Ryall Tony: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:606;Page:4095] 
Hon TONY RYALL (NZ National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 We are now speaking to clause 2 “Commencement”. I just observe that on Saturday I will be going to the opening of the new Catholic secondary school in Tauranga. I think the people there will be very disappointed to hear that Mr Copeland and the united Christians have voted for this bill. When I tell them that the commencement date will provide for the first racially based tax concession in New Zealand’s history I do not think that that will go down very well with the many hundreds of people who will be there to hear me inform them that that is what the united Christians stand for. Why is that Minister proposing to compound the error of that special provision by allowing it to come into force before other provisions in the bill that will benefit the community as a whole? Why is he compounding his error by allowing that provision—clause 65—to come into force before the provisions that benefit the whole of the country? That is a very important point. 
The National Party is saying up and down this country that it does not think that there should be tax concessions based on race. The one standard of citizenship that the Hon Bill English our leader—the next Prime Minister—has talked about should be reflected in taxation. It is clear that New Zealanders are yearning for a Government that will put the ethos of the “spa pool liberals” in Cabinet to one side. National will not pursue race-based policies. I want to hear the Government justify why a trust whose beneficiaries are Pakeha cannot distribute funds to those beneficiaries at a tax rate of 19.5c in the dollar. Why do my kids have to pay 33c in the dollar in their tax payments as children and yet my neighbours’ kids if they are Maori can have their trust distribution taxed at 19.5c in the dollar? They can go to the same school and travel on the same bus as my kids but because their parents or they are beneficiaries of one Maori trust or another they will be treated differently and that is wrong. 
I am opposed to any commencement date that will allow that to happen. So I have moved an amendment to delay the introduction of this bill until 1 July 2006 when the next National-led Government will repeal those provisions. We will repeal those provisions. I tell the Government that everywhere I go Bill English is getting a big tick for raising the issues that I am raising in this debate. The Government knows that because its focus groups tell it what our focus groups tell us. This is an issue for which the time has come and Bill English is the leader who has the credibility and the presence to be able to advance that argument more than any other leader in this House. That is what New Zealanders say. 
Why do my kids have to pay a higher taxation rate if they receive a distribution from a trust than some kids down the road who just happen to be Maori? Why should that happen? [ 
Interruption 
] I say to Mr Duynhoven that that is not right. Why should Mr Duynhoven’s children have to pay 33c in the dollar but someone else’s children pay 19.5c in the dollar? It is just not fair. There is the argument that for all the beneficiaries of Maori trusts their effective tax rate is 19.5 percent. How patronising it is to Maori to say that they are all on the lowest tax rate so that is what we will make the tax rate. That is atrocious; that is patronising. What about saying to people that they will be treated the same as others? That is how they would get ahead—not with this sort of patronising nonsense.