Peters Winston: General Debates 
Peters Winston: General Debates 
[Volume:611;Page:8127] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 One has to wonder whether the Labour Party remembers who put the surtax on who brought in asset testing against the elderly and who removed the elderly as a priority from hospital waiting lists. The Labour Party did that. Mr Mallard well knows— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Who promised to take the surtax off? 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: I promised to take the surtax off and we did. There is nothing like listening to a dog with a cleft palate. It is like some fullback waiting for a high ball—“Arc arc Mark!”—and he would not know what is going on. Mr Mallard knows full well that I did not dine with Gerry Brownlee last night and his colleagues all know it. So why would he say it unless he is a “you know what”? I cannot use the word but someone who says something he demonstrably and palpably knows not to be true is a “you know what”. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like to make it clear that I did not indicate that Gerry Brownlee was eating with Winston Peters last night. That was the other dinner last night. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That is not a point of order. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Today I asked the Minister of Immigration a question. She said she knew nothing. There is nothing surprising about that. Then I sought leave to ask a further question and the Minister of Finance—of all people—denied me leave. He did not want to know. The story that I am talking about is a fraud on the New Zealand Government that has been perpetrated by immigrant operators and foreign fly-by-nighters. The loss to New Zealand revenue amounts to an acknowledged $10 million per annum by the Inland Revenue Department in Wellington but the local Inland Revenue Department assessment is that the loss is at about $30 million per annum. I will explain how it happens. There are about 50 million trays of kiwifruit—I am not talking about squash and all the other orchard apples I am talking about just kiwifruit—being harvested in 2003. The labour costs for picking and pruning are $2 a tray. That is $100 million in labour alone. At the February 2003 fruitgrowers association meeting Andrew Fenton chairman of the board of Satara and the Bay of Plenty fruitgrowers’ representative on the New Zealand Fruitgrowers Federation reported to those gentlemen and women that at a meeting of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers Federation the Inland Revenue Department had made a presentation during which it admitted that 70 percent of contractors operating within the Bay of Plenty area were not paying or accounting for GST PAYE or accident compensation. 
Dail Jones 
: Good gosh! 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Of course—good gosh! The Minister of Finance does not want to know about it. It also said that the money involved was in excess of $10 million in that simple assessment for 2002 but the local Inland Revenue Department says that it is more like $30 million. If we assess those 50 million trays at $2 a tray and 70 percent of the contractors operating are not paying it then we know what is going on. We have foreigners ripping our revenue off. We have foreigners who are causing a significant loss of revenue and the Minister of Immigration even though Inland Revenue Department knows about it is so inconsequential so hopeless that she is not even consulted. 
Jill Pettis 
: Oh Winston stop telling tall stories. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: It must be market day—the fishwife is out again. 
Jill Pettis 
: I’m stone sober. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Well there is no sign of that—no sign whatsoever. 
Ron Mark 
: Next thing she’ll be saying she’s sensible. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Yes exactly. Next she will be saying she is sensible and sane. I ask this Government why it has done nothing about it. It works like this. The orchardist contracts with the contractor for $10000—this is as an example. Then the contractor gets two subcontractors in both of whom are foreigners and they contract half of that contract less the GST $8000 or $4000 each. The contractor invoices the orchard for $10000. Then—and I will call them Mr and Mrs Singh or Mr Singh and his brother because it is usually the Singhs who are doing it in the Bay of Plenty—they invoice the contractor for $4000 each. Then they have a second and third invoice system; they then write invoices from and to themselves. They write the cheques and get the cash and GST PAYE and accident compensation is all lost as it goes down the line except in the first $2000 of GST. That is it—a very simple scam widely known by the Inland Revenue Department to be operating. This Government has done nothing about it whilst it is out penalising farmers with the fart tax and it will introduce a happy tax or a happy bill that says: “If you are not happy you need more holidays.”