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Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill (Consistent) [2024] NZBORARp 10 (14 February 2024)

Last Updated: 5 March 2024

14 February 2024

LEGAL ADVICE

LPA 01 01 24

Hon Judith Collins KC, Attorney-General

Consistency with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990: Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill

1. We have considered whether the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill (the Bill) is consistent with the rights and freedoms affirmed in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (the Bill of Rights Act).
2. We have not yet received a final version of the Bill. This advice has been prepared in relation to the latest version of the Bill (PCO 25124/8.0). We will provide you with further advice if the final version includes amendments that affect the conclusions in this advice.
3. The Bill is an omnibus bill that amends the Road User Charges Act 2012 (the Act), and various associated provisions. It also revokes the Road User Charges (Exemption Period for Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Order 2012 (the Order).
4. The Bill provides for light electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) to pay road user charges (RUC) from 1 April 2024, following the expiry of the Order on 31 March 2024 that exempts certain light electric vehicles from the RUC regime.
5. In particular, the Bill amends the Act, and associated regulations and land transport rules, to:
   1. require certain light electric vehicles to buy a RUC licence;
   2. allow for the setting of a reduced RUC rate for PHEVs;
   100. exempt certain very light electric vehicles from the payment of RUC; and
   4. introduce a two-month transition period during which light electric vehicle operators may be relieved of criminal liability for specific offences connected with the operation of a light electric vehicle without a RUC licence.
6. The Bill also makes consequential amendments to various regulations and land transport rules to ensure that definitions and transitional arrangements are consistent.
7. We have concluded that the Bill appears to be consistent with the rights and freedoms affirmed in the Bill of Rights Act.
   

Jeff Orr

Chief Legal Counsel Office of Legal Counsel