Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:666;Page:13474] 
1. 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: When he told the House on 9 February that New Zealand taxes consumption at a relatively low rate was he aware that New Zealand had the sixth-highest rate of consumption taxation in the OECD as a percentage of GDP; if not why not? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 When I made the statement that the Leader of the Opposition refers to I was aware that 23 out of 29 OECD countries had a higher rate of GST or VAT than New Zealand. Only Canada Japan Switzerland Korea and Australia had lower rates of GST. My statement was therefore 100 percent correct. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: In calculating the figure in the way that the Prime Minister has chosen to has he taken into account that actually New Zealanders pay more GST because there are hardly any exemptions whereas most of the other countries at the ordinary headline rate have major exemptions? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes. It is called broad based - low rate and it was designed by Phil Goff and his Government in 1986. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: I seek leave to table the OECD statistics extracts that show that New Zealand before the GST increase has the sixth-highest rate of consumption taxes as a percentage of GDP. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Can I check? I seem to have a recollection that— 
Hon Phil Goff 
: No it is a different document from yesterday’s. Yesterday’s document was a bar graph showing that; this is the actual extract from the OECD. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I apologise. It is an extract from an OECD document? 
Hon Phil Goff 
: OECD statistics extracts. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Why did the Prime Minister push consumption tax GST up still further when he had promised not to? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: As I said some time ago when I was asked whether GST would rise it was in relation to covering deficits. That is not why we are raising GST; it is because we are also lowering personal income taxes. What I do know is that the last time GST was raised in this country—I think it was in 1989—by the then Labour Government there was no compensation for anyone. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: I seek leave of the House to table this document which states “National is not going to be raising GST”— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Before anything is quoted from the document we need to know what the document is. What is the source of the document? 
Hon Phil Goff 
: The source of the document is actually originally a video of what the Prime Minister said on television. This is from the  
New Zealand Herald 
. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: We are not going to be tabling statements from videos. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Will the increased rate of GST take more from low to middle income people as a proportion of their income than from wealthy people? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I do not believe so no. 
Hon Member 
: What world did you live in? 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Mr Speaker I am sure that is not the world that you lived in; it was directed to the Prime Minister. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It was the member’s colleague who interjected inappropriately. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: What is the Government’s estimate of how much in dollar terms the increase in the rate of GST will add to the average price of a new home for a first home buyer? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I do not have that to hand. If the member wants to put it in writing I can get it for him. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Would the Prime Minister think that if the average cost of construction is about $300000 the extra price that a new home purchaser will be paying is about $7000 to $8000 extra in tax? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: That may or may not be correct; we will need to work our way through that. What I can say is that the two most important factors in the affordability of a home for someone are interest rates and his or her after-tax income. Under a National Government— 
Hon Phil Goff 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think the Prime Minister answered the question by saying he did not know. That was the answer and the rest of his answer is extraneous. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do accept the point of order that it was a very very tight question and therefore there should not be further information given on it. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: How many letters has the Prime Minister received recently like the one that I have in my hand which was copied to me but addressed to him saying the relentless increase in Government charges like accident compensation road-user charges and soon GST and taxes on property has put this man out of business and he—Mr Key—is out of touch with the costs facing ordinary income earners in this country? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I get about 2000 pieces of correspondence a week so I cannot tell the member exactly. What I can say is that I have never had a hand-delivered note written by a member of my caucus telling me that I am “outski”; that is for sure. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: I seek the leave of the House to table the letter that I have just referred to in which the gentleman concerned said Mr Key has effectively put him— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table a letter from a New Zealander apparently. Is there any objection to that? There is objection.