Williams Andrew: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2450. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 It is no wonder that the Government members are taking such short calls this evening and have done so for much of the day because their short calls reflect the size of these bills that we are presented with and the amount of information that they contain. Members sitting on the other side of the House must be embarrassed to be fronting with these sorts of documents. 
If you look at them you see they cover the likes of taxation on children. I never thought in my lifetime I would read in the explanatory note of a bill that “Section LC3 provides for a tax credit for children.” and that section LC3 is repealed. Is that not sad reading in this House? The explanatory note of the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill mentions a tax credit for children which is repealed. In the same piece of paper in respect to the student loan scheme the 10 percent voluntary repayment bonus to try to encourage students to get on top of their loans to try to encourage them to put more money into their loans and get them paid off is being taken away. No wonder today in Auckland there are students marching in the streets. Students are marching in the streets because again they are being hard done by. 
Tomorrow I would not be surprised if farmers were marching in Dipton as well because down in Dipton the farmers will probably be disappointed with the abolition of changes to the herd valuation scheme. Again you wonder whether this Government just wants to offend everybody. Do Government members want to offend everyone? They are obviously going to offend a lot of their farmer friends. They have obviously written off the fact that students may as well just get on planes and disappear overseas to get away from their student loans. They obviously want to offend the up-and-coming younger generation who are trying to save some pocket money and maybe get their taxes back. They want to offend them as well. There are not many people at the moment they do not want to offend. The only people they seem to support are the ones whom 2 years ago they gave huge tax credits to. You start to wonder in this House how it is that 2 years ago such massive tax credits—billions of dollars—were given to their mates their wealthy mates and 2 years later they are going after the children of this country they are going after the students of this country they are going after minor adjustments to farming requirements and they are going after absolute trivia. 
It is no wonder that today there are so many reports coming out in the media saying how disappointed the nation is in this Budget. The Budget has come from the Minister Bill English who learnt from Ruth Richardson’s “mother of all Budgets” and today he has delivered the “mini-me of all Budgets”. This is the “pick a pocket or two Budget” where basically he is out to get the last nickel and dime—the last nickel and dime from wherever he can scrape it. There is no vision in this Budget. There is no vision at all. 
I have come from a background of 30 years in exports and I can tell you this is so disappointing for exporters. In the good old days there were incentives for exporters to get out there and earn export dollars for New Zealand to bring more dollars home and to put this country on the world map. Where are the tax incentives for exporters to be out there? There are none. There is nothing. There is nothing there to help our companies get offshore and make taxes. There is nothing there. And at the same time we are getting statements from the likes of the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association today saying: “The … fundamental problems such as a lack of export growth have once again gone ignored.” The manufacturers and exporters are saying they have gone ignored. At the same time as I mentioned earlier in the House today there are the appalling trade statistics that we are seeing. The April statistics show that we are 17 percent down on the same time last year for our exports—17 percent down. Our members on the National benches over there just sit there and say “What a wonderful Budget. Aren’t we producing great results?” while our exports are down while our Manufacturers and Exporters Association is saying this is an appallingly poor Budget and while the online  
New Zealand Herald  
is making statements such as this is “A most forgettable (and dull) Budget”. Quite honestly this Government should be embarrassed. 
But it all boils down to basically the Government members having no vision. It is very clear they have no vision. We are seeing more and more in this House that this Government is running out of ideas and so early into the second term of a Government that it is almost unheard of. You would expect a third-term Government to start running out of ideas or maybe a fourth-term Government but not one only 6 months into a second term to be already running out of ideas and repeating the same old promises from the Budget of 2011 and the same old promises from the Budget of 2010—and none of those promises came true. And now again they trundle out the same sorts of promises only to know in their hearts—if they put hand on heart they know—that half of what they have printed in these documents is incorrect in terms of where we will be in 12 months’ time. 
They know that last year they promised 4 point something percent growth and we got 1.1 percent. You know they promised more jobs and now we have got 50000 more unemployed. John Key when he was Leader of the Opposition promised that the exodus to Australia which was only at 35000 people a year would stop. We heard today that he said that the 35000 people sitting in Westpac Stadium represented those who left for Australia a year. Now we are heading towards 50000 or 60000 a year. So 3 years later now that he is the Prime Minister he must be absolutely embarrassed by the statements he made when he was Leader of the Opposition that he would stop all that. He has stopped nothing.  
The situation is getting worse and the people of New Zealand are starting to wake up to it. I was out on the streets in North Shore last week and I was surprised. I was getting signatures for the petition to keep our assets and I was surprised to have National voters coming up and saying: “Please let me sign the petition.” They were even saying: “I’m a National voter and I have been a National voter but I am pleased to sign this thing. Boy am I getting pretty disgruntled with this Government and I won’t be voting for them again.” National voters in a blue ribbon seat like North Shore—Maggie Barry over there knows that it is blue ribbon—are coming up and saying “We won’t be voting for National again. They are selling us down the river.” And it is not down the river on a cabbage boat. It is not down the river on a cabbage boat. It is absolutely down the river well and truly. 
We have been the witnesses of yet again an appalling Budget today. This country is looking for growth it is looking for export drive it is looking for lifting our performance internationally and we are not doing that. This is like the Skycity conference centre—this is looking inwards. This is concrete bunker stuff looking inwards. This Government is looking inwards on itself not looking outwards to expand our opportunities internationally on the export market and globally. This is all about cut cut and more cut. When you run out of things to cut you start cutting into the children of this country. Quite frankly I think the Minister of Finance will not sleep well tonight. He will probably have dreams about Ruth Richardson from 20 years ago. He will be dreaming about Ruth and the “mother of all Budgets” and saying: “My God! I’ve done it all over again. I’ve brought in another failure of a Budget.” In 20 years’ time people will look back and say: “My goodness National made a huge mistake in 2012 made a huge mistake in 1991. Why did the people of this country allow that to happen?”. New Zealand First will certainly continue to oppose this Budget. We will stand for growth in the economy growth in our international markets growth in job opportunities and growth in opportunities for our young people. We will not be a “Fagin Government” like this Government is.