Nash Stuart: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Nash Stuart: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:4044] 
STUART NASH (Labour) 
: 
 I stand in support of this Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill. I support it because it removes an insidious promise which was hawked to the people of New Zealand that the Nats always knew they could never implement. I contend that there was so much information in the market before the election that Mr Key Mr English Mr Tremain Mr Foss Mr Williamson and anyone who read the newspaper knew exactly what they were doing when those members promised tax cuts to their electorates and the people of New Zealand. The unsuspecting people of New Zealand did not know that this was one big lie but they know now. Mr Foss asked who knew that this was the state of the economy. Well I knew. I read the newspaper I watched the television and I read  
The Economist 
. We all knew that the economy was going to hell in a handbasket but those members stood up and promised tax cuts. All the members on that side of the House promised tax cuts. All the newspapers were full of news of the recession— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Michael Cullen said the worst of the recession was over. 
STUART NASH 
: That member was fully aware that the recession was not over at all. If National members did not know that before the election then certainly they would have known when they convened after the election and rammed legislation through the House under urgency. The National Government would have known when the tax cuts were rammed through the House under urgency before Christmas that they were totally unaffordable. I ask Mr Foss what that was about. It was about a facade of hard work in the first 100 days. What happened? It was a fraud. It took National 100 days to put them there and 150 days to get rid of them. That is real action but it is not what was promised. 
What did National promise? Let me tell members what Mr Key said to the people of New Zealand. He said: “unlike Labour I’m going to be straight-up about my priorities. That’s why I’m sending a card to all of you. It’s called My Key Commitments to You and it will be delivered to every household in New Zealand … In it are 11 commitments that I make to you.” Those commitments were to “strengthen the economy increase after-tax incomes and ensure Kiwis can get ahead under their own steam by reducing personal taxes on 1 April 2009 1 April 2010 and 1 April 2011.” The unfortunate thing was that it was music to the ears of New Zealanders but now National is singing out of tune. The tune has changed the song is tired and it is off key. 
Paul Quinn 
: More opera! Move on from the opera! 
STUART NASH 
: Mr Quinn might like his opera but goodness me this message is tired old and sad and it was a lie. Mr Key went on to say: “unlike Labour we won’t cancel our tax cuts.” Is that clear—“unlike Labour we won’t cancel our tax cuts.”? What are we debating at the moment? We are debating the repeal of the tax cuts that were put in place by last Christmas. National members gave New Zealanders a Christmas present and they took it away by Queen’s Birthday. 
Let us look at our Labour leader Phil Goff. He has been delivering for the working people of New Zealand for over 20 years. Mr Goff knows what New Zealanders want because he has been out there talking to ordinary New Zealanders out in the markets. He knows what they want because he has been out there on the streets. What has Mr Key been doing? While Mr Goff was talking to ordinary New Zealanders Mr Key was manipulating the money markets of the global world. He was making honey from the New Zealand currency. Mr Goff negotiated the New Zealand free-trade agreement with China which as businesses big and small understand was the most important measure of growth strategy ever negotiated in New Zealand’s history. Mr Goff is a man of his word. When Mr Goff says there will be tax cuts he will deliver on them. He never promises New Zealanders something that Labour cannot deliver. Mr Goff is a man of integrity and honesty and he has never engaged in the politics of cynicism and deceit. 
That is the difference between Mr Key—“Mr I-will-not-cancel-tax-cuts”—and Mr Goff. We have just heard what Mr Key promised and then reneged on within 150 days. Let me tell members what Mr Goff said: “One of the things about the fifth Labour Government of which I am the most proud is that we honoured the promises on which we were elected. We not only honoured those promises but we in fact after each election over-delivered on the promises that were made. We under-promised and over-delivered. The challenge to this new National Government is to do likewise.” 
Mr Goff threw out that challenge to the Government. It has taken only 250 days for it to fail miserably. In fact the people of New Zealand issued that challenge. “I say to Mr Key”—and these are Phil Goff’s words—“that he will be judged on his ability to do that.” Mr Key and Mr English with this bill have been judged and found guilty of deceiving the people of New Zealand. As a member of the jury which also consists of every single New Zealand voter I say that the sentence is to have a one-term Government only. That will be the verdict of ordinary New Zealanders up and down this country once they understand that the promises of tax cuts were nothing but empty rhetoric designed to deceive. 
The politics of cynicism and negativity—I hate that and according to my e-mails and texts so do the people of Napier the businessmen and businesswomen of New Zealand and the Kiwis all around the country who are struggling to survive and to make ends meet. This bill removes one of the biggest deceits imposed upon New Zealand since Muldoon cut the New Zealand superannuation scheme set up by the Kirk Government. Can members imagine the Budget and the state of the economy now if Mr Muldoon had not axed that superannuation scheme? But wait a minute—Bill English has also cut payments to the Superannuation Fund and the Government has said that it will not be starting them up again. Well it will start them up but not until Mr Tremain turns 65—great! This bill is about cancelling the tax cuts. It is about cancelling a promise to New Zealanders. As it has been debated I have looked across at the Government benches and seen some pretty angry people. I saw John Hayes—it is pretty hard to miss him actually—and he looked as if he was about to explode. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Or fall asleep—it’s hard to tell. 
STUART NASH 
: Ha ha! He was an angry man; he was a very angry man. But it was only because he knows that by cancelling those tax cuts the seat of Wairarapa will be coming back to Labour—as will the seat of Napier. Mr Hayes knows it. He went out to the people of Masterton and promised them tax cuts for 3 years in a row. So the people voted for him but they voted for a lie. Not only did he do that but when Mr Hayes realised that the tax cuts were not going to be delivered he turned as white as a cream puff. Why? He knew that 75 percent of the people of Wairarapa earn under $40000 a year. Therefore they would get nothing. That is right: they got nothing out of the promised tax cuts. Then he probably thought that he could get away with that—that the Government had cancelled the tax cuts but that he could get away with that because the Government would deliver them in 2010-11. But this bill has taken away even that. It has taken away any promise on which he could go back to the people of Wairarapa and say “We delivered for you.”; this bill just takes away that ability to deliver. 
Carol Beaumont 
: Tax cuts for the rich only. 
STUART NASH 
: Tax cuts for the rich! But that is the story throughout the country. Mr Tremain wrote in the paper in Napier that tax cuts would help the hard-working people of Napier. But I ask him how that will work. How will that work when over 75 percent of the people in Napier earn under $40000 a year? Therefore they will receive nothing. How much will they receive? 
Carol Beaumont 
: Zero. 
STUART NASH 
: Zero—75 percent of the people in Napier will receive nothing and that member has just cancelled any hope they might have had that at least they might receive something in the next couple of years. Paul Quinn was almost in tears when the member realised that this bill was forever removing tax cuts and forever consigning him to Opposition in the future. He was angry— 
Paul Quinn 
: What? 
STUART NASH 
: I tell the member that he was an angry man and I was worried. I was pleased to see Mr Coleman in the Chamber because I thought that he was going to have to administer CPR. This bill is not about the Budget; this bill is about broken promises to the people of New Zealand—the people of Wairarapa the people of Napier and the people of Tukituki. But that is not what politics is about. It is no wonder that people are cynical when the Prime Minister stands up and starts promising things. Mr Goff understands that the promised tax cuts—now gone—were not and never would be stimulatory because 30 percent of the original tax cuts went to only 3 percent of the people of New Zealand. What is that about? Is that stimulatory? Absolutely not! If members knew anything about first-grade economics they would know that that was economic vandalism—absolutely.