Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Annual Rates of Income Tax 2007-08) Bill Taxation (Business Taxation and Remedial Matters) Bill Taxation (KiwiSaver) Bill — Third Readings 
Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Annual Rates of Income Tax 2007-08) Bill Taxation (Business Taxation and Remedial Matters) Bill Taxation (KiwiSaver) Bill — Third Readings 
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R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First supports the third readings of the three bills arising from the Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill— 
Hon Members 
: Pay the money back! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Seeing as those members want me to talk about paying the money back I will talk about that in a moment. Firstly I say that New Zealand First supports and always has done any cut in taxation that we possibly can support. We support savings wherever and however we see them packaged we support incentives that give an advantage to our producers and our entrepreneurs as opposed to those in other countries and we support the Government to help our businesses wherever it can. 
We believe that the Working for Families package is a positive thing and that it sends the right messages and does the right thing. I say for about the sixth time that if at the time of the last election—around the time when Working for Families came out—we had adopted across-the-board tax cuts as proposed by the Opposition I would have received something in the vicinity of $90-odd a week extra as an MP which I would have enjoyed. As opposed to that my son who has a very good job and his wife have recently had their second child. She was off work—off paid work I might say but working harder than ever as a mother—and they would have received nothing under across-the-board tax cuts. Under the Working for Families package they received in excess of $100 per week and I received nothing. [ 
Interruption 
] We will never cross the divide on that argument because it is a philosophical one. We in New Zealand First believe that Working for Families is the right way to go and we support this bill. 
Talking about principle Mr Hide made a statement that we are not acting in a principled way in New Zealand First. I say to members that if we believe that we have not done wrong if we believe that we have been served badly by circumstances or a wrong decision and if we believe that the principle is wrong then it is wrong to go under pressure and pay back money when we do not believe we owe it— 
Rodney Hide 
: Pay it back to the tax department! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: We are talking about principled decisions now; we are not talking about the tax department or anything close to the tax department. If we want to act in a principled way—and as a party we want to give the message that we understand people’s concerns but we will not fulfil the demands of people who demand wrongly that we pay some money back that we do not believe we owe—then we take a principled decision and give the money to a worthy charity. That is what we have done. We have paid the money to a charity and good will come out of that. 
Hon Members 
: You stole taxpayers’ money! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Let the members in the Opposition tell me whether they would take the money off Starship Children’s Health. Would they take it away from those children? Will they say that that money is not doing good? Are they saying that that money will not help a child in New Zealand? Are they saying that that money does not help the community? Are they saying that that is not the right thing to do? If they are saying that let them go into the public and stand on a platform at election time and say that they would take that money off Starship Children’s Health and deny those children the opportunity for health. That is what we call a principled decision. I come back to the bill— 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: You stole taxpayers’ money. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: We have not stolen any money and we certainly do not use $7 million of public money like the National Party does. 
We support this legislation because we believe it does all of the right things for society. It sends the right messages it provides help where it is needed and it is good for society overall.