Eckhoff Gerrard: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:606;Page:4091] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT NZ) 
: 
 The title of any bill not the least this one before the Committee at this time has to be instructive. It has to show at first glance exactly what the bill is about. Surely the title has to be informative about its true purpose. I suspect that it should also be reflective of the content of the bill. It should be totally accurate in all the above and indeed should be self-explanatory. But when one of the people in Otago picks up the  
Otago Daily Times 
 sees as happens every day that there are proceedings in the House—and the paper will indicate that this bill is being read in the House—and reads the title I wonder whether he or she will probably just turn the page very very rapidly because it is a totally boring title and is not reflective of what this bill actually does. If for example the title contained the phrase “ 19.5 percent taxation for Maori” I think that the good people of Otago and everybody else in this country would say: “Whoa hang on here! Come back a step. What is this 19.5 percent for Maori?”. Then they would ring David Parker the local constituent MP and demand to know what this title is truly about. But they will turn the page because the title is not instructive in any way shape or form about the true content of this bill. 
When people see that the bill mentions taxation of Maori organisations they will say that that is good fair and reasonable because every organisation in this country should be taxed at the same rate as every other organisation. There is no problem with that whatsoever. But this title does not contain the most vital piece of information that anybody would be looking for when trying to understand what the title is all about. The term “19.5 percent” is missing. I would suggest that when the people of the South Island look at this bill they are going to ask given that most Maori live in the North Island why the Government is giving special treatment to North Islanders yet again. South Island people will say: “The Government already takes 4c tax away from us in our fuel tax and shovels it up to Auckland to assist it with its transport problems.” All of a sudden they see yet another example of the South Island missing out because the Government has decided to give a special group in our society a cheap rate of tax at 19.5 percent. But the tax rate I must hastily add is one that the ACT party totally agrees with. A flat tax rate of 19.5 percent for everybody would be fantastic and see this country really start to move but this title has not given us an explanation about why a tax rate of 19.5 percent cannot apply to everybody. 
The title also talks about “miscellaneous provisions”. What is a miscellaneous provision at first glance? The public I think are actually very interested in the proceedings of Parliament. They affect peoples’ lives indirectly and of course directly. So people need to know what the “miscellaneous provisions” in the bill are. Yet when the bill is reported in newspapers throughout this country people will be none the wiser. Is a miscellaneous provision something that Mr Gordon Copeland agrees with? He wants to see tax cuts for people with health insurance for example. Is that provision part of this bill? Is it reflected in the title? I cannot see it anywhere. These things are hugely important.