Dunne Peter: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Dunne Peter: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7260] 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I begin by expressing my congratulations to Katrina Shanks the fourth of the candidates who stood in the Ohariu-Belmont electorate at the last election to make it to Parliament. I wish her well for her time here. 
United Future is a modern centre party that is committed to strong families and vibrant communities. As such we are far more interested in the substance of the delivery of politics and policy rather than in the rhetoric that sometimes surrounds it. In that regard I want to comment on some of the matters contained in the Prime Minister’s statement. 
We support the initiatives that were outlined in a general sense with regard to climate change policy and the promotion of sustainability. But stating them today is one thing; implementing them will be something else. That will require the support of two key elements: firstly this Parliament as a whole—because Governments may come and go but the impact of climate change will be with us forever—and secondly the business community which is going to be at the forefront of a number of the changes that have been proposed. That is why I repeat the call that I have made previously which I gather the Prime Minister is not unsympathetic to for there to be a summit meeting of political parties—I now think supplemented by the business community as well—to build a broad and lasting consensus on what is achievable in terms of New Zealand’s climate change policy response. The last thing we can afford as a nation is to implement policies in the life of one Parliament only to have them overturned in the life of the next. A long-term sustainable response to climate change comes down to long-term sustainable policy commitments and those will come through involving as many people as possible in the build-up to the agreements and the decisions that will flow from them. 
Over the next year as a result of a number of the initiatives in the supply and confidence agreement that United Future has with the current Government a number of major tax changes will take place. Reference has already been made to the business tax review which will deliver significant changes in business taxation arrangements from 1 April next year. That will affect the way a number of businesses are able to operate. It will certainly boost productivity and competitiveness. But it will also open the opportunities for businesses to have relationships across the Tasman and it will be encouraging to many of our smaller businesses in terms of their ongoing development. We have acknowledged that there may well be consequential impacts for personal taxation rates and systems at that time as well. 
In addition to those issues which have been flagged for some time I anticipate that at the beginning of April next year we will also see a new charitable donations taxation regime put in place arising out of the review that has just been conducted. That will recognise the contribution that many New Zealanders make to supporting charitable and voluntary organisations in New Zealand and the contribution in turn that those organisations make to the fabric and vibrancy of our society as a whole. 
Early next year as Minister of Revenue I will be releasing a Government discussion paper on income splitting—a policy long dear to the heart of United Future and one that has the capacity to revolutionise the way we treat household income in New Zealand and to break through a lot of the issues that we have talked about and come up against for too long as being too hard about how to deliver a measure of support that recognises fairly the contribution of both parents to the upbringing of their children. 
In July this year once the KiwiSaver scheme is introduced a whole new dynamic will be in place in the savings sector in this country. What will come very much into play at that point will be the debate about savings compulsory savings national savings levels and the steps that we may need to take in order to lock in those changes for the future. I think there is a shift under way in the public mind in New Zealand. I am not yet convinced that there is an overwhelming public consensus in favour of compulsion—although I think it is building—but I want to make this point. We have had two false starts so far: in 1974 under the Kirk Government and in 1997 during the National - New Zealand First Government. If we are to embark down that path we cannot afford to get it wrong for a third time. There needs to be a lasting political consensus that change of that type is in order and can be made—that a system can be implemented to give effect to that policy. 
Turning KiwiSaver into a compulsory savings scheme for all would not be a very difficult transition. The mechanisms are largely there. At that point we would then be able to look to future tax reform based on trading off contributions to superannuation saving against rates of taxation. I think that at that stage a lot of the issues that have been spoken of by the leader of New Zealand First already this afternoon about the New Zealand savings rate and about how we provide for our future could start to be addressed on a sustainable basis. 
The issue that the co-leader of the Green Party referred to about intergenerational borrowing for infrastructure development could also be addressed. We support the Government’s moves in respect of infrastructure bonds. Although we do not think they have gone far enough in the first tranche we support the initiative. But a dedicated fund arising out of a comprehensive superannuation scheme would enable us to go much further than we have gone. It would also enable us to look at infrastructure in far broader terms than we have to date. We have tended to date to view infrastructure in terms of physical assets: roads buildings; those sorts of things. Many of our services are also infrastructural—those in health in education and in dealing with disadvantage and the underclass that it has become so fashionable of late to have been part of at one stage or to now ascribe to caring about. We can help to address those issues if we have the pool of capital available that such a scheme would provide. I think the changes that will be unleashed later this year will start to take us down that path. 
United Future is proud to be associated with other initiatives during the course of this year that will also make life better for New Zealanders. We will complete the development work on a national medicines strategy relating to the quality usage of pharmaceuticals. Every day as we hear of new medicines becoming available and new conditions that require treatment the demand for such a policy increases. The other issue that we have to start to tackle with much greater vigour than has been the case to date—brought home by figures last week about the level of surgery now being conducted in the private hospital sector—is the interface between public and private. We cannot go on running essentially two parallel systems in New Zealand. We have the resources. We need to integrate public and private and I say to the House—[ 
Interruption 
]—and to the member opposite who I know is genuinely interested in this area that this year we will be placing a priority upon a provision in our agreement with regard to that. One of the great fallacies in the whole debate is that New Zealand lacks health resources. We do not. The issue is the way we configure them between both sectors; we have more resources than we need. 
This promises to be an exciting year. It promises to be a challenging year. I echo the sentiment that the leader of New Zealand First began his address with. Many would prefer to forget the 2006 political year. The level of behaviour and the reputation of this Parliament sank I think to new lows. The challenge now confronting all of us—as we are into what is really the business year of the parliamentary term—is to start to see the implementation and delivery of policies that will make a real difference for the people we all claim to serve. United Future stands unrelentingly in terms of its commitment to families and stronger communities. The initiatives that I have talked about this afternoon which we will support promote and work with other parties on during the year will all be geared towards making this a better place for New Zealanders and making this a better place for people to take the best of the opportunities that are available and to prosper as a result of that. If we are able to do that—working collaboratively working constructively—then I think we can look back at the end of 2007 and say it was a far better year than 2006.