Key John: Appropriation (2004/05 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Key John: Appropriation (2004/05 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:619;Page:14962] 
JOHN KEY (National—Helensville) 
: 
 That was another vein-popping performance from the Minister of Justice the Hon. Phil Goff who is persona non grata with everybody in New Zealand. That is why he has been in Afghanistan—because no one wants him. His own ministry does not want to talk to him. The ministry knows he let it down by sneaking out documents that he does not even believe in himself. When he was challenged to present them they were mysteriously destroyed. He is persona non grata with his own ministry. He is persona non grata with the good people of New Zealand who are horrified because he supports sex with 12-year-old girls. Helen Clark said “It’s got so bad Mr Goff go off to Afghanistan for a couple of weeks stay out of the limelight stay out of the way and hopefully our poll ratings will recover because we cannot take it any more. We cannot take the pain. Come back and give a vein-popping performance. It will help you get up in the ranks.” Then one day he can have another barbecue and think about whom he will use to roll Helen Clark. 
We saw a very very interesting speech by the Hon. Michael Cullen Minister of Finance. He came down to the House and gave a speech saying that things are just great in the rosy garden of the New Zealand economy. Things are just humming in the rosy garden of the New Zealand economy. He said that we are on a roll we are smoking it and we are doing even better than expected. That is very interesting. We are on such a roll that four out of five families get absolutely nothing out of this Budget. We are on such a roll that Treasury projects that the number of people on welfare will rise over the next 3 years. We are on such a roll that despite the fact that the average family pays $3000 more in tax since Labour came into office families cannot have a tax cut. Those are the facts of life. We are on such a roll that we cannot even afford to help out those poor hard-working families—most of which got absolutely zilch in the Budget. That is how much of a roll we are on. 
I encourage the Minister of Finance if he is feeling in such a generous mood about the state of the New Zealand economy and the likely income that it will produce to come back down to the House and tell the good people of New Zealand that he has a magic bullet up his sleeve called a tax cut for some people other than just the few thousand he singled out. He does not want to do that. I challenge him to come down and present a company tax rate that is the same as Australia’s which is still above the OECD average of 29.3 percent. If we are on such a roll we can afford to do those things for the business community and the people of New Zealand. 
But the reality is that we are not actually on so much of a roll. Treasury has analysed this Budget and is telling us quite clearly that the projected economic growth rate for New Zealand will slow. It will slow more than Australia’s and the OECD average in the years ahead. That is because Treasury has taken some time to have a look at what the Labour Government has been doing. It has put to one side the spin doctors of which there are so many on the ninth floor that it is a rather crowded environment and looked at a sheet of paper to see what this Government has really produced for this economy. 
What has the Government done to drive economic growth for which it so loudly claims victory in the House this afternoon? It has raised the rate of personal taxation in New Zealand so that one in five New Zealanders now pays a top rate of taxation of 39c not 33c; one in four secondary school teachers pays the top rate of taxation. That is what the Government has done in the area of tax. It has raised taxes so that an extra $1.5 billion will be paid this year just as a result of people moving into higher income tax brackets through fiscal drag. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: And this is a caring Government. 
JOHN KEY 
: This is a caring Government that is on such a roll it has to deliver the good news to the people of New Zealand! Treasury has said: “It has failed on tax; What else has the Government done to promote growth?”. It is obviously very pro-growth because it is rolling in the clover so to speak. Treasury has turned to the labour market. What has happened in the labour market under this Labour Government? What we have seen is the ultimate cynical bribe—people can have 4 weeks’ holiday—we are on such a roll that we do not know what to do with ourselves—but by the way we cannot have it until 2006. Is there not an election coming up in 12 months’ time? That is right; and the Government will not tell people about the fact that when they have that extra week’s holiday they will not get pay rises for the years ahead because employers will not be able to afford it. So they will be paying for it themselves anyway but the Government still says people should thank it for giving them something for nothing. Hello! That is a new form of “Winston Peters economics” and even Winston Peters does not believe that one. 
Then Treasury has moved away from labour markets because it has seen a “D”. Even if this Government were doing the National Certificate of Educational Achievement for the Budget in Cambridge High School it would have to fail—and that would take a lot from Cambridge High School! 
So the Government has failed in tax and in the labour markets and Treasury has moved to the area of compliance costs. We have seen more compliance costs heaped on small businesses and businesses around New Zealand that are failing and struggling to keep up. Treasury has said that that is not good either and has then looked to see what is happening in the energy sector for this Government that is on a roll with this Budget. Treasury has said very interestingly that the Government has to put up taxpayers’ funds to support the debt obligations of a State-owned enterprise because it cannot be sure that in 10 years’ time it will get enough gas. How will that help the Government and the taxpayer? It will not help them in the slightest because when the gas runs out and the power goes out there will not be anything there. But we need not worry because the taxpayer will be paying for that. Why do we have to do that? Because we have a Government— 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: When National was in Government it privatised railways. 
JOHN KEY 
: Obviously we have hit a nerve here. This is the Labour Government with energy policies that would not even stack up on  
Play School 
. 
 Why are we having to put taxpayers’ dollars up front? I will tell members why in case they are wondering. The reasons are very simple. We have signed the Kyoto Protocol so we cannot actually price carbon emission charges and despite the fact we have a thousand years’ supply of coal in the ground we cannot be sure that we will ever be able to use it. But we should not worry. We will export it to Indonesia China and other parts of Asia and they can burn it because somehow it does not seem to affect the environment when it is being burnt in Asia or Eastern Europe but it does affect things when it is burnt down here. That is a very interesting strategy a very interesting strategy indeed. Then we could have had the largest example of hydro generation for some time coming in— 
Darren Hughes 
: How come this member gets 20 minutes? 
JOHN KEY 
: There is the translucent member from Otaki. I whipped through Otaki the other day and frankly I would think of standing for that electorate if I did not have the seat of Helensville. It looked entirely winnable to me—very winnable indeed. I asked whether anyone had ever heard of Darren Hughes and they answered: “Who? Who? I think he is still at school Darren Hughes. He is that quite nice young bloke but I don’t know what he knows about politics. I know he has done bits and bobs and—oh that’s right; he took Helen Clark to  
The Lord of the Rings 
—best night out she’s had in ages.” Anyway I transgressed from the Budget just for a moment and now to move back to the issue of— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That would be good. 
JOHN KEY 
:—hydroelectric dams and why we are having to put taxpayers’ dollars at risk—it is because we do not have an energy policy consistent with the Resource Management Act. That is why we are in 60th place out of 60 in the world competitiveness index. 
Treasury looks at the list and says to itself: “Tax is a failure labour market’s a failure compliance costs are a failure energy sector’s a failure RMA’s a failure so our future projections for economic growth in this country are grim. But don’t worry because Michael Cullen is telling us that we are on a roll and it’s all really good.” Then they ask Hon Dr Michael Cullen in the serene quietness of his seventh-floor office: “Sir what have you done to help the economy of New Zealand?” He says: “Er—oh that’s right I inherited all those things from the 1980s and 1990s. I had a huge tail wind of a very low exchange rate and high commodity prices and I just came along and did a few things to make a mess of it all.” I do not have much time to talk about the Budget which is a great shame. But I can just say that every Labour member has got up and said what a great Budget it is. Well if it is such a great Budget why are we having to spend $21 million worth of taxpayer dollars to promote it? 
Lindsay Tisch 
: Good question. 
JOHN KEY 
: Yes it is a very good question. What do I see? I see deer in the headlights and stunned mullets. There is not a whisper not a murmur out of members on the Labour benches. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh hello—we have woken them up. But no there is $21 million to promote a propaganda machine. Why would anyone want to promote it? That is a bit of a vexed question. Why would anyone want to promote something when four out of five people will get nothing out of it? There will be high effective marginal tax rates. The doozy came last week because the Government got very upset when the  
Dominion Post  
on its front page pointed out that of those working families who were getting the accommodation supplement—lo and behold 50 percent of them were not families. I wish I could have an extension of time because it has been so much fun to point out the failures of this Budget and of this Government.