The Mayor of Auckland says motorists can't demand better roads if they're not willing to pay for them.
A long-argued 10c/litre increase for the region is now only months away. The money will be spent on rail to the airport and a new tram system from the CBD to west Auckland and Mr Goff's old electorate of Mt Roskill.
The fuel tax has copped criticism from some people, but Phil Goff told The AM Show on Friday it's only right people pay their fair share.
"The current interim transport levy is unfair. You pay the same if you use the roads all the time, like I have to, and you pay the same if you're a pensioner.
"This relates what you pay to how much you use the roads."
Mr Goff believes it's not worth complaining about.
"At 10c/litre I can go between three different service stations in Auckland right now and I can find a difference of maybe 30c/litre in the prices.
"People say, 'well we'll go down to Huntly to buy our petrol'. Well I've got news for you, I called through there a few weeks ago and petrol is more than 10 cents a litre more."
He says it's a relatively small price for a large reward.
"If we get this in, it raises a reasonable amount of money, about $120 million a year.
"It goes into the Auckland Transport alignment project which is a bundle of projects, $27 billion worth of work we've got to do on Auckland Transport infrastructure in the next ten years.
"That's because we're adding 800 cars a week to the road and we're adding 50,000 people a year to the city."
Incoming Transport Minister Phil Twyford told The AM Show the levy is likely to arrive by March 2018.
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