Foss Craig: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Foss Craig: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:672;Page:18888] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 I thank the previous speaker David Cunliffe for thanking the Government for going into urgency on these bills. His other colleagues may want to note that as they go through the next few hours on this Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill. 
Before I get into it I must congratulate our Minister of Finance Mr Bill English on his third Budget under this Government and what a Budget for our time. What a prudent courageous and brave Budget for our time. Tempting as it might be in an election year and as the other party is wont to do to borrow to spend up the courage the fortitude and the prudence shown by Mr English in this his third Budget which builds on the previous two are truly to be admired. 
I must also note the speech of our Prime Minister our leader John Key. What a legendary speech and what legendary delivery compared with that of the Leader of the Opposition Mr Phil Goff. I thought Mr Phil Goff was doing some planking or something in the middle of Parliament. He was flat. He did not seem to be doing anything. He was looking around. I do not know what was going on. When we compare him with the honourable Prime Minister we see it was like watching Richie McCaw play the Golden Oldies team or something like that. The floor was absolutely wiped with Mr Goff. He resorted to I think his 2007-08 speeches. He lost his way very very early on and that was obvious from looking at his comrades around the House. 
Regarding the Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill I acknowledge the Hon Peter Dunne for what he has pulled together here in bringing this bill to the House. I also acknowledge the key points he noted particularly that this bill codifies and reconfirms the current tax rates PAYE rates etc. Yes it makes changes to KiwiSaver and yes it makes some changes to Working for Families but the core Budget is a prudent Budget for our time and these are prudent measures for our time. If we go beyond the 40-something members on the other side if we go out of this Chamber and ask members of the public whether we should borrow money from overseas to put into KiwiSaver accounts—whether that is a good idea—I think all of them would say absolutely not. That is what the other side is promoting. 
If that were to continue KiwiSaver itself would be in danger. Members on the other side constantly go on about one side of the balance sheet. The bit those members often forget is that their Government relied on short-term ongoing constant growth in revenue which was related to the state of the economy—PAYE and GST—but they put in place long-term committed index spending such as interest-free student loans Working for Families and things in and around KiwiSaver. Essentially in a financial sense they borrowed short and lent long and this Government had to come in and tidy that up because those members got themselves and this country into huge huge trouble. 
This Budget and this bill before us pass four tests. This Budget builds an export economy. It builds the platform for an export economy. I recall that the previous Government’s version of that was to have something called Export Year in 2008 and New Zealand promptly went into recession one year before the rest of the world. This Budget and of course this bill help grow savings and bring in capital efficiency. Those members seem to have missed the new investment statement that is before them to help Governments—not only this one but also future Governments—make efficient fair allocations of scarce capital decisions for New Zealand as we decide what to build be it infrastructure tax or whatever. This Budget and this bill assure and bring in deficit reduction. This Budget passes the third test that someone put up for Budgets. It does because right there we are bringing down the deficit and we are coming back into surplus one whole year early. Members might recall that when this Government came in the update to the incoming Government said that this country was heading to debt being about 60 percent of GDP. Right now we are at 28.9 percent. That is not too bad so I think this Budget passes that test as well. Does it pass the test of helping families deal with living costs? Of course it does. As I said earlier it confirms existing tax rates. New Zealanders’ after-tax incomes after only 3 years of this Government have gone up 6 percent—after-tax incomes—enhancing their affordability to live and to purchase a house versus in the 9 years of the previous Government after-tax real incomes going up only 3 percent. 
Therefore this Budget does pass all four of the tests that someone put up as to whether a Budget is successful. This bill confirms part of that Budget and I look forward to its further stages.