Tremain Chris: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Tremain Chris: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
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CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 It is a privilege to rise in Parliament in the new year to speak on the Prime Minister’s statement. In the spirit of the new year I acknowledge my parliamentary colleague across the House Darren Hughes and his rise to the spokesmanship on education. 
On Tuesday of this week Metiria Turei gave a speech for her father in response to the Prime Minister’s speech. I respect her right to do that and to stand up for the difficulties that her father faced and the hurdles that she overcame. What she forgets though is that her father is not the only father in New Zealand. So I thought I would give a speech about two members of my family: my grandfather and my father. But it will be a different kind of speech to that of Metiria Turei. I too am from my family my community and my country. I too represent a constituency. I would argue that I represent a constituency that represents by far the majority of the people in this country. 
There are many similarities between my father and Metiria Turei’s. They were both born poor and they both died young. My father died at just 54 years of age. He died from cancer from smoking two packets a day for much of his life. That is why I was very pleased to see this Government take significant steps in last year’s Budget to dramatically increase the excise tax on tobacco. My father Kelvin Robin Tremain was born to Elsie and Albert Tremain. My father’s parents lost their first home; they could not afford the mortgage when Bert lost his job. Those were hard days when it was a disgrace to be unemployed. But regardless of people’s qualifications they got employment doing whatever they could wherever they could. As a result my grandparents shifted across the harbour to a rental property in the North Shore suburb of Northcote before the harbour bridge was built. Bert was a skilled worker; Elsie was a housewife. My grandparents never drove and never owned a car. Can members believe that? They never drove and they never owned a car. In fact they would be Metiria Turei’s ideal green citizens albeit a century ahead of their time. Bert lived until he was 88; Grandma lived to 101. She died just a few years ago. 
Bert worked until just a few years before he died his final job having been that of a messenger for the  
New Zealand Herald 
. Management finally caught up with my grandfather at the age of 82 and suggested to him that a few years’ retirement might be in order. Bert was never going to be an outdoor bowler or a golfer; he was a worker and he died just 6 years later. My granddad worked nearly until the day he died. Why? Because he knew that that was the way he could give his family a better life. Bert and Elsie knew nothing else. The fact was that there were no other options; the dole did not exist back then. When they lost their home it was a disgrace to be unemployed anyway. The only thing they knew was that hard work saving and education was the way to create a better life for their family not living beyond their means. The question that needs to be asked today is how it is that many people in this country who claim to be unable to afford to feed their families can still manage to find the money to run a car to have Sky television and to purchase a couple of dozen beers through the week. 
Despite the tough days of the Great Depression Bert and Elsie ultimately left the legacy of a mortgage-free home shares—believe it or not—in Wilson and Horton a superannuation scheme and most important three educated sons with the same work and family ethic as theirs. 
My own father happened to be born with a pretty handy set of skills on the rugby field but that is not what I want to talk about today. What people do not know is that when Mum and Dad got married Dad had a £500 overdraft. That was the benefit someone got when he played in the All Blacks in those days. My mum paid it off with her entire savings when they got married. Dad always joked that the only thing he got from 10 years in the ABs was a free Morrison lawnmower and a debt to Mum for the rest of his life. On retiring from the All Blacks Dad started a business from nothing. Over a period of 20 years he built it up to become one of Hawke’s Bay’s most successful businesses. I remember him and Mum working way past midnight at home writing travel tickets into the morning hours. I recall him working Saturdays running chattels auctions weekend in and weekend out. After 20 years he had built the business up to one that employed over 60 people employing hundreds over the 20 years that he was in business. He loaned employees money ran countless fund-raisers for community groups and chaired committees. 
My granddad and dad are no different from hundreds of thousands of Kiwis across New Zealand—hundreds of thousands of workers and business people who get up every day to make their own way in life and improve the lot of their families their communities and their country. Many of these people are now retired; many of these people belong to unions; many receive short-term benefits while they look for new jobs; and many cannot work because they are genuinely sick or invalids but they still volunteer or contribute to their communities. They are aspirational for their families and their friends their kids and their grandkids and they want New Zealand to be the place where their children raise their own families. 
Those are the people who pay this country’s way. They pay the taxes that allow the Government and all its employees to exist. They pay the tax that allows us to have a First World health system and education system. They pay the tax that provides national superannuation payments; they pay the tax that provides for people in their time of need. These people are the people whom I represent and whom this Government represents. 
My dad started his business with no support from any Government. He paid tax from day one he employed people from day one and left alone he paid more tax and employed more people. My dad was no political animal but my sole recollection of his expressing outrage against the Government was about Rob Muldoon lifting the marginal tax rate to 66c in the dollar at an income level of $38000 a year—or in today’s dollars $121000 a year. What was worse was that the tax rate on incomes from $24000 a year—or in today’s dollars $76000 a year—was lifted to a whopping 45 percent. I remember Dad coming home exhausted after another day throwing his hands up and saying: “Thirty-three cents. All I get to keep CJ is 33c of every dollar I earn. It’s not worth it.” To be honest I did not really understand that at the time but now I totally get it. He had reached a point where it was not worth working any more where it was not worth employing any more people and where it was not worth paying tax any more. 
That is unfortunately where the Labour Party wants to take this country. It wants to tax hard-working New Zealanders and hard-working businesses to the point where people say: “Bugger it. I’m out of here.” On this side of the House we want to lift the aspirations of all Kiwis. We want to lift the opportunities of all New Zealanders. We want to lift the boat for every person. And that involves a clear plan one that we have built upon and added to since long before election day in 2008. You see we are not like the members on the Opposition side of the House. We do not just talk about planning; we actually get on and do it. That is what we have done in our first 2 years of Government and exactly what we will continue to do this year and if we are privileged enough at the end of this year to win at the election for 3 years after that. For the benefit of the planning-obsessed members across on the Labour benches I say our plan involves six key strategies: building a better taxation system and work environment building better infrastructure investing in education and skills building trade opportunities and innovation building better Government services and removing the impost of Government. 
The No. 1 priority has been to set a framework where people will be rewarded for hard work. That is about getting taxation right and we have done that. By reducing the tax rate to 17.5 percent on incomes of below $48000 a year every New Zealander who works who invests or who receives a benefit in this country now pays less income tax than previously. That is right: every Kiwi who works invests or receives national superannuation or a benefit pays less income tax now than they did under the previous Labour Government. That is a fact. 
We have lots more work to do in order to build a brighter future for people like my dad and my grandad but that will require some tough decisions. When we have people who are given the choice of not to work not to get up at 6 a.m. and not to pick apples—as is the case in Hawke’s Bay where we have to bring in 3000 employees—then we are setting parameters that provide pre-determined outcomes: people choosing not to work people gaming the benefit system and people with no future for themselves or their families.