King Annette: Taxation (Urgent Measures and Annual Rates) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
King Annette: Taxation (Urgent Measures and Annual Rates) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:231] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 This Opposition is a very very fair one. We are very fair; we want to give the Government a fair go and a chance. So I want to start again. Let us start from the beginning of Part 3 and ask the Minister in the chair the Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman to answer this question—and he must take a call. We cannot have a Minister on his quarter-million-dollar salary sitting in the chair like a dried arrangement and doing nothing. He has to take some responsibility when he sits in that chair so I want the Minister to answer this simple question—it will not take long—will the Minister reaffirm the claim made today by Bill English that no New Zealander will be worse off under these tax changes? It is a yes or no question Minister. We are getting the Cheshire cat grin but no reply. 
Earlier today Bill English said that no New Zealander would be worse off under National’s tax changes. Well that is not true. That is not true and we want every New Zealander to know that within 3 days of forming a Government those members have reverted to form. They have gone back to the old Tory Government they were when they went out of office in 1999 and they have broken a promise within hours of being able to put legislation in this Chamber. 
I tell members why it has happened. It is because National members worked on their tax package for a long time. There were a lot of arguments and a lot of changes. Mr Key could not make up his mind and he could not agree with Mr English. There was a lot of division but finally they got it together. But did they release it to the people of New Zealand so that people could get a closer look at it? No they did not. In October this year they released their tax package within days of a general election. During the election campaign the National Party candidates could not even talk about their tax policy because they did not understand it. They had not had it explained to them. In fact their whole tax policy had been buried because what people did see of it was unpopular. 
You see those members hid so much of it and now today the truth is coming out. The truth is that if we look at Part 3 we will see that this is the nub of what they are doing. They promised that every New Zealander would be advantaged by their tax cuts—every New Zealander. The members opposite know they said that. That is what those members said to the public as they went into the election campaign: every New Zealander would be better off. Are New Zealanders better off under these tax changes? No they are not. Part 3 tells it all. This independent earners tax credit means that many New Zealanders will get nothing. 
Who are these people? Are these people rich? Are these people undeserving? Or are they hard-working independent taxpayers who do not have dependants who go to work do a 40 or 50-hour week’s work but do not earn the net $24000 a year? They actually earn $23999 but they do not qualify for this tax credit. They do not get anything. They are not good enough to get anything. But what did they think during the election campaign? What did they think when the National candidates said they would get a tax break? They thought it was them. They thought they were part of this tax package from the generous National Party. It is a fraud it is a hoax and many many New Zealanders have been tricked into thinking that the National Party was going to provide them with a tax break. Small as it was at $10 a week they now get nothing. 
Just think of the inequities of that. A good example would be two people who live together but they do not have their own independent income. One earns $24000 net and gets the independent earners tax credit but the other person earns less than that and does not.