Hide Rodney: Income Tax Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Hide Rodney: Income Tax Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12084] 
RODNEY HIDE (ACT) 
: 
 The ACT party rises to oppose this huge Income Tax Bill. I have to say that the one bit I do like is on page 2026 schedule 1 which states that the basic rate of income tax for taxable income is 19.5c for every dollar. That is a good policy; let us have it. It would be good to tax everyone at 19.5c down from 39c and down from 33c. The bit that gets me is that when members read that they will suddenly realise that only Maori authorities get 19.5c. My question to Harry Duynhoven who is not prepared to take a call but has plenty to say is that if 19.5c is good for Maori why is it not good for the rest of us? Year in and year out Michael Cullen has said that tax cuts were not a good idea for the economy and were not good for business. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Are you suggesting raising the rate with a whole lot of associated compliance costs because that’s what you’re suggesting—unless you have that. The Minister just explained it. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Poor old Harry Duynhoven all the way from New Plymouth— 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: No not poor old I’m not even old. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: He is old; look at him. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: If he interjects on me and takes up my time I am allowed to have a wee whack at the old man from New Plymouth. Harry Duynhoven asked about the compliance costs. If we all went to 19.5c and had a flat rate of tax what do people think would happen to the compliance costs? This bill would go from 2500 pages back to 200 pages would it not? I ask Mr Duynhoven whether that would be fair. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: If you believe in a flat tax system. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: He says it would. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: If you believe in a flat tax system yes. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: It would be fair if one believed in a flat tax system. Now we have the Chair telling Harry Duynhoven to pipe down and not to speak. I tell the Committee that I agree with that clause; it is great. I would just like it expanded to every authority and to every person being taxed in New Zealand. I ask the Hon Harry Duynhoven and the Minister in the chair the Hon David Cunliffe what is wrong with taxing at 19.5c in the dollar. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: You want a flat tax? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I want a flat tax. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Well that’s your view; that’s fine. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Harry Duynhoven said that it is fine to have a flat tax. Is it not fair that if a person earns twice as much money that person should pay twice as much tax not four or five times as much? In fact it is quite odd that if a person earns twice as much that person has to pay twice as much tax. That does not happen when a person buys his or her groceries. That person is not asked how much he or she made last week and is then charged double his or her grocery bill. But let us say that it would be fair that if a person earned twice as much he or she would pay twice as much tax. I would like the Minister in the chair to explain why a person who earns twice as much should pay three times as much income tax. Harry Duynhoven the Labour Government the National Party New Zealand First and United Future all say that we should have a progressive tax system; that as a person earns more not only does he or she pay more tax but he or she would pay proportionately more tax. The ACT party says phooey to that. I tell Harry Duynhoven that we agree with a flat tax or it could be called a proportional tax. 
Brian Connell 
: What about flat Earth? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I do not know about taxing a flat Earth but if Helen Clark hears that there is a flat Earth I am sure she will tax it. They have taxed everything else including my little cow that was farting which was going to get a tax under this Government—flat or otherwise. Why not have a proportional tax that is the same no matter what income a person is paid?