Hipkins Chris: Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Hipkins Chris: Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:675;Page:20772] 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 I have to say that I am disappointed. I am disappointed that the Government is trying to shut down the debate on this Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill already. I am quite fascinated as well because this bill is tidying up the tax system and making it simpler and dealing with a number of remedial issues is something that we on this side of the Chamber would normally support. We do support the vast bulk of provisions in this bill but when we get to Part 3 “Remedial matters and abolition of gift duty” we see that it is just tacked on in there as if it is a remedial matter. It is actually a pretty big deal. 
I have to say that my impression of Parliament having been here 2½ years—going on toward 3 years now—is that we can tell a lot about a Government’s priorities by the legislation it chooses to push through under urgency. Here we are under urgency abolishing gift duty which is a tax cut by stealth for the wealthiest New Zealanders. It is a tax cut by stealth—[ 
Interruption 
] Members are getting very excited over there because those members on the other side of the Chamber are all about privilege and all about protecting their mates and making life easier for their mates. 
They talk about the fact that the people at the bottom of the heap unemployed people need to pick themselves up by their bootstraps. Apparently the kids of the wealthiest New Zealanders do not need to do that; they can expect a free lunch under this National Government. This is a National Government that introduced hereditary entitlement to school attendance and now through abolishing gift duty it wants to make life a heck of a lot easier for those at the top of the heap while it pulls out the ladder for those at the bottom. It is yet another example of National’s priorities being all about the people at the top of the heap and not about the people struggling to get by and struggling to make a living. It is all about making it more possible for people to avoid paying their fair share of tax which is what this Government is all about. 
In fact it is not me who is saying that; the Institute of Chartered Accountants said that about this legislation. It argued that the absence of gift duty creates the potential for people to split their income with people on lower incomes in order to avoid paying their fair share of tax. It is another example of National promoting those at the top of the heap by letting them not pay their fair share while those at the bottom of the heap continue to get whacked. Those people who are doing a hard day’s work and flogging their guts out to make this country a better place to provide for their families get whacked with higher tax under this National Government through increases in GST and the like while the Government is going to help those people at the top of the heap who want to give their money to their kids in order to avoid paying their fair share of tax. That is what it is going to do. 
The other thing is the ability to transfer income to loss-making entities. It is another example of National providing a loophole to allow those on the highest incomes and with the most assets to avoid paying their fair share of tax. It creates the ability to transfer assets in order to meet minimum thresholds for the financial arrangement rules and the foreign investment fund rules. It is another example of National doing its bit so that its wealthy mates can avoid paying their fair share of tax. It creates the ability for someone with a tax liability to divest themselves of the means to pay and then claim hardship. They can give everything away to their kids instantly and then say: “Oh my goodness me! I can’t afford to pay any more so you are just going to have to do whatever you do—bankrupt me even. That’s OK; I am not going to pay my fair share of tax. In fact I am not going to pay my fair share of anything.” That is what people can do if we abolish gift duty. They can give all their money away instantly in order to run away from their problems and to run away from their tax liabilities. That is what this National Government is all about—giving it out to the people who have the most assets and the most income and making life a bit easier for them while the people who are working hard who are scraping to get by and who are paying their fair share get clobbered with paying more under this National Government. 
This abolition of gift duty very clearly sets out what this National Government’s priorities are all about and it is not about the hard-working New Zealanders it is not about the people who are trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps to make life better for themselves and better for their families; it is all about the people who have the most already—the top 10 percent of New Zealanders who have the lion’s share of the tax cuts under this National Government. That is who it really represents. That is who it is here for. Those are the people who support National and fund its election campaigns and they are the people whom this National Government is happy to work in the best interests of. It is not the people who are working hard who are doing their fair share and who are willing to pay their fair share of tax; they get to pay more through things like the increase in GST. I think that says an awful lot about this Government’s priorities and that is the reason—