Goudie Sandra: Budget Debate 
Goudie Sandra: Budget Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:21110] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 This is a Government shrouded in a spin machine trying to sell a car without a motor. That is what this Budget is. It is a car with no motor no tread on the tyres the headlights blown and a number plate that reads “Going Nowhere”. There is no destination no strategy and no vision to take this country forward. The only way New Zealanders will be able to enjoy the rewards of their hard work is for there to be a sound economic vision for New Zealand. National led by Don Brash is the only party with the fiscal capability to deliver that vision. The New Zealand public are realising that. They know it. The tread has gone from the tyres and the spin machine has been given the pink sticker telling the Government that it is time to get off the road. 
The Government has been told to shape up with one of New Zealand’s largest forestry companies right on the eve of the Budget taking the Government to task over its attitude. What was the headline? It was: “Labour ticked off for forestry stance”. Forestry like a number of other sectors wants a better response from the Government on trade energy and greenhouse gas policy. 
Then we got the Budget and the mindless creation of the carbon tax. All New Zealanders will be affected by the carbon tax which has been described as a tax similar to GST in administration. One thing is certain: the carbon tax will add 4c a litre to the price of petrol 46c to the cost of 9 kilograms of liquid petroleum gas and 68c to the cost of a 20 kilogram bag of coal and that is merely a conservative estimate. The impact on a typical Kiwi household will be a minimum of $4 a week for electricity petrol and other fuels. It is worth remembering here that for anything we consume that has a transport component the cost of any increase in petrol prices has to be recovered somehow. That “somehow” is usually through charging New Zealanders the consumers more. 
Accounting firm KPMG said that the carbon charge is likely to create an inflationary spike not seen since the introduction of GST and that this “will no doubt impact on money supply in New Zealand and ultimately lead the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates to stem the effects of inflation”. I would just like to bring that to Mr Hughes’ attention. Not only will New Zealand taxpayers feel the carbon tax increase indirectly through an increase in the cost of goods and services; we must remember that we will all be paying GST on the carbon tax content of goods and services. It is likely we will also feel the effects through an increase in interest rates. Deloitte tax expert Thomas Pippos reckons that the carbon tax will cost each household up to $250 a year or more. 
Southlanders will not appreciate the impacts of the carbon tax on top of their outrage over the petrol tax. The petrol tax was described as a con by an Invercargill city councillor and as a charade by the mayor. They along with the rest of New Zealand will hardly be impressed with more cons and charades courtesy of the carbon tax and the Labour Government. 
One commentator warned: “Don’t forget the stealth taxes”. She was referring to GST duties and excise taxes that attach to goods such as alcohol cigarettes and petrol. People will need to go through their spending with a fine-tooth comb to see all the increases. 
One of the best descriptions of the Budget release that I have read was in Jonathan Milne’s article entitled “Budget offers mere crumbs”. He described the Minister of Finance as having “brought Dancing with the Stars to Parliament: a stylish Budget quick-step whose rapid action disguises the fact that he leads his partner nowhere fast.” He reiterated the fact that the changes to tax thresholds are worth 67c a week to low-income New Zealanders and are equivalent to half a packet of chewing gum. He also pointed out—[ 
Interruption 
] Ms Dalziel should pay attention; she might learn something. He also pointed out that the housing subsidy will be of little assistance to aspiring home buyers in the pricey Auckland and Wellington markets and that Dr Cullen appears to have lost his stomach for the initial contribution which was halved by Thursday. If a 10 percent deposit is $30000 then $5000 will not go far. 
So what about tax cuts? With around 22 or more tax impositions—robbery by this Government—over the last couple of years where are the tax cuts? New Zealand’s hard-working men and women can look forward to maybe $6 in 3 years’ time but that will barely cover the cost of tax increases. No wonder people are heading offshore in droves! In March alone New Zealand had a net outflow of 2100 Kiwis to Australia. Why would anyone want to wait around until 2008 to get some measly crumb dished out by this Government? By 2008 with a net outflow of 2100 another 70000 workers will have headed over the ditch to Australia. The farming sector is also disappointed by the lack of tax cuts. 
Dr Cullen’s continued bleating that tax cuts would inevitably lead to cuts to the likes of education health and welfare is a vain attempt to spin a line to the public. There would certainly not be such cuts to services—not with the current ineffective and inefficient use of the amounts of money being spent in those areas. [ 
Interruption 
] Am I loud enough for those members? Bureaucracy has increased by the thousands. The Minister may trumpet about extra spending in areas such as education but where is the money really going? Why into the ministry of course supporting the alarming growth of bureaucracy as identified in the Treasury report. 
The Treasury report comes as no surprise to National of course as we have observed an explosion of Government spending on employees. An article states: “An embarrassing secret and heavily censored Treasury report confirms a blowout in the state services sector wages bill over the past five years without any improvement in productivity.” It cautions that the full extent of the Treasury report and the criticisms may never be known due to the report being so heavily censored—and that is typical of this Government. With large parts of the report excluded how is anybody able to scrutinise it effectively? That  
National Business Review 
 article continues: “Unchecked the sheer size of the increase is jeopardising future government spending as the growing costs will constrain ‘the ability of ministers to progress new policies’. ” As someone said every dollar spent on pen-pushers number crunchers bean counters and paper shufflers is money not spent at the coalface where it is needed. 
And speaking of paper shufflers here is an example: $4 million a year to supervise—to supervise—the building industry to avoid any more leaky homes. The Budget provides $658000 for expanding building regulations and control. More pen-pushing. There is an extra $187000 for licensing builders and other construction professionals. More pen-pushing. And there is $1.6 million for regulatory policy. More pen-pushing. And there is $1.6 million for a new mobile residential tenancy service. Pen-pushers on wheels! New Zealanders want more out of Government than pen-pushers. They want recognition for their hard work and the ability to enjoy the fruits of their hard work. New Zealanders want sound economics for their future. Labour cannot deliver. National can.