Mackey Moana: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Mackey Moana: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:18983] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I am happy to take a call on the title and commencement clauses of this legislation. The legislation is called the Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill. I would submit that that name is not a particularly good one for this legislation. It makes it seem like something fairly innocuous when in fact the bill breaks even more election promises that were made by National before the last election. It is dismantling KiwiSaver. It is making life harder for middle and lower income families because of changes to Working for Families. I do not think the title of the Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill really accurately sums up exactly how damaging this legislation is. The word “Budget” in the title of the bill may lead people to believe that the measures in the bill are something that will happen after the Budget but the reality is that we have another 6 months with no plan and another 6 months of treading water while the Government does absolutely nothing to address the dire economic circumstances it has put this country in. 
I think an accurate name for this legislation would be the “Taxation (Lower and Middle Income Families Will Pay for the Tax Cuts That Went to High-income Families That National Gave in the Last Two Budgets) Bill”. That is what this legislation does. We have to pass legislation that cuts entitlements to KiwiSaver and Working for Families both of which National promised it would not cut because National gave 2 years’ worth of completely unaffordable tax cuts the overwhelming amount of which went to the top income earners. The tax cuts went to National members’ mates and to them. Cabinet Ministers and MPs did very very well out of the tax cuts given by the National Government over the last two Budgets. Labour said the tax cuts were unaffordable at the time. Labour said they were unaffordable National knew they were unaffordable but it went ahead with them anyway and guess who is paying for them? Guess who is paying for those tax cuts? Guess who is paying for the economic mismanagement of this Government? It is low and middle income families in New Zealand. 
Another potential title for this legislation could be the “Taxation (This Will Be Incredibly Bad for Local Economies) Bill”. In my home town of Gisborne Working for Families puts approximately $40 million into the pockets of those families. In the Bay of Plenty it is approximately $160 million. When we start to cut into that it is money that these families will not have to spend in local businesses on local services or in the local economy. Provincial economies in New Zealand are already doing it tough because this Government has no plan. It has no plan. 
Sandra Goudie 
: No. They get it wrong again! 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I am sure Sandra Goudie has a plan. I am sure she does. The reality is that provincial New Zealand is finding it incredibly hard at the moment and these changes will only make it harder. These changes to Working for Families will take money directly out of provincial economies. I remind the Committee again what these changes are for. They are to pay for completely unaffordable tax cuts 40 percent of which went to the top 10 percent of New Zealanders. Another name for this bill could be the “Taxation (These Taxation Changes are Simply Not Fair) Bill” because they are not fair when the overwhelming majority of tax cuts go to the people who needed them the least and to the people who were not asking for them. Tax cuts are not fair when we have to cut public services back to the bone and we have to cut KiwiSaver Working for Families and student loans to pay for them. Nothing in this Budget or this legislation will do anything to promote growth or reduce unemployment. In fact it will only contract regional economies further and make the existing problems worse—all to pay for tax cuts for National’s rich mates who did not need them and who still do not need them. National members stand up in this Chamber and defend that. I do not think it is defendable. 
Another title of the bill could be the “KiwiSaver (Forget About It If You Are Self-employed) Bill” because the self-employed will really suffer under these KiwiSaver changes. The self-employed relied on that Government tax credit. They are their own employer so with the Government stripping away that Government tax credit self-employed people’s savings will go down by 25 percent. A gentleman was reported in the  
New Zealand Herald  
today as saying that saving was just not worth it any more. It was the Government’s input into KiwiSaver that made it worthwhile saving whereas the Government would now have us— 
Chris Tremain 
: Oh come on Moana. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Is Mr Tremain saying he is wrong? Is that man not telling the truth? Chris Tremain and National say the self-employed man in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 today is wrong. He said his savings would go down by 25 percent. They are not offset by an employer contribution. Let us be realistic even the employer contribution will be offset by wages so we will see wages decrease as a result of these changes made here. This is the great grand plan apparently. This is the bright new future of National. 
I put it to the Minister in the chair the Minister of Revenue that this Budget is bad for regional economies. It is absolutely bad and that is why I think it should be reflected in the title of the bill. Those economies will also suffer from cuts that were announced in the Budget yesterday to public services. There was $1 billion worth of cuts and guess what? The Government has spent that money already in the Budget. It does not know where those cuts are coming from. It has not told us or the New Zealand public. Those cuts will come from health and education. That means extra costs on families who are receiving Working for Families and have had their entitlements cut so that will make their lives even harder when it comes to making ends meet. It will mean that even less money will go into local economies which will make unemployment worse and make that backwards move in growth in provincial New Zealand even worse. I would welcome the next National member to tell us where that $1 billion worth of cuts will come from in the public sector because the money has been spent already. That money has already been spent in the Budget so the Government better hope it can find the money otherwise it will find itself in a whole lot of trouble. The point is that it makes it so much harder for those families on Working for Families to make ends meet and it will mean less money going into provincial economies and the economy in its entirety. 
Perhaps another name for this legislation could be—and I take this from the suggestion of my colleague Damien O’Connor earlier—the “Taxation (Saving National not National Savings) Bill”. Essentially that is what this is about. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: What a gamble. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: It is a gamble. National gave away unaffordable tax cuts which everyone said it could not afford. The Government has done nothing for 2½ years—nothing to stimulate growth nothing to bring New Zealand aggressively out of recession as we were told we would be 2 years ago. What have we had? We have had a Job Summit that created no jobs a cycleway to nowhere and that is it. The Government has cut back industry training cut investment in science and innovation and cut all the areas that normally create jobs and now Government members sit there and wonder why unemployment continues to rise. They wonder why more than 25 percent of young people in New Zealand are unemployed. That is a social disaster waiting to happen. Those young people are sitting there not in training not learning and not in employment. Nothing in this bill will do anything to change that; in fact it will only make it worse. 
I suggest again that maybe this could be the “Taxation (Finally Everyone Can See the Government has No Plan the Emperor has No Clothes and this Legislation is Nothing More than a Political Smokescreen) Bill”. If members opposite say this is a savings Budget why would the first piece of legislation introduced under urgency be cutting KiwiSaver? A savings Budget that cuts KiwiSaver! Even the  
New Zealand Herald  
has seen through that piece of spin. Even the  
New Zealand Herald 
 
which is normally very friendly to National has seen through that piece of spin. 
Sandra Goudie 
: They didn’t even understand the way in which dairy farmers do accounting. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Sandra Goudie says the  
New Zealand Herald  
does not understand how the economy works. I am sorry that Sandra Goudie is retiring from Parliament because that woman was heading straight for the front bench I tell members. Mr Hutchison thought that was funny. I can tell Miss Goudie that the reality is that Labour left this National Government with an economy that the IMF and Bill English said was in an excellent position to weather the recession. We had one of the lowest Government debts in the world. We were in a net positive position. We had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. What has this Government done? It has frittered it away because it has had no plan and because it gave away all the money in tax cuts to people who did not need it who did not spend it in our economy and who did not use it in a way that was productive for New Zealand. That is why we are in the position we are in.