their cars.

The other very important aspect with the application of marginal rates of fuel tax is that it encourages the use of the asset for which it is paying. The farmer or person in the countrytown has no option but to drive to the city for supplies once a fortnight, or so. The person near to the asset has an option to use it.

And who is paying for these discounts on fuel that large supermarkets are able to offer with the purchase of groceries - 10c per litre I saw on a Countdown sign yesterday?

Joyce is showing typical National Party ignorance and churlishness when he says, "it was time that road users had their share".

If that isn't an ignorant "them and us" to the country's detriment, then I have never heard one.