Prasad Rajen: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Prasad Rajen: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:4012] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a call. It is interesting how we reflect in this Chamber the things we have been taught growing up. Certainly I was taught when growing up that when one makes a promise when one gives an undertaking one works really hard to deliver on it. If something happens and the promise cannot be kept then there is a particular way in which one can go about putting that right. I ask why members opposite cannot be gracious in admitting their mistake on tax cuts. They cannot be gracious in saying that they were wrong and that they made a promise but that something happened and they needed to change it. 
Labour supports this part of the Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill. But that is not the question; the question is what lies behind the bill. One can only think that it must have been a well-thought-out election campaign. One must think about the kinds of things people want think about the promises one wants to make and think about the things that one considers important. Then one must construct that into an election strategy and go to the people and promise them that when in Government one will deliver on those promises. That is fair enough. That is a reasonable way to go. But then what happens? More information becomes available during the currency of that set of ideas. While those promises were being made day by day on the election campaign the world economic meltdown was occurring. The then Prime Minister was responsible and Labour wound back many of the promises and began to talk responsibly about the things that would need to be done. But during the campaign the National Party continued to make its promises. National continued to say day by day and night after night—and it gave a cast-iron guarantee—what it would do. 
New Zealanders are fair people. They actually fell for it. They understood that National would deliver on that promise when in Government. In its first sitting weeks under urgency National put its tax cuts in place. Now with its first Budget it has its first real chance to deliver. And what do we get? We get what we have seen from National on many many occasions. Members opposite might care to reflect on some of those things. We remember very well what happened with superannuation. The link between that and what is happening here in Part 1 of this bill is that National has again changed its mind. Under trying conditions people use those conditions as a smokescreen to push through their real agenda and their particular ideology. In this case the ideology is that brand of conservatism that comes from members opposite. Under the cloud of changed circumstances they are taking the licence to push their hidden agenda. 
What do we see in this particular Budget? What do we see being unveiled for us now? There is no real overall plan. The commentators have said since the Budget was announced that there is no real passion no real direction no real overall plan no investment in the future no investment in skills or any of those kinds of things and no investment in jobs. 
Hon Member 
: This is repetition. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: Members might care to follow this— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: It’s true. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: It is true. But what we do see is the one thing that National has always done: destroy the good things that Labour has put in place. Muldoon wrecked the superannuation scheme. Your then Prime Minister wrecked the superannuation scheme and you are doing it again. You are doing it now. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Order! 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: My apologies Mr Chairman; thank you. I say to members opposite that their party wrecked it and they are doing it again. They are taking away the promises given. They are taking out 10 years of contributions and really destroying the Cullen fund. That is what the commentators are saying. I come back to the point I started with. We would have expected those members to say sorry. They should say very clearly and unequivocally that they made a mistake do it without the shouting that we have heard and do it honourably.