Smith Nick: Taxation (Base Maintenance  and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Smith Nick: Taxation (Base Maintenance  and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:626;Page:21451] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 It is absolutely appropriate that in the last few weeks of this parliamentary session we are debating tax law. When the New Zealand public go to the polls issues of tax will be at the forefront of their minds. They know that in the term of this Government the amount it gets by hook or by crook out of the pockets of hard-working New Zealanders has gone up from $34 billion when Labour came to Government to $50 billion this year and by the Government’s own estimates by 2009 it will go to $60 billion. The spending appetite of the Minister in the chair David Cunliffe and the members opposite—[ 
Interruption 
] David Benson-Pope the famous tennis player from the Government benches is getting a bit upset that I dare suggest to him that the tax increases. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: That member is unbelievable. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I ask Mr Barker or Mr Benson-Pope what justification there has been for increasing the taxes by $7000 for every single household. I can understand that Rick Barker and David Benson-Pope are getting upset. They know that the electoral guillotine is coming along. They know that the electors out there have had enough of the tax-and-spend policies of this Labour Government. Those electors are struggling to meet their family bills and the extra $7000 a year that every household is having to pay in increased taxes is one reason why this Government will go down the tube in a few weeks’ time. 
I am disappointed that in this bill there is no reduction in taxes. Every New Zealander knows that the Government is bursting at the seams with money. The Government boasts a $7.5 billion surplus so why will those meanies on the Government benches not let working New Zealanders have a little bit of their hard-earned cash? What is it about the members opposite that they believe they are so smart and so brilliant that they can spend hard-working New Zealanders’ money better than New Zealanders can? 
Mahara Okeroa 
: We are! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I just heard the interjection from the member for Te Tai Tonga. He said that yes the Government can. How does he justify taxing my constituents an extra $7000 per household? Suddenly he is silent. He cannot justify it and that is why he knows that a tax cut for working families is what we should be giving in this bill. 
But I am also amused because clause 11B provides for the tax deductibility of failed or withdrawn resource management consents. That is an issue David Benson-Pope should be interested in. It costs New Zealanders who are putting up with the bureaucracy of the Resource Management Act tens of thousands of hard-earned dollars and all Labour can offer them is a tax deduction. We on this side of the Chamber say that we should fix the Resource Management Act. Let us make sure that businesses and private individuals are not having to spend huge sums of money on failed and withdrawn resource consent applications. Would that not be a smarter policy proposition? What is gained by those hard-working New Zealand families and businesses having to apply to create wealth for New Zealand to put a garage on their house or maybe to be able to expand their business? [ 
Interruption 
] 
I remind the member opposite that the Forest Industries Council says that 20 new forest processing plants are being built in Australia as we speak. How many are being built in New Zealand? Not one. The only one we have is in Thames which is in the very good member Sandra Goudie’s electorate and that is being appealed by the Government. That is why members on this side of the Chamber say that the first thing a National Government will do is reduce taxes. You bet that we will bring in a tax bill—one that reduces taxes for ordinary New Zealanders and does not increase them. 
We have carbon taxes. The Government has increased income taxes and petrol taxes. National’s tax spokespeople have identified 34 increases in taxes that this Government has imposed on hard-working New Zealanders. 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: No one believes you. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well I say to Mr Benson-Pope that if that is the case why did 80 percent of the New Zealanders who voted in the  
New Zealand Herald  
poll on tax say that they prefer National’s policy on tax over Labour’s policy when we have not announced it yet? I say that again: 80 percent of New Zealanders prefer National’s tax policy over Labour’s and we have not yet announced it! That says what New Zealanders believe. It says that they know that this Government is taxing the heart out of ordinary working New Zealanders. 
It is interesting. Even Jim Anderton a member of this Government has signed up to the view that taxes need to be reduced. Even United Future members Labour’s bosom buddies in Government have said that the Government is taxing too much and needs to reduce taxes. Why is it that the only parties left in this Parliament that want to keep putting up taxes are the Labour Party and what I call the “Watermelon Greens”? Although they are green on the outside they are good old plain red socialists in the middle. Only those two parties stand by Labour’s policy of continuing to increase taxes. 
One of the very first bills from an incoming National-led Government will be a tax relief bill. That will be one of the first things we do. One of the second things we will do is to fix the Resource Management Act. We will not have this bumbled amendment from David Benson-Pope—an amendment that has just been rubbished in the Finance and Expenditure Committee. It is the sort of resource management bill that we have— 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: The select committee approved it. They thought it was great. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I wonder whether David Benson-Pope stands by his view that no longer having de novo hearings in the Environment Court is a good idea. [ 
Interruption 
] Is it not interesting? David Benson-Pope says that the most significant change in his resource management bill is the removal of de novo hearings in the Environment Court. 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: Tell the whole story. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: That is what the member said. I seek the leave of the Committee to table a press release from Mr David Benson-Pope dated 14 February this year in which he said that the most significant change in his resource management bill was the removal of de novo hearings in the Environment Court. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Leave has been sought for that course. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Mr Benson-Pope does not want to table his own press release in the Chamber because it is garbage. There is as much truth in his own press release as there is in his claims to this Parliament about what he did with tennis balls when he was a teacher at an earlier time. 
David Benson-Pope’s resource management bill is a disaster. It is a flop. Even his own colleagues have abandoned his key reforms and not until we get a National Government will we get the sorts of resource management reforms that are required. That is why I again draw the attention of the Committee to clause 11B. The only thing that Labour is promising in respect of the Resource Management Act is that if people get dorked in the process and lose their money they can reclaim it in their tax return. That is as good as it gets. Nothing is said about the lost opportunity and lost wealth. All people will get is a tax deduction. National will do far better than that. 
This bill is a disappointment. As has so correctly been said when we are taxing the heck out of New Zealanders we continually have to have bills of this sort to try to knock all those New Zealanders who try to avoid the capricious tax that this Government is imposing on them. We need a change of Government so that we get a reduction in tax.