Williams Andrew: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5728. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I will take a call on behalf of New Zealand First in relation to Part 2 of this bill the Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill. This does come as— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Sorry the member cannot refer to Part 2. That debate has gone. We are now debating clauses 1 2 and 3. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: Yeah. OK Mr Chairman. OK. Sorry Mr Chairman. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: It is wide-ranging—title and commencement clauses. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: It does concern us what has been dropped on us here in terms of this bill in relation to beneficiaries superannuitants and those in the country. This is a pretty miserable late-minute thing that the Government is doing here in terms of just sliding something through that is again an attack on beneficiaries and those who are in need of support from the State. 
The reason I was a bit slow getting to my feet was that I was just doing some calculations on this in terms of the CPI and was looking at the effects of the CPI on superannuitants and on beneficiaries. When you are looking at a single-income beneficiary on about $400 a week or a couple on a bit over $600 a week and if you are looking at the difference in the CPI effect because of taking tobacco out of the CPI or keeping it in it is such a small amount of money from the point of view of the Government’s revenue but it can actually have an impact on the beneficiaries. Although to us it might not appear a lot of money every few dollars every week adds up. I think it is really very much a situation of penny-pinching again on the part of the Government that a few dollars out of every beneficiary’s pockets could be affected through the adjustment in the CPI by not including tobacco in the CPI. 
 It really is back to the “Fagin Budget” that I have mentioned in Parliament on a few previous occasions. The Government has already taken money off the paper boys and the paper girls—taken $14 million off them. Having taken $14 million off the children of this country now it is going to adjust the CPI so that the CPI also reflects that tobacco is not included in the CPI. It is really getting down to real miserable penny-pinching - type budgetary constraints. In that regard it is creating a situation in New Zealand where you have a CPI for some and you have a CPI for others and where the CPI applies to those with money on a higher level of CPI and those who are on welfare support have a different CPI adjustment. 
In particular in regard to the senior citizens in this country and those on superannuation—many of whom are not smokers; many of whom have not smoked—why should they be penalised and have some sort of alteration to the CPI adjustment and an increase simply because this Government wants to be miserable and claw back some money because of the 10 percent annual increase each year for the next 4 years on cigarettes? You know it really is starting to bite close to the bone in terms of our senior citizens in particular and those with disabilities and those on welfare who through no fault of their own and in times of difficulty due to ill health or disability or because they are aged are requiring support from the State. 
New Zealand First will not be supporting this part of the bill. We do support the overall thrust of the bill in terms of the health aspects and reducing cigarette smoking and tobacco consumption but when it gets down to starting to penny-pinch to attack those who are the most vulnerable in New Zealand society— 
Denis O’Rourke 
: And the elderly. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS 
: —and in particular the elderly who would be affected by a reduced adjustment on their superannuation increases from the CPI being cut back in terms of beneficiaries—then I am sorry but this is another case of the Tory Government being very miserable to people who deserve better. So New Zealand First will not be supporting this part of the bill. 
Clause 1 agreed to.