Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:16259] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 I am pleased Madam Assistant Speaker that you did not use the words you were going to use when you were talking about the other parties. I knew you were going to say “those other fantastic parties” which would have been humiliating to National and Labour. 
Today we saw the start of the tax wars. We have heard a lot about them and we have had skirmishing for months. But today was the start of the tax wars and we now know what the Labour-led Government is going to deliver. We know in detail because we have the tables to support it and we have thresholds and all of the tax credits lined up for Working for Families. But what we did not hear today was what the other side of the House would deliver how much it would deliver and when. On Monday we saw John Key resiling from the $50 per worker statement he had made but at this point we do not know what National is offering in the tax cut debate. 
It is all very well for National members opposite to get up and go on about the tax changes in this bill and I am surprised and delighted that they are supporting them but it is the first time they have supported a tax cut in the 9 years of this Government. They have voted against every tax cut that has been put up by the Labour Government and now they say they are going to support one. If that does not tell us that an election is coming up nothing will. But we do not know how much National will put up. 
I do not for one minute think that National will win the next election but I want to put this scenario out there for people to ponder. I want to look at what would happen the day and the week after the election if National were to win. 
Hon Member 
: Horrible thought. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Yes it is a horrible thought. It would go like this— 
David Bennett 
: Don’t worry about it. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: David Bennett would not even be asked God bless his soul. An interviewer would say to Mr Key: “You promised at one stage before the election that you were going to deliver a $50-a-week reduction in tax for every worker in New Zealand. What’s the story?”. He would reply: “Oh well Mr Interviewer it’s different now because the books are not what we thought they were. There have been changes we have to look to the future and we have other things happening. We have some prime problems in America and we have a tightening economy. We can no longer deliver on those $50-a-week promises we made earlier.” 
Actually I am wrong. That actually happened on Monday so after the election it would be: “No we can’t deliver on $25 a week. No we cannot agree on $16 a week.” They would give nothing in tax cuts after the election if they were to win it. We know that because of the history of the National Party. 
There was one thing that I was very very pleased with today as the Budget was read out. New Zealand First was afraid because we lived through the last hiccup in the international economy and had to stand by and see pensioners’ pensions cut. I listened for that in this Budget and pensions were increased—as they should be. Even in America they understand that when an economy is starting to look at a recession they need to prime the pumps to a degree. National does not believe that. That is what happened when Jenny Shipley was Prime Minister and forced us into more of a recession than we should have had at the time. 
I have read with interest the comments of the Federal Reserve chairman in America who said on several occasions that they have learnt something from 1929. That guy studied it; that is his bag of chips if you like. He said that they cannot leave it just up to the financial markets in a recessionary situation. And they have primed the pumps big time. They have done everything they can to support the financial institutions in America and by goodness they needed to because they have surely done some stupid things. That is where John Key came from interestingly enough. I do not know whether he has learnt anything but this is definitely not the time to be cutting pensioners’ incomes. I am pleased to see and New Zealand First is delighted to see that that has not happened. 
New Zealand First would like to have seen the first $5200 of people’s incomes to be tax free. We would like to have seen that threshold put in there and we will fight in subsequent years for that to happen. We think it would have made sense to reduce GST to 10 percent. That is easy to do and is something that would help people during this period and we would like to have seen that happen as well. 
We would also like to see incentives in the taxation system in order to help exporters and we will keep pursuing this issue. Mr David Carter can get up shortly to confirm this. We were in the Primary Production Committee this morning as it happened and— 
Hon David Carter 
: I’m going to get up now Doug. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: The member will get up in a minute to confirm this. We were in the Primary Production Committee meeting and were told that since 1990 productivity on farms has increased by 100 percent while the rest of society’s productivity has increased by only 50 percent. So farmers are facing a hard time right now. We believe quite clearly that farmers should have incentives to write down their plants and machinery and all of those sorts of things more quickly because that is what is needed at this time. National does not believe in priming the pump in tough times. It believes in cutting and worsening the situation. One would hope that in the future National members will take some lessons from the Federal Reserve in America and do something about it. 
People may wonder why New Zealand First goes on about superannuitants and why it is so important that their position—particularly their financial situation—in society is protected. We go on about it because we know—and other people in this Parliament should know—that it is the pensioners the people who are retired nowadays who in many cases are paying for school uniforms for school fees and for children to go away on school programmes. It is the grandparents who in many cases are paying those fees for their children and grandchildren. We believe that money that is put into that sector of the economy has an immediate return and therefore it is good for the whole economy not just for superannuitants. 
So as well as for reasons of dignity we believe that there is a real and sensible reason for putting money into the hands of superannuitants and that is that in most cases it goes right down two generations. Madam Assistant Speaker you like me would know that not every parent thinks that their daughter-in-law or son-in-law is the greatest thing since sliced bread—in fact there has been many a television programme made about such things—but there is no grandparent I know who does not love unconditionally his or her grandchildren. That is what superannuitants spend their money on that is why their position in society should be protected and that is why we fight for them.