Hide Rodney: Budget Debate 
Hide Rodney: Budget Debate 
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RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 Mr Assistant Speaker as this is my first speech as leader of the ACT party I shall take a moment to thank you for your guidance during your time in this House. I also thank the Speaker the Rt Hon Jonathan Hunt. As leader of the ACT party I look forward to receiving more good advice from you and Mr Hunt. 
I also acknowledge the Prime Minister Helen Clark for her gracious comments. I myself enormously admire and respect Helen Clark as a person. She is very capable highly intelligent and committed to New Zealand. I disagree with many of the policies she and her Government are pursuing but that does not mean that I cannot respect her as a person. 
I thank the leader of the National Party Don Brash for his congratulations. I look forward to working with him so that he will be the next Prime Minister of New Zealand. I thank Winston Peters who in his own inimitable way congratulated me on achieving the leadership of the ACT party. I also thank Peter Dunne. 
I thank my caucus. Changing leaders is never an easy process as everyone in this House well knows. The caucus has done well. A special thank you goes to Stephen Franks who ran a tremendous campaign to be the leader of the party. He almost got there but having not made it has been absolutely gracious and remains committed to the people of New Zealand the ACT membership and the ACT party. It bodes well for the ACT party that we have such a good team. 
I also acknowledge Minister Parekura Horomia who amongst all the congratulations I have received looked more joyous at my taking the leadership of ACT than even me. I can only assume that that is because he has seen that I will be more statesmanlike in my approach to this House and doing less to hold Ministers and their departments to account. I thank the Minister Parekura Horomia. I have to say that even though I have questioned him hard about what he is up to in his department he has never lost his humanity or sense of humour. While on opposite sides of the House often in tough circumstances he and I are good mates. 
 We are here to debate this Budget. Nothing shows the difference between that side of the House and this side than this Budget which Helen Clark and Michael Cullen cobbled together and which United Future voted for. This Budget gives no hope to New Zealanders for a better future. It is all about the here and now. It is all about what people get if they fill out a form to the Government and get a handout back. There is nothing aspirational about this Budget. There is nothing forward-looking. There is nothing in this Budget that will make New Zealand a richer place. Rather it is all about taking a big chunk of what we have now and giving it to the Government and then handing it back to those New Zealanders who first produced that wealth. 
Michael Cullen says he is giving it back to those who need it. But when we look at this Budget we see that it is actually being given back to those whom Michael Cullen needs the votes off. That is what this Budget is about; not what is good for New Zealand but what is good for the Labour Party. What sort of Budget is it that to help families the Government has to spend $21 million on party propaganda trying to resuscitate its vote? 
Steve Chadwick said that this is a redistribution Budget and it is. It is not about making the cake bigger; it is about dividing it up. We normally think about that as robbing Peter to pay Paul but when we look at this Budget we see that the Labour Government is robbing Peter to pay Peter. That is what this Budget is about—robbing Peter to pay Peter. How else can we explain people paying taxes and then having to apply to get them back? 
How barmy is it that people on $100000 with six children will apply to the Government to get some of their tax dollars back because they are needy—and from the very Government that put their tax rates up from 33c to 39c? Having taken the money off them the Government is giving them the opportunity to apply for a bit of it back if they have children. That is a Budget of robbing Peter to pay Peter. How much simpler would it have been just to lower taxes and not to take the money in the first place. But no that would not help Michael Cullen and Helen Clark to get elected. That is not what they want. 
They say they stand for the people who are poor and dependent. I say it is the National Party and the ACT party that stand for people who are on low incomes and who are dependent. Why is that? It is because our two parties want to take the poor people and make them richer. Our parties want to take people who are currently dependent on the Government and allow them to be independent. 
This Budget is all about spreading poverty and dependency on the Government—so much so that a family on $100000 will find itself receiving an in-work benefit. How demeaning is that? People are sitting there on 39c in the dollar on $100000 a year and they have to apply to Michael Cullen for an in-work benefit so they too become beneficiaries. That is what this Government wants. It wants to spread dependence rather than independence. 
Today we heard the Prime Minister talk about taking the top rate of tax and the company rate down to 20c. She also talked about who would get what as though that is the reason why we take that top rate down. We take the top rate of tax and the company rate of tax down to benefit every New Zealander. 
Hon Judith Tizard 
: Ha ha! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I know that the Minister with responsibility for Auckland Issues who pretends to represent Auckland thinks it is a joke that the people of Auckland are taxed hard. 
If we take the top rate down from 39c to 20c and the company rate down from 33c to 20c what would happen? The profitability of every business in New Zealand would be increased by 20 percent. Instead of keeping just 67c in the dollar profit they would get to keep 80c in the dollar. What would that mean? It would mean more investment more entrepreneurship more business activity more businesses and more jobs—not just for a few selected businesses that the Government has put on welfare but every business in New Zealand as of right. 
In this Budget we could have dropped the top rate of income tax to 20c and taken the company rate of tax to 20c. Michael Cullen showed that it could be done. If New Zealanders vote for the ACT party it will be done. That I promise.