Mackey Moana: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mackey Moana: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 20 May 2010. Volume:663;Page:11151. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I thank the Minister in the chair the Minister of Revenue for taking a call. You know it is interesting that the Minister was responding to the Green member Metiria Turei. Well she talked about people and about the impact of this Government on people. With the greatest of respect to Government members I have been noticing that they are not talking about people. They like to talk about the taxation system but they do not like to talk about how that system works for the people of New Zealand because these changes will not work for the people of New Zealand. The Minister said the Government may be looking at making a further alignment of tax rates as fiscal circumstances permit. Well fiscal circumstances do not permit the changes that are happening in this Budget and in this legislation. In fact we have a hole of half a billion dollars coming from a Government that promised not to borrow in order to fund tax cuts. Members on this side of the House would argue that fiscal circumstances do not permit these changes to be made so why should we have any confidence that the Government will wait for fiscal circumstances to permit further changes to be made? 
The Minister of Revenue also mentioned the revenue windfall that will come from the alignment of the trust rate and the personal income tax rate. Well if there is to be such a windfall why are we increasing GST? Why do we need to increase GST when the changes to the income tax rates by the way as an unintended consequence happen to deliver a $1000 a week tax cut to someone who is on a million dollars a year? Why are we doing that if we have to raise GST? Clearly the revenue windfall will not be as great as the Minister and the Government would have us believe because we have to load a tax increase on to the poorest families in New Zealand which John Key promised before the election that he would not do. 
Hon Dr Wayne Mapp 
: We’re moving away from the decrepit old wretched ways of Labour. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Dr Wayne Mapp has been sitting here throughout this entire debate and chipping away. Instead of sitting there like a dried arrangement why does he not get on his pins and take a call? Instead of chipping away why does he not take a call? This is the Minister of Research Science and Technology who has gutted the funding for research science and technology. He has not been a good advocate for that sector and that has continued in this Budget. Less than half the money that was in place when Labour left office is now in place and he expects scientists to be happy about that. 
Craig Foss 
: I take offence at the reference to his pins. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Craig Foss takes offence that I called them— 
Craig Foss 
: Can we table his pins? 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I say to Mr Foss that he can table Dr Mapp’s pins if he would like to; I will leave that entirely up to him. 
This legislation puts in place the tax swindle that is Budget 2010. It is based on three main broken promises. One is that the Government swore black and blue before the election that it would not increase GST. Less than 18 months later we are passing legislation that will raise the rate of GST by 20 percent. That is a broken promise. Secondly National swore black and blue that it would not borrow in order to fund tax cuts. We are putting in place legislation today that borrows in order to fund tax cuts. That is broken promise No. 2. Broken promise No. 3 is that no one will be worse off. Well by the Government and Treasury’s own figures someone who is on the average wage will be $30 a week worse off under this regime when we factor in the GST increase and the effects of inflation. Is it not interesting that the Government’s tax calculator which it had up on Treasury’s website factored in inflation at less than 2 percent when the Budget documents said it will be 5.9 percent? What kind of swindle is it that the Government’s own tax calculator is deliberately producing misleading figures in order to make— 
Hon Dr Wayne Mapp 
: No you’re misleading— 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I ask Dr Mapp not to point at me. He should stop sitting there like a dried arrangement and get up and make a speech instead of doing it from the comfort of his chair. He has not bothered to get up to explain to scientists in this country why he has slashed their funding since coming into Government and becoming their Minister. 
Do members know that a number of scientists were laid off at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research this week? Why? It is because of health cuts and cuts in the budget that that Minister oversees. Scientists in the health science area are some of the better-paid scientists in New Zealand. The Minister says that scientists are rich. I think he needs to go out and talk to them because the Prime Minister included scientists in the list of people who are rich in this country along with nurses—and the Nurses Organisation had something to say about that—and teachers. I suggest that he goes and talks to some of them instead of sitting in his chair and chipping away. 
I will have a lot more to say about housing in my Budget debate speech as well. When we look at how it is being paid for we see that the Government which went on and on about how it would be great for State house tenants has made a $100 million cut relating to the procurement and building—