Wang Kenneth: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Wang Kenneth: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:21283] 
KENNETH WANG (ACT) 
: 
 One thing is absolutely true in this debate about how taxpayers’ money is to be collected and spent. We are debating this bill under urgency but I am wondering why we are debating it in such a big rush. The one thing that is clear to me is that this Government wants to spend more. It wants to spend more and more. This bill is about grabbing money from hard-working New Zealanders and squandering it. If we look at the figures we see more tax collection. Actually we do not need to look at the detail; we need to look only at the ballpark figures to see that tax revenue is at a record level and that $3.4 billion will have been collected by the end of this financial year. That figure is in addition to all the levies penalties fees and fines so overall we are looking at nearly $5 billion in revenue collection this year. There will be even more waste and we will see Government expenditure jump up to a record high of $6.5 billion more than the previous year as the forecast shows. 
What is the revenue being collected for? We all know what it should be for. It is meant to help ordinary New Zealanders and their families but we all know that it will be spent on hip-hop tours wananga—which is a raced based policy—and social engineering. A story in the  
Dominion Post 
 today under the headline: “Taxpayers fund $1m grant to US company” tells us that taxpayers are funding a company called Navman. I want to draw members’ attention to the fact that 3 years ago this Government via Industry New Zealand spent $23000 of taxpayers’ money on that same company by paying for its American owners to stay at Huka Lodge and be taken on a fishing trip. That money was squandered and I wonder how the Government can spend more money—up to $1 million—on that American company. This is an example of grabbing taxpayers’ money and spending it on corporate welfare. 
We have to look at Labour’s repeated claims that the proposed tax cuts are just for the rich. I would like to draw members’ attention to the fact that tax cuts are not for the rich as we see when we look at what ordinary New Zealanders are saying. I personally encounter many New Zealanders who run their own businesses while battling to raise their families. Are taxi drivers rich? Are they being bracketed with the rich who will be ripping off the system? Members may recall what I said in my maiden speech at the end of last year. Dairy owners are battling for their lives to keep their shops open with the help of family members who are all struggling. What about the people in the public service like police officers teachers and nurses? Are they rich? Certainly not. They are hard-working New Zealanders. At the most their incomes can be bracketed as just middle-class incomes. What have they got? We all know what they have got. They have got a packet of chewing gum a week but not yet—they have to wait for 3 years. 
ACT knows what it is to be rich. Those people are bracketed as rich by Labour. Those people hard-working New Zealanders are being labelled by Labour as rich. I can say that they are certainly not rich.