Cunliffe David: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cunliffe David: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8681. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 I rise to take a short 20-minute call on Part 3 even if I have to read it several times in order to satisfy that criterion. I draw the Committee’s attention to clauses 63 to 68 of the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) situated as they are on pages 46 and 47 of the bill as amended and reported back to the Committee and not the original printed version of the bill which was on the Table earlier and which I think it is fair to say did give rise to more than a little confusion having as it did the old Part 2 in Part 2 which now resides in Part 1—[ 
Interruption 
]—none of which is relevant to the interjections coming from that unruly mob known as the National backbench. You know the extraordinary thing about that mob is that it will bray when there is something to talk about and it will bray when there is nothing to talk about and I venture to suggest that we are in the latter category now. 
Clause 63 is a very important clause. These are the amendments to the principal Act that apply for the years 2014-15 and later tax years. There is something we all know about the tax year 2014-15 is there not colleagues? That will include the first year of the next Labour-Green Government and it may well be with the New Zealand First Party in coalition. And it will be the first year in Opposition for members opposite—the first of their next 10 years in Opposition. They may think I am kidding but no. In fact I am deadly serious on this matter because we are now in the inner entrails of this bill. We have gone beyond the transitional provisions we have gone beyond the all-powerful “Henry VIII” clause we have gone beyond the transition in Part 2 and we are down to the transition of the transition of the transition in Part 3 and it is really quite something. 
If I read clause 63 for the benefit of the Committee and those riveted to their screens while the Committee is occupying itself with this matter of import clause 63 says: “Section 4 amended (Interpretation)—In section 4(1) repeal the definitions of ‘annual gross income’ ‘annual total deduction’ and ‘pre-taxed income’.” That definition right there raises some very important issues because the first one “annual gross income” is something that a lot of New Zealanders are lamenting because the median annual gross income has declined in both nominal and real terms since the current Government took office. So if there is one thing that New Zealanders in the middle of the heap know about annual gross income it is that it is going down. They are worse off and that is one reason why the 2014-15 tax year to which this refers will be the first year of the next Government. 
Similarly “pre-taxed income” is in this clause. It is a very important phrase as it brings to mind the doings of the last 2 days: one failed tax has been shot between the eyes by the Prime Minister on each of the last 2 days. That is something of a record. We are holding our breath for tomorrow to see whether there will be a veritable trifecta of skeletal taxes lying slain upon the floor of the House a mere flash in the pan of revenue history rather like the reputation of the current Minister of Revenue who has presided over these small tinkering taxes where the grey hand of the State is inserted ever deeper—ever deeper—into the wallets of New Zealanders. It may be a laughing matter to the collector of dairy farms over there on the back row of the Government benches. That dairy farm collector may not trouble himself with small matters such as car-park—