Hide Rodney: Taxation (Annual Rates and Urgent Measures) Bill — First Reading Instruction to Finance and Expenditure Committee 
Hide Rodney: Taxation (Annual Rates and Urgent Measures) Bill — First Reading Instruction to Finance and Expenditure Committee 
[Volume:628;Page:218] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the ACT party to oppose the Taxation (Annual Rates and Urgent Measures) Bill. I was very heartened to hear from Brian Donnelly because one of the things that has happened with New Zealand First is that part of its—what is it called I ask Mr Brown— 
Gordon Copeland 
: Enhanced supply and confidence agreement. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: —enhanced supply and confidence agreement— 
Peter Brown 
: You mean you don’t know what’s going on? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well it is hard to keep up with what is going on with New Zealand First; it changes on a daily basis. But I know that Mr Brown is really on this side of the House so we are brothers. 
I was very pleased to hear Mr Donnelly say that New Zealand First members will support this bill going to a select committee because it is part of their enhanced confidence and supply agreement but they have had problems with it and they will give it a good look over in the committee and I suspect we may see some changes in this legislation following select committee examination. 
Hon David Carter 
: No no—the bauble won’t allow it. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: No they will—Brian Donnelly and Doug Woolerton will—because this bill is wrong. Let me just point out why. We had a big election campaign and several political parties went out and campaigned for lower taxes. I just want to go through the list of those that did. First of all there was the National Party which succeeded with 48 MPs—it had big support. National wanted large-scale tax cuts. Next was New Zealand First which succeeded with six MPs plus Winston Peters and it wanted large-scale tax cuts. In fact New Zealand First wanted to drop the company tax rate to 20c in the dollar. We had United Future which went out and campaigned for large-scale tax cuts. In fact its estimate of the cost was about $2.5 billion—I think I am correct. United Future particularly wanted the company tax rate to go down to 30c in the dollar. The Maori Party to my left campaigned for large-scale tax cuts particularly for low-income workers but it also wanted the company tax rate dropped to 30c in the dollar. The Greens actually campaigned for lower income taxes but they wanted the money collected in the form of pollution levies and resource taxes. 
Darren Hughes 
: This is yesterday’s speech. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Members should listen to Darren Hughes and look at him. I thought that after one term in Parliament he would have grown up. [ 
Interruption 
] Dover Samuels is calling out; that is the man who lost his seat. Dover Samuels is the man who lost his seat and he wants to sit there and call out. The only one who is being quiet is David Benson-Pope because he knows that there is a police report sitting in Crown Law with his name on it and he is not prepared to say anything. 
Darren Hughes 
: Get out of the gutter. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I would suggest to Darren Hughes and Dover Samuels that unless they want me to reveal the contents of that police report they should be quiet and let me deliver my speech in peace. We have 65 MPs out of 121 in this House who campaigned for lower taxes and what does the Clark Government do? It sticks tax rates at the same level. That is wrong. So this bill is opposed by the ACT party and I hope it will eventually be opposed by United Future and New Zealand First true to their word to the people of New Zealand. 
What else happened today? Well at 4.30 in the afternoon—and we always have to read the stuff that this Government releases at 4.30 in the afternoon— 
Hon David Carter 
: What did it say? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: It was a report from Treasury. We discovered that there is one department left that is not cowed by the Clark-Cullen Government and will actually stand up and speak the truth. What is the truth? The truth is that this economy cannot prosper cannot succeed cannot sustain the current tax rates and it called for lower taxes particularly the company tax and the high rates of tax on high-income earners but also and most important the high effective marginal tax rates on low to middle income working New Zealanders. That is what Treasury called for. Have not Labour members gone quiet now! They know they are wrong on taxes. The public has said they are wrong because they elected the majority of MPs to this House on a promise of lower taxes. 
We learnt something else this afternoon. This Government is sitting on a surplus of $8 billion. 
Mark Blumsky 
: A mountain. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: A mountain of money—and that is after it has wasted truckloads of hard-working taxpayers’ money on twilight courses on the wananga— 
Darren Hughes 
: On Pipitea Street. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: —and I say to Mr Hughes on police reports on David Benson-Pope showing that he is guilty and that he misled the House. That is what they wasted the money on because the public is not allowed to see that report. Nineteen students said that it happened and David Benson-Pope stood up in this House and said that it did not and he is not prepared to let the public of New Zealand see the police report about what the ex-students said. Nineteen students who were in the class that day said that that member lied to the House in the last term when he gave his answer in this place—19 students. 
So I would like Darren Hughes to reflect on that. We drag the police in to do a report like that and they do the report but no one is able to see it. That is because they have a problem—because Mr Benson-Pope told the police he did not do it but the investigating police officer told me that it happened and that the evidence is overwhelming. 
So the people of New Zealand miss out on their tax cuts. The Labour Party unilaterally declares that working New Zealanders—that includes low to middle income working New Zealanders who face the highest effective tax rates in New Zealand and it includes the entrepreneurs who create the wealth and the jobs for all of New Zealand—are going to miss out on tax cuts. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Shane Jones will like this. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Shane Jones is all right because he got a tax rate last term of 19.5 percent for Maori authorities. Maori authorities got 19.5 percent. They did OK but everyone else has to pay 33 percent for their business. 
Gordon Copeland 
: I thought you were arguing that everyone should have 19.5 percent. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Absolutely! I do not mind Shane Jones’ Maori authorities getting 19.5 percent. All I want and I stand with the Maori Party is that we should have one law for all New Zealanders. Let us have 19.5 percent for every New Zealander. The tragic thing is that the Government can afford it. 
There is something else we are voting on—and I would like to hear from United Future and New Zealand First about how to justify this. I know that Labour Party members say they justify it because they just did it as an election bribe but how does one justify taking off the taxpayers of New Zealand $2 billion in a hit and handing it across to graduates? How can one in good conscience stand up in this House and say: “I will vote for this.” which takes $2 billion off New Zealanders who are earning $30000 or $35000 or $20000 a year—the very people Darien Fenton purports to represent; those who do the cleaning the cooking on $12 an hour or less—and give it to the accountants— 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: The dentists. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: —to the dentists to the doctors and to the lawyers? And Gordon Copeland is going to stand up and vote for that theft from hard-working New Zealanders. So too is New Zealand First. So too I think is the Green Party. How can they possibly take $2 billion off the working poor of New Zealand and give it to the graduates who are earning $60000 $70000 $80000 or $100000 over a year? How can they in good conscience do that? I say that this bill is a shocking thing.