Hide Rodney: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
Hide Rodney: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9414] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I have to say there is something galling about being lectured to by the Labour Government about how we need to save more when we see that this Budget is about spending $56000 million in just 12 months. So we get lectured to about how we are not saving enough and the country gets lectured to but here is a Government that is spending $56 billion—the equivalent of $13000 for every man woman and child in New Zealand—and the Government tells us we have to save. What is interesting about this Government spending is that it is not its own money it is spending. It is actually the money of the people of New Zealand that it is spending—the same people whom the Government is banging up on saying that it is their fault there is inflation. Just to put it into context core Government spending has increased $20 billion since 2000. I want to take members to a line in this Budget. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Nice glasses Rodney. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I thank the member; I got them in Christchurch and they are very nice. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Whereabouts? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: From the optician on the corner of Hereford Street and Oxford Terrace. 
Darren Hughes 
: Did you get a pensioner discount? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well actually I did not. I wonder whether he gets a student discount whenever he goes shopping and whether he still has to produce his ID. When Darren Hughes first turned up to Parliament it was embarrassing and when Bellamy’s asked for his ID he had to explain that he had been an MP for 3 years. 
I want to take members to a line—[ 
Interruption 
] Mr Cosgrove might learn something if he listened. 
Hon Annette King 
: Don’t be jealous. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: There are many strong emotions I feel at times in this House but jealousy of Mr Hughes has never been one of them. I am not even jealous of his youthful exuberance actually because Darren Hughes is one of those interesting guys who is so young yet seems so old at the same time. It is extraordinary. 
I want to take members to a line in the Executive Summary (B.2 and B.3) on page 162: “Forecast for future new spending”. This is interesting. Dr Cullen said that he will be setting aside a “bit more spending” for election year—at a time when we have to be saving—but I want to read out how much he is setting aside for extra spending. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Slowly slowly! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I am sorry; yes I have to wear glasses because the print is so small. The amount is $1908 million. Let us call it $2 billion. So the Minister of Finance says we all have to save. He will compel employers to save and put that money into a superannuation account and the Government will pay people $20 a week as savings. I ask Mr Groser how much he thinks they will save in the first year and how much they will save in the following year. I think the answer is not much a few hundred million. If we allow for Ricardian equivalence—I think Mr Cosgrove would like to know about this—it will be even less. It may be $200 million in net terms at best. In fact Michael Cullen will be spending an extra $2 billion. 
Then we look at the forecast new spending for the following year and it is $3838 million or say $4 billion. If we go to year 3 it is $5786 million. For Mr Cosgrove’s benefit $1 billion is a stack of $100 bills a kilometre high. That is what $1 billion or $1000 million looks like. We have a Government that will be spending about an extra $2 billion next year an extra $4 billion the year after that and an extra $6 billion the year after that. Who knows what on! Winning an election is what it is going to try to do. That money is going to be used to try to win an election yet the Government is lecturing us about the virtues of saving! 
If the Government were interested in getting people to save it is very simple. It would put more money into their pockets—like tax cuts. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: But they do not save it. They have not saved in the last 50 years. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: That’s great! Mr Cosgrove is attacking the good people of Waimakariri because they do not save yet he is part of a Government that has increased spending by $20 billion. I tell Mr Cosgrove that those people cannot afford to save because— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Rubbish! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: He says “Rubbish!”. Mr Cosgrove says that the people of Waimakariri can save and it is rubbish to say they cannot. Mr Cosgrove will not like this but he should get out more and start talking to some real New Zealanders whose wages have not kept pace with the costs imposed by this Government. Its outlook for growth is just 2.3 percent— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Krystal doesn’t count mate. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I know that Mr Cosgrove is fixated about the fact that I went dancing. I know he is upset they never asked him. I know he is upset that he cannot get a date. But Mr Cosgrove should live in hope. One day I am sure he will get a date and someone might even go dancing with him. I know they did ask Mr Peters to go dancing. He mentioned that earlier. I was not going to be the first one to raise the matter but Mr Peters said that when he was asked to go dancing he agreed. He actually agreed but he put a condition on it: that he could dance only with himself. They said: “We’re sorry Mr Peters but that’s not how dancing works.” He said he was not prepared to share the stage with anyone else so he did not turn up. What we have here— 
Hon Annette King 
: Have you had a date given that you want Clayton to have a date? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: The Minister of Police across the floor of the House on Budget night is trying to date me. How disgusting is that? Maybe 30 years ago it would have been on. I have to say: “I’m sorry; I love you to bits really I love your personality I love your sense of humour but you and I aren’t going dating. I can promise you that.” I would go out with Darren Hughes before I would go out with Annette King and that is saying something—God Almighty! 
The Labour Party is desperate for friends. We saw Michael Cullen get up in this House and plead with the National Party to vote for the Budget and we can see why. We can see why Annette King is flaunting herself before me because they want me to vote for the Budget. Well I am sorry but it is not going to work. Annette King cannot flaunt herself and get me to vote for this Budget. I promise her it is not going to work that way. But members can see why Labour wants the votes because this is the first time in New Zealand’s history that a minority of Parliament has voted for a Budget. That has never ever happened. 
Darren Hughes 
: It won’t happen tonight either. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Oh it won’t happen tonight? 
Darren Hughes 
: No. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well I heard that it happened this afternoon—absolutely. 
Darren Hughes 
: No. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: A minority of this Parliament voted for the Budget. The majority of this Parliament did not vote for the Budget. I can see why Annette is reaching out to me. Michael Cullen is reaching out in a caring MMP way to Bill English and John Key. Why? Because the Labour Party is losing its friends it is losing its support—[ 
Interruption 
] In the case of Annette King I wonder whether it is losing its mind. I really do.