English Bill: Taxation (Annual Rates Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
English Bill: Taxation (Annual Rates Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Sitting date: 14 December 2004. Volume:622;Page:17807. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
: 
 The United Future amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 284 deserve much more intellectual honesty than the Minister of Revenue gave them in that 30-second burst. We are not debating an average year here. United Future has not proposed indexation on some mythical average that the Minister’s minions have calculated; it has proposed quite specific changes in the thresholds. For instance it has proposed moving the low-income rebate threshold from $9500 to $10750. That will make a great deal more difference than 22c a week. In proposed new clause 229A United Future wants to shift the threshold from $38000 to $43000. At the rate of 30c in the dollar at $5000 that is about $1600 a year not 22c a week. 
What permeates the relationship between Labour and United Future is an agreement to mislead shall we say. They play these fancy little games. United Future has put up a serious proposition in the light of the circumstances that my colleague Pansy Wong has pointed out. The Government has collected $34 billion more tax over the last 4 years. Yesterday it projected the largest surpluses ever. Taxation revenue is going up faster than ever and it will become one of the biggest issues of election year. Why should working people not get the benefit of a growing economy? Why should it all go to Dr Cullen and to his colleagues’ favourite political projects? It is just the sheer unfairness of it. The Government reaps all the benefits yet the people who do the work do not reap the benefits of a growing economy. 
United Future will go through the charade of putting up its nice little proposition then turning round and voting for the Government against what it has proposed. It will continue its track record of keeping in Government a Government that does all of the things its voters are opposed to. There is not a single United Future voter who wanted to support a Government that passed the Civil Union Bill. There is not a single United Future voter who wanted to support a Government that collected record levels of tax then had record levels of Government spending with record levels of recklessness in that Government spending. That is not what United Future voters put Peter Dunne and Mr Copeland into Parliament to do. 
I compliment United Future on having before the Committee today a set of amendments that are directly relevant to what will be one of the biggest issues in election year—whether the Government is collecting too much tax. We agree with United Future that the Government is collecting far too much tax—much more than it expected but worse than that much more than it can effectively spend. The Government is now reduced to throwing good money after bad at categories of spending just to get rid of it just so that it can say it will not reduce taxes. I say to United Future members that it is time they stood by some of their principles. We are not asking them to stand by all the principles their voters voted for but let us say just one or two. If United Future members vote for these amendments—and we will vote with them on these amendments because they are good amendments that will reduce the burden of taxation on working people—then if they are serious about any of this they will have to follow through on it and vote against the Government by voting against the whole bill. These amendments relate to what is by far the most important and critical part of the bill. 
I also found the Minister’s comments on the indexation of petrol tax quite specious. Why will the Government index those tax mechanisms when it suits it by automatically increasing the revenue even if it is only by a small amount? I am sure that the indexation of petrol is worth less than 22c a week per person.