Gilmore Aaron: General Debate 
Gilmore Aaron: General Debate 
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AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 I start by referring to the lunacy we have just heard from the Green Party member Gareth Hughes. Last night I sat in the Banquet Hall along with the member from the West Coast Chris Auchinvole and heard a great presentation from a West Coast mining group. It pointed out that mining on the West Coast produces about $700 million to $800 million a year of export income and with a little bit of help and a little time it could produce another $1 billion of export income for New Zealand. That mining produces jobs and taxes which produces the real wealth for New Zealand. 
This is the problem that we have with the Opposition. Opposition members either cannot count or do not want to understand how real wealth is created in New Zealand. Last night in this Chamber we heard Clare Curran trying to subtract 800000 from 1.6 million. She got 83000. This morning we see in the  
Dominion Post  
that a journalist for whatever reason has pointed out that an income of $500000 which was the revenue turnover of a business should be the basis for taxation. At question time today we heard the Leader of the Opposition Mr Phil Goff point out and reaffirm that a turnover tax in some shape or form is the way to go. I am surprised. 
I look across at members on the other side and I give them credit. I look at Mr Cunliffe. He is a smart man. He has spent some time advising major corporations around the world—so I thought. I thought that no way would that man come up with an idea like this. Well it turns out that maybe we were wrong. Mr Nash came up with that brilliant idea. It would take $5 billion to fund the hole that exists in Labour’s expenditure programme—$5 billion. Fonterra has a $60 billion turnover. I know—let us tax them at 10 percent. That will be the solution! That will solve everything! 
When we go through the process it is like that old political saying about cows. We have two cows we look after the cows and they produce milk. The Labour Party has a view. If the farmer has two cows then take a cow produce the milk and throw it away. That is the Labour Party’s focus. We heard from Jacinda Ardern that jobs in places like Pumpkin Patch are not real jobs. I say to the member who pointed that out that people working in retail—the thousands of people up and down the country working in shops for 8 or 10 hours a day like my family does—are working in real jobs. They produce real value for New Zealanders. 
That is what Opposition members do not understand. People have to create real wealth. They have income they deduct their expenses and that is called profit. That is what we tax in New Zealand. There is nothing imaginary. There are no pixies at the bottom of the garden creating wealth that we can just throw at projects for the Opposition’s great grandiose plans. 
We have heard over time some of that craziness from Labour members. They told us that we would have an 11 percent unemployment rate; we have 6.5 percent. They told us we would have 20000 people unemployed in Christchurch alone but that was absolute rubbish. They tell us that the solution is to borrow more money so we can save it right now. Well right now New Zealand has a mortgage an overdraft and a credit card balance in deficit and its creditors are banging on its door. It would be absolutely ludicrous to go and borrow more money just to put it on a lottery that is the sharemarket we are seeing right now. 
Those Labour members seemingly believe that National members have no idea. Well I point to last year’s Budget. We released an investment plan to outline for the first time ever the way we would spend more than $100 billion over the next 10 years. We were the first Government in the history of New Zealand to do that. It is a plan to invest in our infrastructure in the smartest way possible and it has never been done before in the history of the New Zealand Parliament. But what credit do we get from members on that side? They ask where the plan is. I tell them that tomorrow they will see a plan. They will see a plan outlined to bring the Budget into balance. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I hope so—for New Zealand. 
AARON GILMORE 
: We cannot carry on spending more money than we earn I tell Mr Cunliffe. We cannot go on borrowing $300 million a week and spending the $5 billion that that member and his party wants to continue to spend to bankrupt not only me not only my family but this whole country. That is what Labour’s spending would achieve. Thank you. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.