Tisch Lindsay: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Tisch Lindsay: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6510] 
LINDSAY TISCH (NZ National—Piako) 
: 
 This brings us to the end of the debate on a tax that the Opposition will not be supporting—for the reasons we have been articulating during the Committee stage. When we look at the schedules we see that it is nothing but a tax increase and a “tax by stealth” as the ACT member has just said. If we were to take into account how much money is collected now to meet the accident compensation levies it is 39c per litre plus GST. Of that 39c 2.3c per litre is going towards accident compensation. That amount will be increased under this bill to 5.08c per litre. That is a 120 percent increase and it cannot be justified at all. There is also the 18.5c per litre that goes to land transport funding and another 18.5c that goes to the consolidated account. The argument we have put up is simply that the tax has already been collected. If more money needs to go into the accident compensation account it should come out of the consolidated account and it can be moved across for that purpose. But no this Government has gone out and said: “ We’re going to increase the taxes.” 
What is very concerning about this bill—and it is a point I have raised in previous debates—is that it provides that the Government does not have to come back to the House to have future increases scrutinised. The Government can do it by regulation. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: Very bad. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: It is very bad. It is absolutely intolerable that the Government can increase that tax in future without having to come back to this House for the matter to be scrutinised and debated. There is no transparency; no accountability. That is what this Government is imposing on everybody who drives a vehicle. 
This tax will hit those on fixed incomes—the mums and dads at home and people who are retired. They do not have the means to go out and earn extra income to be able to pay a 120 percent tax increase. We have seen this done before in the term of this Government. Other tax increases have come in and Muriel Newman alluded to some of them. The income tax rate for those earning over $60000 per annum went from 33 to 39 percent. The fringe benefit tax increased from 49 percent to 64 percent. The income tax for trusts in respect of minors went from 19.5 percent to 33 percent. We saw the tobacco excise tax increase from $7.30 to $8.20. 
We saw the increase in the petrol/diesel road-user charge and what a debate that was! We saw the alcoholic beverages tax go up and that was the issue we debated until 5 to 5 in the morning. The Government said that tax was supposed to target binge drinking and under-age drinkers. But once again it mostly hit those who like a port or a sherry at the end of an evening. The accident compensation levies for self-employed people increased. Then just the other day we heard about the flatulence tax that will bring in $8.4 million. In the schedule of the bill we see this tax increase in the accident compensation levy. National certainly opposes that increase. 
Interestingly in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 today there is an article by Colin James under the headline: “Clobbered by the sneaky taxes we don’t see coming”. The tax we are talking about today is one of those sneaky taxes.