Turei Metiria: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turei Metiria: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 20 May 2010. Volume:663;Page:11149. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 I will briefly refer to the corporate tax rate which is being cut in Part 1 of the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill. We know that the corporate tax rate will go from 30 to 28 percent. We also know that this Government has an intention to continue its approach concerning alignment and I wonder whether—we have heard nothing as far as I am aware from the Government at this stage—the Government in fact intends to eventually bring the top tax rate down to 28 percent. If it is truly committed to alignment that is obviously what it will do next. The question is whether it would do that in an election year—which would be the next Budget—or afterwards. Will the Government tell New Zealanders that it intends to not only lower the top tax rate by 5 percent in this Budget which is twice as much as the tax rate has been lowered for those on the lowest incomes but that it intends to give those on the very top incomes another tax cut in the very near future to 28 percent—the corporate rate? 
That discussion has not been raised yet in the debate on the corporate tax rate as far as I am aware. It is of serious concern if it is the intention of the Government to continue to lower the top tax rate because the burden and the cost of that will be borne by those at the very bottom. They will pay and continue to pay not only for the corporate tax rate whether in GST increases or in some other form but also for increasing cuts to the top tax rate. 
I referred earlier to one of the other choices that this Government had to reduce the gap between rich and poor income disparity and inequality in Aotearoa. I described the alternative that we had proposed in Mind the Gap regarding the in-work tax credit. I follow that up by saying that if the in-work tax credit were extended to those who are on benefits and those who are not working and who currently do not meet the hours criteria for paid employment we would see $60 a week in disposable income going to 130000 of the poorest New Zealand families who have up to three children. The 10000 poorest New Zealand families who have four or more dependent children would benefit even more. It is about benefiting and supporting our children the children who need the most because they are the most vulnerable and the poorest. 
Part of it is also about housing. There are clauses in the bill that deal with housing. What is obvious and my colleague from Labour talked about this earlier is that this Government has cut provision for the building of new State houses. It has cut at least $100 million from the State housing budget such that there will be no upgrades and no building of new State homes. That is a disgrace. We have 10000 families on the State house waiting list. All that is happening is that those families are churning around through the existing State housing. Some come out and try to get into private rental housing; some go back into State housing. The waiting list has continued to churn. This Government is doing nothing to provide housing—homes—for our most vulnerable families. Those are families who are desperate just for somewhere to live. Instead we have two or three families crowded into private rentals that are expensive cold and damp. That is causing $1 billion worth of health problems from cold damp overcrowded housing. Yet this Government will give thousands of dollars in cash to the richest people while families are desperate for just somewhere to live. 
This is the Aotearoa that we have now—an unequal country where those families who need somewhere to live have nowhere because this Government will not build houses and invest in those families. This Government will spend $10 billion on new motorways which are holiday highways for their friends but they will not spend money on homes for our families who need it the most and for our children who are in the worst poverty—the 200000 children who live in the worst poverty in this country and the poorest families who are in desperate need. This Government does not even see those people. They are invisible to this Government. They do not know them they do not see them they do not care.