Foss Craig: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading 
Foss Craig: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:663;Page:11071] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 First before I comment on the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill I acknowledge and thank the Minister of Finance Bill English and our Prime Minister Mr John Key for a step change Budget which this bill starts to bring alive and put into effect. The Budget is a step change. It gets rid of some of the imbalances in our economy it addresses so much of what has been talked about by so many over so many years and this bill puts the Budget into action. As I acknowledged yesterday the previous Labour Government talked about some of those issues but it never did anything about them. In fact it perpetuated them and made them worse. I also acknowledge our coalition partners and particularly the Hon Peter Dunne for the work he has done on the taxation changes. 
I was quite intrigued that the previous speaker the Hon David Cunliffe had a new-found interest in inflation. Under his regime—when he was in Cabinet in fact—non-tradable inflation was running at about 4 percent and the rest of the economy was in recession. The reason I raise that is the member made inflation a key point of his speech. Labour is focusing on inflation yet it is also trying to rewrite the monetary policy framework—it is doing some task groups on it or something. Members on the other side of the House need to get their story straight. Either they are rigid about inflation or they are not. David Cunliffe missed some other points. Labour assumes life is static. If inflation is going up one assumes that wages are going up because wages tend to track inflation; real wages actually increase as our economy gets better. 
Fairness and equity are back. This bill brings fairness and equity back. Interestingly as the Prime Minister noted in his Budget speech many of the tax rate numbers have been brought back to exactly where they were in 1988 and 1989 from memory when Mr Goff was in Cabinet. It also puts some of the balance back. There is encouragement for financial assets. We heard time and time again the previous member wrongly I suggest talk about nothing being done about the housing bubble and the creation of housing assets or investment property assets. Actually if we look at the change in the taxation of financial assets—down to 28c in the dollar matching the awesome corporate tax changes—therein lies the incentive in action. Members should watch those macros change as investment moves to financial assets in New Zealand and hand in hand with some of the changes the Hon Simon Power is bringing in. 
I just say one other thing. There are a few commentaries in already. Regardless of what the previous member said I will quote from Mr Bernard Hickey’s commentary on the Budget which is only about 2 hours or 3 hours old. I could not put it better myself I do not think—apart from the last sentence perhaps. But I will read it: “This is the most comprehensive and coherent reform of New Zealand’s taxation system in more than 25 years. It goes a long way to tilting the economy back towards productive investment and away from property investment.” That sums up the Budget which is only 3 hours old. Feeding from that Budget is the bill that is before us tonight. I will not read it right through to page 61. I suggest members read the explanatory note. There are some interesting highlights on page 2 which has the new schedule of taxation rates particularly the changes—the current rates versus the rates from 1 October 2010. 
Fairness equity and sustainable growth are back. New Zealand is about to step up and take charge of its destiny again. With the current financial stresses around the globe this is a Budget for our time and for future generations. Fairness and equity are back. 
Debate interrupted.