Parker David: General Debate 
Parker David: General Debate 
[Volume:673;Page:19828] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 I thank Sir Roger Douglas for his contribution. It is good that it is on the record and I would just add that in addition to that Telecom received regulatory protection that we still have not been able to unpick because the Government has not been transparent about what it has done. 
I want to respond to the theme of National’s contributions today which is to accuse Labour of tax and spend. National members say that whenever National changes a tax from one form to another decreases income tax—weighted to those who are best off admittedly—and then increases GST to pay for it that is a tax switch but if any other party changes the tax mix that is spending. That is the essence of their argument in respect of any change to the tax system that Labour might propose. For us to change the tax system is tax and spend; for them it is a tax switch. Well we deny that and I am sure that the media will see through that. It is not true. 
Anyone who knows Phil Goff knows that the allegation that is least likely to stick to Phil Goff is one of being profligate. He is not a tax-and-spend person. He is fiscally prudent as was the last Labour Government which reduced Government debt so that we had net positive assets in the Crown by the time we left office—so much so that when the Hon Bill English took office and when the global financial crisis hit he said the Government books were in good order. That was the rainy day that the Government had been saving for. Of course it was not his Government; it was the prior Labour Government. All of those Budget surpluses that we ran were opposed by National which called for unaffordable tax cuts that would have further fuelled asset and price bubbles. 
The National Government has wasted its political capital. We are increasingly hearing commentators saying that. Some Government members might ask why I say that. The reality is that we have a long-term problem in New Zealand of rising total debt. Only about 10 percent of it is Government debt; 90 percent of it is private. What does the Government’s Budget show? It shows that every year from here on it gets worse. We have a rising current account deficit. Even if we strip out the reinsurance proceeds coming into New Zealand from the insurers who insured against the Christchurch earthquake we see that this year we have a current account deficit despite flat domestic demand and record commodity prices internationally. 
David Bennett 
: Show us some passion. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Every year hereafter I say to Mr Bennett his Government’s projections show the current account deficit getting worse blowing out to 6.9 percent of GDP by 2015. The net international investment position gets worse every year. That is the measure of how much New Zealand owes to the rest of the world net of what we own in the rest of the world and on that basis we are one of the most indebted countries in the world already. Every year from here on under the settings of this National Government New Zealand gets poorer. That is projected in this year’s Budget to go to negative 85 percent of GDP by 2015. 
We have heard slogans from National members. They said that we would have a better future that we would have a step change in the economy that we would say goodbye to higher taxes rather than our loved ones and that they would close the wage gap with Australia. The wage gap with Australia has become bigger and is getting bigger. The step change in the economy is not coming; that phrase has dropped from their language. The better future is no longer being promised. Their slogans did not work and their policy proposals did not work either. They said mining in national parks would make the big difference but they abandoned that. Then they said savings would be the centrepiece of the Budget this year but what did they do? They cut KiwiSaver incentives and pretended that they would have higher rates of KiwiSaver participation as a consequence. No one believes that. 
Now they are spinning what they think Labour will propose next week. They do not know what it is but they pretend that if we made a change to the tax system it would be tax and spend. We know that there needs to be a fundamental change to the settings of this economy in order to drive the export economy. We will deliver upon that promise.