Parker David: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParker David: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18875. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID PARKER (Deputy Leader—Labour):Why you would vote for Labour is if you want a better country. That is what we stand for. Today we released our alternative budget. We are not going to be diverted by the cynicism of our political opponents or the exaggerated and incorrect attacks by people who frankly have been unbalanced and unfair in their criticisms.I have not got time to go into that today. I am going to be focusing on the positive agenda that the Labour Party will deliver if we are elected and as today’s announcements show in our alternative budget everything is paid for plus we are in surplus. We do collect additional revenue from the capital gains tax which is largely a tax on those people who are the wealthiest in society. In fact the top 5 percent of asset holders pay the vast majority of any capital gains tax.We apply the additional revenue we collect to things that make the economy stronger the cost of living lower and people’s lives better. We give taxes back to business through a research and development tax credit and through accelerated depreciation. We give tax credits to all of the other people who come into a universal KiwiSaver and we give them their Kick-start payment. We provide some additional money to low-income families through the Best Start package because we know it is disgraceful that in this country we have got rising rates of child poverty.We do something serious about housing. Our tax pushes that way with our capital gains tax. Our KiwiBuild policy is funded through money the Crown borrows initially to build the houses that are onsold to New Zealanders who pay the money back to the Government. This is all shown in this budget. There is a small tax increase for the highest income earners in New Zealand. It applies to the 2 percent of New Zealanders who earn more than $150000 per annum. Their tax rate goes up to 36c in the dollar which is a far lower rate than applies for example in Australia. Our tax system becomes fairer and funds other services that we need. We increase the trustee tax rate to 36c as well so that we stop trusts being used as tax-avoidance vehicles. We crack down on multinational tax avoidance. All of this is spelt out in this document which shows that everything is paid for plus we are in surplus. Indeed our surplus is slightly larger than that which the Government projected in its Budget.We restart contributions to the Cullen fund because we believe in a sustainable superannuation scheme. That is why we report our debt figures as net debt including the Cullen fund. Otherwise that is misrepresented by the Government. By the end of 6 years we repay net debt down to 3 percent of GDP—i.e. we pay off all of the debt that National has clocked up over the last 6 years. We know how to do that because we ran nine surpluses in a row when we were last in Government.Our policies upgrade the economy. We upgrade the economy towards better-paid jobs more secure jobs career paths and hope for our young people and a fairer distribution of income and therefore less inequality in our country. Currently we have got the lowest rate of homeownership in 50 years and homeownership rates are still dropping. We have had a huge increase in the sale of luxury cars. We have got increasing rates of child poverty. We have got increasing gaps between incomes in wealthy suburbs and poorer suburbs in Auckland. And yet the Prime Minister denies that we have got rising inequality.Our fiscal plan is responsible. We do balance the budget while we invest in a future for New Zealand that is more prosperous and more fair. The revenues that we garner more than cover our modest increases in expenditure. A lot of those increases in expenditure are themselves tax cuts in other parts of the economy. I am sure that our plan is going to go down well.