{"id":25637,"date":"2025-09-16T10:43:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/25637\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T10:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:43:06","slug":"christopher-luxon-says-he-hasnt-discussed-hiking-fuel-taxes-at-this-time-but-cabinet-has-agreed-to-a-12c-hike-in-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/25637\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Luxon says he hasn\u2019t discussed hiking fuel taxes \u2018at this time\u2019 but Cabinet has agreed to a 12c hike in 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hipkins asked Luxon about the cost of vehicle registration fees, which went up $25 this year and will go up $25 next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Nicola Willis bailed Luxon out with a patsy question, first trying to get Luxon to \u201cconfirm\u201d whether one of the first things the Government did on taking office was to repeal Labour\u2019s planned 12-cents-a litre hike \u2013 which is correct, National campaigned on scrapping Labour\u2019s fuel tax hikes.<\/p>\n

Speaker Gerry Brownlee, who has taken a tough line on patsy questions being used to attack a former Government, ruled that question out of order.<\/p>\n

Willis came back, asking whether the Government had increased petrol taxes since it was elected. This was a way of asking the same question Willis was trying to ask before, but in a way less likely to get her in trouble with the Speaker.<\/p>\n

Luxon answered in the negative.<\/p>\n

Hipkins then weighed in, asking, \u201cdoes the Government plan to increase petrol taxes by 12 cents a litre\u201d.<\/p>\n

Luxon replied to this, \u201cthe Government has had no discussions about increasing fuel taxes at this time … \u201d<\/p>\n

This piqued Hipkins, causing him to make a point of order to Brownlee, noting that the Government\u2019s own document, the Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport had promised a 12-cents-a litre hike in 2027.<\/p>\n

He asked Brownlee whether Luxon would be asked to correct the answer.<\/p>\n

Brownlee noted it was Luxon\u2019s prerogative to correct the answer.<\/p>\n

The Government agrees to fuel tax hikes in its GPS on Land Transport, a document which it usually publishes every three years.<\/p>\n

The most recent GPS scrapped Labour\u2019s planned hikes, but increased registration fees and promised a 12-cents-a litre increase in January 2027.<\/p>\n

The GPS was agreed by Cabinet and tabled in the House.<\/p>\n

Hipkins\u2019 claim that Luxon needs to correct the answer rests on the fact that it is not correct the Government \u201chas had no discussions\u201d about increasing fuel taxes \u2013 Cabinet not only discussed hiking fuel taxes, it agreed to do it.<\/p>\n

Luxon\u2019s defence rests on the interpretation of \u201cat this time\u201d. If it refers to not increasing fuel taxes \u201cat this time\u201d, then he is probably safe, as fuel tax won\u2019t go up until 2027. If the phrase refers to discussions themselves, then the answer may be incorrect and he would need to correct it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hipkins asked Luxon about the cost of vehicle registration fees, which went up $25 this year and will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[25903,18516,3469,1975,138,3013,6727,25906,16426,25904,19342,71,2678,266,25905,6871,25901,692,24826,25902,78,6721,25907,16427,1362,6722,111,139,69,24637,21411,415,2687,312,9343,2373,1961,2044,61,8238],"class_list":["post-25637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-12c","tag-18516","tag-agreed","tag-at","tag-business","tag-but","tag-cabinet","tag-cents","tag-christopher","tag-correct","tag-discussed","tag-from","tag-fuel","tag-government","tag-hadnt","tag-has","tag-hasnt","tag-he","tag-hike","tag-hiking","tag-in","tag-labour","tag-litre","tag-luxon","tag-made","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-parliament","tag-pressure","tag-prime","tag-saying","tag-says","tag-statement","tag-taxes","tag-this","tag-time","tag-to","tag-under"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}