Mapp Wayne: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Mapp Wayne: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:16324] 
Dr WAYNE MAPP (National—North Shore) 
: 
 I have to say to the Minister of Foreign Affairs that he has supped at Helen’s cup altogether too long. If he thinks that Norway Iceland Sweden and Finland are the best examples for New Zealand then he is simply wrong. If he thinks that the best thing that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade can do is to build an embassy in Stockholm as a solution for our trading problems he is simply wrong. 
What is demonstrated by this is that that party New Zealand First is voting against the China - New Zealand free-trade agreement—the agreement that actually promises the most for New Zealand’s trade with the fastest-growing economy in the world. And what is he doing? He is voting against it. It is the prize of his ministry and what is he doing? He is voting against it. I say to Mr Peters not to tell us what we think about wise expenditure in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I say to Mr Peters to go and ask the voters of Tauranga whether they think the highest priority for New Zealand Government expenditure is a new embassy in Stockholm. How many of them will say: “Oh yes Mr Peters you are absolutely right. We clearly have to vote for you on that basis.”? I say to Mr Peters that he is welcome to try that line and see how far he gets. The truth is that Mr Peters has spent too much time on the ninth floor and obviously has been seduced. That is all I can say. 
This bill is clearly at the very heart of Labour’s Budget. Actually in truth there was not much else in the Budget except wasteful expenditure. I would have to nominate Stockholm as being at the top of the list. The second one I would nominate is the $47 million spent on rebuilding Government House in Wellington. I have been up there a couple of times. It does not seem very bad to me. Quite a bit of money has been spent on it over the last few years. Yet this Government has issued a press release saying that this is a really important Government House is part of New Zealand’s cultural heritage. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: Extravagance! 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: That is exactly what it is. It is extravagance and the public will see right through that. 
New Zealanders can make a different set of choices about sensible Government expenditure. The choice is not between Labour and all its $47 million and this is the tax cut; or National and no more doctors no nurses and tax cuts. That is not the choice that New Zealanders will be facing. We can sensibly reprioritise expenditure and do better than this tax cut. For National this is but the first instalment. We will announce in our own good time when we will have our tax cut package and New Zealanders will have an absolutely clear choice on that. 
One of the interesting things about this Budget is the choice that Labour made on broadband. It is much more interested in 19th century technology and spending $620 million on that plus apparently hundreds of millions of dollars more than spending $1 billion on broadband. Broadband is National’s choice. We have said clearly to the public of New Zealand that National will spend $1.5 billion on broadband. What has Labour said? It will spend $300 million to $500 million. That is the interesting issue. I listened to the speeches made by Mr Key and Helen Clark. Helen Clark spent her time reminiscing about the Springbok Tour about the Viet Nam War and about Sir Robert Muldoon’s numerous Budgets. She is very much mired in the past so it is not surprising that she would spend her time focusing on 19th century technology. What will National do instead? National is looking forward to 21st century technology and that is why it is prepared to spend $1.5 billion on broadband to power this country ahead. That is the symbol of the Budget: Labour 19th century technology; New Zealand First embassies in Stockholm; National broadband technology for the 21st century. 
A very clear issue in this election will be how we deal with the next decade rather than the 19th century. New Zealanders will have a very easy choice to make—a bigger tax cut than Labour will deliver a bigger tax cut than New Zealand First will deliver and 21st century broadband technology.