Katene Rahui: General Debate 
Katene Rahui: General Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5681] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 I will continue on the theme of what is happening on the blog sites. The name Bob Buckle rarely featured in the bloggers’ forums until a mere 3 months ago when the Minister of Finance Bill English and the Minister of Revenue Peter Dunne named him as the chair of the Tax Working Group charged with the simple task of guiding the fiscal outlook over the medium term. This week Bob Buckle is the name on every website as the debate intensifies about the relationship between GST and the drive to increase the efficiency of the economy. 
The figures all look pretty seductive. Lifting GST to 15 percent would raise an extra $2.1 billion a year. If the tax was set at 20 percent the figure would jump to $6.2 billion. That sure looks fine until we see the fine print. Bob Buckle’s panel of 14 private sector and academic experts noted that there may be fairness issues: “Increasing the rate could impact on lower-income or vulnerable households especially in the short run”. Those are probably the same lower-income or vulnerable households who featured in the Ministry of Social Development households report that reported in 2008 that one in six New Zealand children still lived in a household below the very lowest poverty levels. They are probably the same lower-income or vulnerable households who have caused the cost of emergency food grants to jump by a massive 75 percent since the maximum limits were doubled a year ago. They will be the same households that the Salvation Army has seen reporting in greater numbers than before for food parcels. In the 3 months to June there was a colossal jump in the supply of food parcels—a 40 percent leap to an average of over 4000 parcels a month. Within that group will be the beneficiary families with children who missed out on the in-work tax credit. 
It was fascinating to read the reflections of former Minister Annette King about the policy crisis that emerged in the previous Government regarding Working for Families. In a  
Listener 
 article she said “We’ve got another group of kids who haven’t benefited from that at all. And that’s people who are on benefits. We’ve got to rethink our policy in terms of how do we have an element of universality for our children in the way we give it to our old people. It’s unfinished business.” That is a very important concession by the former Minister and I think we must pay attention to it. I want to commend Mrs King for taking note of the policy priorities we have been promoting within the Maori Party including the proposal of universal tax cuts for very low-income families and a universal benefit for parents who are raising children. The question is one of how we look after our lower-income or vulnerable households not when we should do so. The urgency is surely obvious to all in this House; we must do it now. The issue is about meeting the basic needs of New Zealand families: food on the table a roof over their head warm clothes security stability and hopefully even happiness. 
One solution I have been considering is to put before the House a bill to remove the GST on food. We know that such a move would mean cost savings on food at a time when food costs have increased exponentially and are continuing to do so. Although all consumers would benefit from lower food costs people on lower incomes tend to spend a greater share of their income on food so they would reap a greater benefit as a portion of their income. In putting this bill forward the Maori Party is conscious that neither Australia nor the United Kingdom charges GST on food. The approach of those countries has been to exempt most foods from GST except for restaurant and take-out foods in Australia and lollies chips ice cream and chocolate biscuits in the UK. There is another agenda: although we are saving the pennies we are also saving lives by promoting healthy eating with food choices such as fresh fruit and vegetables. 
Finally I acknowledge the efforts of the people’s procession to Parliament that resulted in a 23000-strong petition being presented to my colleague Hone Harawira and me last October. The Maori Party has taken up the call of those people and we will do our utmost to remind everyone in this House that a responsible Parliament is also a caring Parliament. The taking of GST off food would provide us with a golden opportunity to make the difference. Thank you.