Any weakening of the Clean Car Discount by regulation, therefore, risks being ultra vires.
Thom Drew, NZ director, Tesla 2024.
EVs are glorified. Utes are demonised.
Let’s go back in time for a moment to clarify. In post-war communist Germany in the 1940s, suspicion was at an elevated level. People were on tenterhooks wondering who were friends? Who were the enemy? You had to be careful. Parent against child, child against parent, neighbour against neighbour and pupil against teacher. It was terrifying. There could be imprisonment or worse: killed for being a traitor to the communist cause. A previous friend or member of your family could report any disloyalty you made against the ruling classes to the authorities. The war tore apart the fabric of people’s relationships. Instead of community adhesion, severe restriction of freedom was unleashed and fear bred mistrust in everyone.
In times of persecution, Christians seeking each other out could not talk openly about their faith but it is recorded one person might casually draw a half circle with their foot or a stick in the dirt. If the other drew the opposite it resembled a fish, a Christian symbol and they knew they were safe to talk.
At the height of the reign of Jacinda Ardern, the notorious socialist prime minister, Kiwis had to find out who remained a friend or who suddenly and unexpectedly became a foe.
There were many new regulations foisted upon the country that seemed daily to weaken the spirit then divide New Zealanders. Ardern even went as far as making it so costly that it was financially out of reach for many people to buy utes. She made it clear she wanted people out of fossil-fuelled cars and into EVs. The threat of taxing a popular NZ vehicle out of existence was in order, without any thought about the fallout.
I know one man who tested the waters with an old friend at the time, by saying, ‘I’m thinking of buying a UTE’. This brought howls of laughter and told the questioner all they needed to know about where their loyalties lay. They could then laugh together in the ‘face’ of Ardern’s socialist control.
The ute is the workhorse of New Zealand. During a recent trip around the East Cape of the North Island, it was noticeable that nearly every vehicle on these sometimes-remote winding roads was a ute. Comments were made that thankfully the socialist Labour Government has been thrown out as we coasters obviously need utes. It’s no surprise they are one of the most popular vehicles in NZ. What makes a ute so great is they are a reliable, robust vehicle with excellent ability on, or off, road and having sufficient load-carrying capacity for a small digger, the dogs, equipment for farmers, families and tradespersons for their daily lives and jobs, enabling them to get around anywhere in NZ, especially an isolated area.
National Party Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is all for Net Zero targets for Climate Change. Most people know this is a scam, but he will not acknowledge that. New Zealanders do wonder if his policies are ultra vires and he is merely a governmental overreach puppet for bureaucrats and globalists who pull his strings.
It sends shockwaves to find out, while the National Party coalition abolished Labour’s ute tax, thus keeping their voters happy for the 2023 election, they surreptitiously introduced a new tax.
The ute tax lite: an additional tax formulated by weight.
In an email, Thom Drew, Tesla director was not happy with the National Government’s response.
Excerpt from a proactive release file:
13 June 2024
Tesla New Zealand ULC
5 Ngauranga Gorge Rd
Wellington
New Zealand
RE: Tesla response to the review of the Clean Car Standard
The following is a submission by Tesla on the Ministry of Transport’s review of the Clean Car Standard, carried out in accordance with s175A of the Land Transport Act. We are aware that the Minister of Transport has only invited submissions from four handpicked organisations, but we hope that the Ministry will nonetheless take on board the information in this submission, and any other submissions from those the Minister has not formally invited comment from. […]
Drew finishes up with:
Any weakening of the Clean Car Discount by regulation, therefore, risks being ultra vires.
Thom Drew, the Tesla country director was not aware another ute tax was already on the drawing board. January 2025, the National coalition increased the Clean Car Scheme from $36 to $54 per gram. Every vehicle has a rated CO2 grams per kilometre. There is now no mistaking it. Trust has disappeared from the political landscape. At least Labour told us what they were doing. National do not care if owning a ute is crucial for some. Hardworking, already high-tax-paying Kiwis make up the backbone of this country and again are being taken for a ride with this additional tax by the politicians.
A potential ute owner is the one who must sweat over his bank account.
The ute tax is back!
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/clean-car-programme/clean-car-standard/
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2022/0285/latest/whole.html#LMS773853
