Key John: Motor Vehicle Sales Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Key John: Motor Vehicle Sales Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:4757] 
JOHN KEY (NZ National—Helensville) 
: 
 It is my great pleasure to engage in this Motor Vehicle Sales Bill title debate. I want to take up the challenge that the Minister gave in her second reading speech when she said: “There are several issues that the select committee could not agree on ...That will provide an opportunity for the House to debate these issues.” So they certainly will because this is a Minister who could not help herself. At the last minute she has snuck into this bill which had all the hallmarks of being potentially a very good bill this Supplementary Order Paper and by that the whole flavour of the bill has changed. The Minister could have stuck to the very guts of the bill. It was titled the Motor Vehicle Sales Bill for a very good reason because it— 
Hon David Carter 
: Would you buy a used car from that person? 
JOHN KEY 
: No I would not buy a used car from that person. One of the very reasons this bill was named so appropriately the Motor Vehicle Sales Bill was that it covered things the industry really cared about. It simplified a whole wide range of issues for the industry. It covered those issues for people who cared about the motor vehicle sales business. It covered people who operated as car market operators as auctioneers as vehicle traders and those who traded on the Internet. All of those people involved in the motor vehicle sales industry thought that this bill was appropriately titled. They were happy with it and National was happy to support it. But lo and behold in the Supplementary Order Paper has come a levy—a tax—that is not in the title of this bill. Nowhere in the title of this bill do I see the word “tax” yet in the Supplementary Order Paper is a tax that was not on the “credit card” and is not in the title of the bill but it is there for everybody to see. It is there to drag down the industry and add another cost. 
I want to draw to the attention of the Committee comments that the Minister also made in her speech as it relates to the title. She said that in designing this bill there had been a great deal of consultation and input from stakeholders and experts. In terms of the title they may have been experts in motor vehicle sales. I am well and truly prepared to accept that the Minister went out and spoke to a great many people that submissions were taken from all sorts of motor vehicle dealers across the country and that that was aptly put together into the title. I am not happy to accept that the consultation process that took place in the industry was reflected in the Supplementary Order Paper. Therefore I am not convinced that the title adequately reflects it. 
Simon Power 
: Tax! 
JOHN KEY 
: Where is the word “tax”? Where is the word “levy”? If the Minister had gone out and undertaken extensive consultation had asked for submissions and had included in the earlier bill the levy that she intends to put on the industry—not snuck it in some time later on; not snuck the bill through urgency but had done that in the consultation process—I am prepared to wager in this Parliament that those submissions would have clearly come back saying that this title is completely inappropriate. It should not be the Motor Vehicle Sales Bill; it should be the “Motor Vehicle Sales and Revenue Collecting Tax Bill”. It should be the “Motor Vehicle Sales and Tax Bill”— 
Simon Power 
: Motor Vehicle Sales Tax Bill. 
JOHN KEY 
: Absolutely Mr Power! Many submissions would have come back to the Minister and the first thing they would have drawn to her attention is that this title is completely inappropriate and misleading. That is a great tragedy because it is a bill that has great hallmarks—a bill that really claims to do many of the things that National supports. One of the reasons that National has been supporting this legislation is that the industry requires reform. It is an industry that needs simplification. Just as the title is very simple with those four very plain and simple words—Motor Vehicle Sales Bill—so easily was that reflected in the bill until the Minister could not help herself and did that little sneaky deal to raise taxation.