Roy Heather: Imprest Supply Debate — Third Reading 
Roy Heather: Imprest Supply Debate — Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:492] 
HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 It is extraordinarily difficult to compete with such a beautiful waiata. In speaking to the Imprest Supply Bill I would like to signal— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I want to clarify that the member’s speech is starting from now and not from when she was called. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Yes it is. 
HEATHER ROY 
: I thank Mr Mallard very much for making that point. I stand to outline the ACT party’s lack of confidence in this Government. It is very sad that the debate on the Imprest Supply Bill has been dogged by trivial speeches—in particular speeches made by members on the other side of the House—whereas there are matters of great importance for us to debate in this forty-eighth Parliament. The ACT party sees these issues in three categories: firstly the need for tax cuts; secondly the Labour Party’s denying of them in favour of welfare for families sometimes referred to as Working for Families; and thirdly the huge and considerable problem that welfare is in this country. 
At the moment Wellington is abuzz with rumours that company tax rates are about to drop. 
Hon Member 
: Are they really! 
HEATHER ROY 
: Yes apparently. ACT campaigned hard on that issue—[ 
Interruption 
] I hope it is not I say to Mr Henare and I hope it is the truth. Treasury briefing papers to the incoming Minister recommended cuts to the 39c and 33c rates of income tax but I do not think we are about to see that happen. ACT campaigned for those rates to drop and it was the only party to do so. Average families in New Zealand are no better off today than they were in 1999. Any increase in wages has been offset by legislation put in place by this greedy Labour Government. What would really help New Zealand families significantly today—and would have helped them for every day of the last 6 years—are tax cuts for every Kiwi worker. 
ACT will continue to campaign as will other parties on this side of the House to lower company tax rates and personal tax rates. The House should note seriously that 60 percent of voters in the election supported parties that promised lower taxes. Instead we have a Labour Government that steadfastly refuses to budge the personal taxation rate and at this point the company tax rate. What do we have instead of tax cuts? The Labour Government has to introduce legislation to accommodate interest-free student loans which will make more people dependent on the State and to institute an expanded welfare for families package—sometimes referred to as Working for Families. In effect instead of making people less reliant on the State this will turn another 350000 families into State beneficiaries. When the Working for Families package was first instituted the Labour Government turned an extra 150000 families into State beneficiaries. The expansion of the Working for Families package as promised by the Labour Government and about to be put in place by legislation will turn another 350000 families into State beneficiaries. 
Welfare in this country is already a huge problem. We have seen steadily increasing numbers of sole parents on the domestic purposes benefit. Unemployment may be dropping but we know that the number of people on the sickness benefit and the invalids benefit has increased steadily over the last 5 years. Over the last 5 years the number of people on the sickness benefit has increased by 35 percent and on the invalids benefit by 41 percent. The question is: have we suddenly become a very sick nation? No we have not. What we are seeing is a movement of people a massaging of statistics from the unemployment benefit directly on to sickness benefit and invalids benefit. We need to do something about it. Welfare does nobody any good—not the Government and not the taxpayer who has to fork out money to provide welfare for people. We should have a safety net; instead we have a safety hammock—a hammock that has become so distended that we cannot tell the truly vulnerable trapped within it from the people who are there because the incentives that have been put in place allow those people to take advantage of them—people who are able-bodied and should be moving into the workforce and contributing to New Zealand to the New Zealand economy and to New Zealand society in the meaningful way that many of those people would like to do. 
So this is about incentives—incentives that the Government should be encouraging and that the Government has the obligation to provide for New Zealanders. We should be encouraging hard work and we should be encouraging independence from Government. We know that most people want to work and we know that we have some very vulnerable people in our society. But by making people dependent on the Government we take away their independence—and their ability ultimately—to provide for themselves and their families. Yet we know that children who grow up in families that have one or two parents working are ultimately much better off. The reason that ACT does not support the incentives and initiatives the Government has put in place is that they are not the right ones. We want the Government to put the right ones in place. We want initiatives that encourage hard work we want people to be led by example and we want people to be independent of the Government. That is what is best for New Zealanders and that is what is best for each and every one of us. The Government has the ability and the responsibility to provide that for New Zealanders. The best way of starting that process is to provide tax cuts for New Zealanders. The surplus we have is absolutely outrageous. The only thing that the huge surplus we have at the moment should tell New Zealanders is that this Government is incapable of sorting out its Budget properly. It is taking more from New Zealanders than it needs to. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: It’s not theirs. 
HEATHER ROY 
: The member is quite right. It is not the Government’s money. It is taxpayers’ money that is being spent for them. Instead of being able to use that money themselves as they should that ability has been taken away from them. The people who know how to spend that money best themselves are New Zealand working families. That ability should be given to them and it is not at present.