Bennett David: Taxation (Business Tax Measures) Bill — Second Reading 
Bennett David: Taxation (Business Tax Measures) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:652;Page:1947] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 How the Labour Party’s spots have changed. This is a Labour Party that now says it is there for small business. Nobody in his or her right mind would believe that. People know that the Labour Party is not there for small business; the Labour Party is there only for itself. All those Labour members want is to get back into power. All those members were doing before the election was trying to get back into power. That is all the Labour Party has ever thought about. Those members do not think about their supporters the workers of New Zealand. They do not think about small business. They do not do that. The Labour Party has one goal and that is self preservation and power. That is the Labour Party’s mantra. 
I say to the new member Stuart Nash so bright-eyed innocent and fresh who came into this House and said that the Labour Party is all about small business: “Take a history lesson.” Let us look through the history of the Labour Party. What did the Labour Government do for small business in the last 9 years? Year after year after year it kicked small business in the guts. At the Finance and Expenditure Committee David Cunliffe made it quite clear that his whole line of questioning was about Labour Party policy. For everything that comes out of the select committee now Labour members have to say: “This is what Labour thought of many years ago.” It is all right to say that Labour members thought about it but why did they not actually do it? Why cannot Labour do something for small business? Why do Labour members just think about doing something for small business instead of actually doing something for small business? 
The reality is that those members do not care about small business. At this point in time the Labour Party is trying to backtrack—big time. Labour members are trying to go back through any little document from the last 10 years and say that it was their idea when it was not their idea. The reality is that the ideas being passed here are National ideas because the National Government is passing them. If they were Labour ideas they would have been passed by the Labour Party during its 9 years in Government. It did not pass those ideas. It is pretty rich of Labour members to come into this House and say that they are their ideas that they have ownership of them and that they should take credit for them. The reality is that they do not have ownership of them they cannot take the credit for them and the public and especially the small-business community of New Zealand know that. They are very sure that the Labour Party is not there for small business. 
Stuart Nash 
: There was no recession during that time. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: The new member is telling us how great the Labour Party is for small business and how great it is for the economy. Let us look at what the Labour Government left for the New Zealand economy before the world recession. What did Labour leave for New Zealand before a world recession? It left it as the only Western country in recession. It made New Zealand a recessionary country before the rest of the world. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Wrong—the United States. Don’t you count America? 
DAVID BENNETT 
: The member who lost his seat in Levin is telling us that the United States was in recession before us. That is not true. New Zealand was in recession before the United States but the member would not know that because Labour members do not know anything about business. Those members have never had to run a business. In fact all they do is stand in the House and try to spend business people’s money. That is all they want to do. They just want to keep it churning around and say that they are the great people who look after everyone. That is not the reality. 
The reality is that small business needs help. The National Government gives help to small business and the National Government is here for the New Zealand economy. The Labour Party is here only for itself it always has been here only for itself and it only ever will be in this House for itself. That is why Labour did not win the last election and why its members cannot go around saying that they are there for small business or that they have the best interests of New Zealand at heart. 
When we look at all these measures we see that they are not rocket science. We are not saying that these measures are rocket science but they have been sitting there and they could have been carried out by the Labour Party. All that was missing was the will to do them. The will was not there amongst those members. They did not want to do them. They can come around now and say that they are supporting these measures but how can they change their spots at this late stage just because they know that public opinion is against them? They needed a general election to tell them where to go with small business. They did not need to hear it from small-business owners. Labour members would not go around small-business owners and listen to what they said they wanted and then actually do it. They waited until the general election told them what small-business owners wanted and now Labour members are trying to take the credit for something that Labour did not do. That is not the New Zealand way. 
In New Zealand we do not take credit for things we do not do. That is the Labour Party way. That is the general equality of their world—that everybody is the same and nobody can make a decision to do the right thing for this country. But that is not the way the National Government views it. National members say that they will go out there they will listen they will take the concerns of their people they will make constructive decisions and the National Government will pass legislation that will give the results the community deserves. That is what this bill is about. It is basically the National Party listening and delivering. It is action. That is the way the National Party is different from the Labour Party. National is a party of action. It is delivering and it is taking constructive action to deliver solutions at a time when New Zealand needs them the most. National is a party of action; it is not a party of ideas that never come to fruition. National is not a party whose members come back 6 months later and say “We could have done it but we never actually did.” National is a party that does it. National has the support of this House because the House knows that these are the best measures that can be passed at this point in time. 
I think we also need to have a look at what happened today when the Reserve Bank governor came and talked about the growth that could potentially come to the New Zealand economy if we come out of this downside equation more quickly than the rest of the world. I think it offers opportunities for New Zealand and I think New Zealand businesses and individuals are looking at a John Key - led Government and seeing that opportunity. They see a man of action. They see a Government that is actually making the right decisions and is providing the stimulus for New Zealand. This Government is looking forward and making simple but effective decisions. Its members are not out there trying to tell the world how to live its own life and we are not out there trying to change the way that people have to live their social lives. We are out there building a stronger economy so that New Zealanders can deliver a prosperous future for their children. That is what the National Party is doing. We have it right the public knows we have it right and it is not for the Labour Party to now change its spots and for its members to come into this House and say that they support this bill and that it was their idea. It was not their idea. 
I say to the public of New Zealand that we are not standing for the Labour Party trying to take over these ideas and say that they are theirs when they are not. These ideas are the National Party’s ideas because the National Government is passing them. Labour members had their chance when in Government but they did not pass them so they cannot now say that they are their ideas. There is a whole raft of reforms in the Taxation (Business Tax Measures) Bill that are very important for small business. The reforms of GST fringe benefit tax and PAYE are all measures that small-business owners have been looking for and they will get them in a timely way. 
The National Government is different from the previous Labour Government in that it will not wait until year 3 to deliver these reforms. It will implement these reforms as soon as it can. If the Labour Party had its way it would wait until year 3 just before an election and then try to put these reforms on a pledge card which the people of New Zealand would have paid for. Labour members would not go out and try to make constructive decisions at an early point in the electoral process because they are not like that. Labour members cannot think of things. When they do think of things they have to save them up so that they still have them at the end of the election cycle and they can then say they actually did something. But Labour members could not think of anything they had done during the last 3 years so they went into the last election not knowing what they had done and that showed in the election results. 
Hon David Carter 
: They hadn’t done very much. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: No they had not done anything. There are some home truths that the New Zealand public needs to know. The first is that the National Government is there taking constructive actions and making decisions for the New Zealand public. That is the first point New Zealanders need to know. The second point is that these are not Labour Party ideas. They are National Party ideas because the National Government is passing them. The third point the public needs to know is that the National Party has a vision. It has a dream for this country that will take us beyond the mediocrity that the Labour Party tries to incite amongst New Zealanders.