Mackey Moana: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Mackey Moana: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:16344] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 Like my colleague Darren Hughes I too am proud to stand to support this bill in the House. This bill is one of a package of tax cuts that the Labour-led Government has delivered over the 9 years it has been in Government. National members have tried to forget that. They are trying to say that this is it and it is not enough. If we put these tax cuts on top of the Working for Families package on top of business tax cuts and on top of the research and development tax credits that this Labour-led Government has delivered we see that it is significant. We have already delivered $4.6 billion worth of tax cuts. This bill adds $10.6 billion over the next 3 years. That is significant. Have National members ever voted for a business tax cut when they were in Government? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: No they have not. Did National members vote for Working for Families? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: No they did not. It is interesting that those families around the country that are benefiting significantly by hundreds of dollars a week from Working for Families are saying: “We want to know from the National Party whether it will touch it because if it does it is history. If National does that we do not want a bar of it.” But of course the National Party will not tell us that. 
I point out that in 1999 6 months before the election at the time of the Budget Labour put out an alternative Budget and told the country what it would do so that people could compare. Labour did this so that people could look at what National was delivering in Government and at what Labour would do in the same position so that people could make a choice—and they did. In 1999 they voted Labour in so that it could deliver on the promises it said it would deliver on but National is refusing to do that. It is refusing to tell us what it would deliver. 
One of the extraordinary things about this bill and this Budget is that we are in uncertain economic times internationally. We have record high oil prices and record high food prices. Also there is the credit crunch coming out of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. It has put enormous pressure on the international economy. 
When we have seen conditions like this in the past in New Zealand we have had slash-and-burn Budgets from National. In 1998 when National faced uncertain economic times it cut superannuation it sold State assets and it stopped investing in health and education. What has this Labour-led Government done? We have increased the amount of money going to superannuitants. In fact we have increased the amount of money across the board. We have continued to invest in health in education and in infrastructure development and we have bought back a State asset—New Zealand rail. That is the choice that New Zealanders have at the coming election. It is the stark difference between a Labour Government and a National Government. 
When we had big surpluses and the National Party was screaming at us to squander them away—there were cartoons of Michael Cullen sitting on huge piles of money—we said no because we knew that one day we might need that money so that when the tough times came we would not have to take away cheaper doctors’ visits and cheaper prescriptions from the people who need them the most and we would not have to take away free education in our schools. We will not put charges on our public hospitals like National did the last time it got to the Treasury benches. We will not do that because we are a Government that believes that when times get tough and people need us the most that is when the Government should be here. That is when a Government should plan ahead prepare for the future step in and continue to provide all the services that New Zealanders particularly those at the bottom need. 
I want to talk about the crocodile tears for working people that we have seen from the National Party. This Labour Government has delivered 1000 extra jobs a week. We have introduced legislation that has stopped the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia from widening. When National was in Government that gap widened by 50 percent because it brought in legislation that meant that workers could not bargain for a fair wage. Australian workers shot ahead; our workers fell behind. Yet National members have the gall to say in this House that they would be a Government that would do well for workers. It would not. 
Judith Collins talked about unemployment. We have had unemployment at under 4 percent for 4 years. In 1998 in Gisborne unemployment hit 21 percent under a National Government. What did National members say? They said that the invisible hand of the market would deliver for places like Gisborne and the East Coast. Well it does not. I am happy to see $30 million in this Budget to continue the support for Tai Rawhiti and Northland for roading infrastructure that our council has struggled to continue funding. I know that our council and our community are grateful for that. They are also grateful for the buy-back of rail and for the money going into coastal shipping because that is important to our region as well. 
In relation to broadband I can tell members that people in provincial regions do not believe that a Telecom monopoly that National will set up and pay $1.5 billion to will deliver for rural New Zealand. It will not. Telecom has not delivered so far. It has been an abysmal failure. It says that it will reach 75 percent of New Zealand with its package. I can tell members where the 25 percent that will not get it will be. It will be rural and provincial New Zealand just as it always has been. Our tax package of $500 million will deliver more for taxpayers more bang for the buck and it will do it quicker.