Peters Winston: Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 18 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18691. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First):This is a very important night because that was probably the last speech that member Paul Goldsmith is going to make until 20 September 2014. He is the phantom MP who will not put up hoardings does not know whether he wants to stand for Epsom or not and appears to be an absolute doormat for his party’s scheming and plotting. If he thinks that is diligent that is his view but it is not the view of others in this Parliament who are prepared to stand on their own feet and fight their own causes without seeking a ladder from someone else all of the time.So when I hear those free marketeers talking about the value of endeavour and free enterprise I think to myself “How shallow is that?” when in their own behaviour they evince the very opposite. No they will not take a risk. They will not say “I’ll put it all on my belief in myself and my colleagues and my party.” Oh no no—they have got so many fingers outside they are like a six-armed octopus trying to survive against the storm in the sea and they will not win doing that.Let me say this. We in New Zealand First believe in an up-to-date fair and efficient tax system. We think it is fundamental to a great democracy. We have always supported a robust tax system and funnily enough Mr Goldsmith got up and started talking about a capital gains tax. Has he not heard Mr English and Mr Key say that we have already got one under National? So the question is a matter of degree is it not and let us not have these stupid arguments in this campaign that are so shallow but obviously so beloved of innocent new members who are cannon fodder in the National Party.There are aspects of the Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill that we can support but the FACTA the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is what we are concerned about. It raises aspects that are very serious in respect of this country’s national sovereignty—issues that have never been sufficiently and fully addressed. Worse still this bill came before Parliament and then the Finance and Expenditure Committee when they had not even completed the agreement with the United States.What sort of public policy is it when you pass legislation dependent upon a later agreement that you have not actually resolved? That is not the way we do Government surely in this country but under National if the United States says something National says “How high?”. If the United States says “We want to be able to go down to the home or the business of any former US citizens who may have been here 35 years under a sovereign nation called New Zealand which has had an unbroken line of democracy and which has been holding elections for the last 150 years.” National says that sovereignty can be invaded by another country—namely the United States.Simon O’Connor: Go back and do Constitution 101.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Go back and do what?Simon O’Connor: Go and read your Constitution 101.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh Constitution 101? What are your qualifications in the constitution?Simon O’Connor: More than yours.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Yes I want to know because I will tell you this. One thing about our constitution is that it says the New Zealand Parliament is paramount. That is the No. 1 principle. It is sovereign that this country is answerable to nobody else. That is what our constitution says. But here comes the former abbot trainee who did not even graduate and he comes and tells me that he is a constitutional expert. Well what great news—the National Party members over there have got themselves this shining bushel of light that we hitherto did not know about! So I am delighted that at last they have found a font of all knowledge about constitutional matters because hitherto they had shown so much ignorance on these matters.You know the interests of the United States are not always synonymous with our interests. Allowing the US to open the door into our tax and banking system is not something that can be done lightly. I already now know of KiwiSaver providers who are saying “If you are from the US we can’t take you on. We are not opening our books to the United States and so we won’t take any US former citizen on in New Zealand.” I think that is appalling. I think that is abysmal.I know of a time when the National Party would have been shocked to hear those sorts of things—and these were men like those in Labour who had come back from the war and had spent 4½ years fighting for freedom and they understood what freedom meant. Over there you have got a party that is posing under false pretences. It is no longer the National Party; it is the “International Party”. The United States asks for something and it says “What did you say Uncle Sam? What is that again? Uh huh; we’ve got it. We’ll do exactly what you want.” And while they do that the people they promised protection to when they emigrated to New Zealand lose all right to have privacy the kind of privacy that we as New Zealanders used to enjoy. I think that is—Hon Member: Rubbish!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I know it is rubbish—I will get around to that member’s specialty later but I am talking about some serious matters here. It is a significant piece of legislation passed by Congress in March 2010.Debate interrupted.