Mackey Moana: Taxation (Urgent Measures and Annual Rates) Bill — In Committee 
Mackey Moana: Taxation (Urgent Measures and Annual Rates) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:651;Page:167] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 Well we just learnt from Mr Foss in that extraordinary speech that he does not want highly qualified skilled educated people coming from other countries to work in New Zealand because of the research and development tax credit to help grow our economy to grow our tax base and to pay for all the things that New Zealanders want paid for. The research and development tax credit has apparently been keeping people away from New Zealand and if we get rid of it—dumbing down our economy—as this legislation does that would be good for New Zealand. Well that kind of falls in line with the Speech from the Throne from the Prime Minister that we heard yesterday. We can gather from that that the only turbocharging we will get is a turbocharging of empty slogans and empty rhetoric. For all their talk about innovation for all their talk about turbocharging everything nothing in this bill does that—nothing. In fact it does the complete opposite. 
I wish the Minister for Research Science and Technology were in the Chamber so that he could speak to this issue. We asked him questions earlier because we wanted to confirm that the third of this money that is being saved from cutting this research and development tax credit will still go to Crown research institutes and universities to fund research; he refused to answer earlier on. He refused to answer but I think that the scientific community deserves to know whether that money will still go there. I am sure if Dr Paul Hutchison were in Cabinet he would have an answer like that because that is the kind of man he is. I am very sad that he did not get that portfolio; he worked very hard in it when he was in Opposition but no it was whisked away from him and given to someone else. 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: What’s his name? 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Oh I cannot remember. He has a lovely new haircut though. I say to Mr Foss that it is appalling that he stands up in this Chamber and says that he will not respond to the speech made by the Hon Jim Anderton. He deliberately said he would ignore his speech. Why? That is because he has no answers to that speech. He has no answers to answer why when we are going into a global crisis and when liquidity in the capital venture market will become more restricted we will be penalising and raising taxes on our most innovative companies. These are the companies that we should be putting front and centre and the companies that we should be saying are the ones that will help lift us out of this global recession and that on average export more pay more highly and grow our economy more. 
What is the National Party’s answer to that? The National-ACT - Maori Party Government will raise the taxes paid by those companies by getting rid of a research and development tax credit which is supported—for all that Mr Foss may say—by all their friends. We know that when National announced their tax policy people were flying all over the country to meet with Mr English to say: “Don’t do this. This is a huge mistake.” It is a mistake for the economy it is a mistake for our exporters it is a mistake for our manufacturers and it will be a mistake for New Zealand when it comes to growth and coming through this recession in a positive way. 
What Dr Hutchison says is that they just rort it—scientists just rort it. This is a member who went around the country campaigning on how we need to trust scientists we need to let them do their own thing and that there is far too much management of what they do. Then in the Chamber today he stands here and says that the scientists just rort it—it is not new stuff they just write down stuff they are already doing as new stuff so they are just rorting it. He also by the way wants to get rid of the $700 million Fast Forward Fund and direct the way that that goes as well and direct that solely to try to get out of the mess National has got itself into on the emissions trading scheme. 
I refer to Jacqueline Rowarth who is the Massey University director of agriculture. She said that she is incredibly concerned about the ramification of the removal of the research and development tax credit and she says: “Australia removed its R and D tax credit because it thought people were fiddling the books.”—as Dr Hutchison thinks—“Then it reinstated it within a year because the downturn was worse than that fiddling.” 
So when Dr Hutchison gets up and talks about how this is the way the world is going he is actually not telling New Zealanders the truth. The fact is that the Labour Government brought in this tax credit to make New Zealand internationally competitive. Members on this side of the Chamber understood that these kinds of policies will assist our small and innovative businesses our businesses that are going to lift our economy and our businesses that do a significant amount of exporting. Even Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O’Reilly who has been quoted by Dr Hutchison as saying he was opposed to it has said that we need to give this research and development tax credit time. John Key said that no one has taken it up yet. 
Then we heard from the Manufacturers and Exporters Association’s Mr Walley who said that that was a daft statement as the tax year has not even finished yet. How would John Key know unless he had the power of clairvoyance—and I am not saying that he does not claim to have the power of clairvoyance—how many people will take it up?