Woods Megan: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Woods Megan: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2440. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to join the great tax debate of 2012 following the Budget. Are we here today to debate the re-gearing of the New Zealand economy to turn it into a productive economy that will deliver jobs growth and a decent income for New Zealanders? No we are not. Instead we are here to literally raid the piggy banks of the nation’s youth. We have been told by members opposite that this is just petty cash. Well this just shows that this is a Government that is out of touch and does not realise what this money means to these kids. The Government is closing the loopholes and we have got the great euphemism in terms of it trying to crib back this $117 million—it is that the Government is “tightening these tax credits including the active income from children.” I love the language. So here we have it: part 3 of the great economic strategy; the one that started with a cycleway then moved on to the “Holiday Highway” and part 3 ladies and gentlemen is the paper route. Is this the brighter future that we were promised?  
One can only imagine the policy discussion that took place: “It’s time to crack down on these little bludgers. They’re getting away with far too much. They’re not paying their fair share. Get more out of them!”. So there we have it—$117 million clawed back pinched from the pockets of our kids. The Government needs the income the members opposite tell us and what do they need the income for? Well it is our children who are being pick-pocketed to pay the $120 million tag of flogging off our assets. The Government is clawing back $117 million from the pockets of the children of our nation but we could be saving that by simply not paying the bill to sell our assets.  
Labour opposes this Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill because it is mean-spirited. We oppose it because it just shows that this is a Government that is out of ideas. It is a Government that has no plan to fix the economy. It has no plan to create jobs and it has no plan to deliver higher incomes. Instead what it is doing is targeting young people. The Budget is targeting young people and it is disincentivising them from going on and achieving their potential in tertiary studies and post-graduate studies. The most mean-spirited part of it all is that it is taking back a little bit of an incentive for kids to work. These are the hard-working children of our nation who are eventually going to get on a jet plane and leave our country because we are not sending messages of hope and we are not sending messages that there is a future in New Zealand.  
This is a Government that is certainly not delivering a brighter future for any child in New Zealand. This pernicious piece of legislation which has come before the House this afternoon is showing the very little value that this Government puts on our nation’s youth. It is not a laughing matter. We have been accused by members opposite of not taking it seriously. We take the abandonment of the children of this nation by members opposite very seriously and I am proud to stand here and oppose another part of the abandonment of the children of New Zealand in this legislation.