Eckhoff Gerrard: Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:623;Page:18608] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT) 
: 
 Before I start my contribution to this Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill I remind Government back-bench members that this is actually a debate. It is an opportunity for them to stand up and justify the legislation before this Committee. I have sat through Part 1 but I have not heard even one member justify a 5c tax increase on his or her constituents. But it is early so I hope that during debate on Part 2 I will be able to look forward to a contribution from Government back-bench members to justify this huge tax increase as I said earlier on their constituents. I make the point that I will be talking about that and I will be talking about Mr David Parker the member for Otago and his contribution during the election campaign and beforehand as to how the Government back bench justified this significant increase—this yet-another-tax on the constituents they purport to serve. 
I suspect that the constituents they purport to serve will be saying they did not vote in Mr Parker from Otago to whack them with another 5c tax. So that message will be going back. 
Some colleague from this side of the Chamber talked about “no taxation without representation”. I think it was Mr Shane Ardern was it not? Of course I remember where that famous phrase came from. It was from the incident of the Boston Tea Party was it not where the English decided to tax the people of the American colony? What happened? The English were thrown overboard with the tea. 
Shane Ardern 
: A revolution! 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: A revolution started. It takes one little spark to trigger a major bush fire perhaps—and this could be it. The people of this country are sick to death of the Prime Minister telling them they are very well off. If we go to speak to the people of this country—to mum and dad out there who get out of bed in the morning go to work and pay their taxes—we will find that in fact they are not happy. They do not have the discretionary spending that members of this Government have. The average Joe Smith or Joe Bloggs—call him what we will—does not have that discretionary spending. There are at present 22 percent of full-time workers in this country paying the top rate of tax and they are now being asked to pay—well not asked because they have not been consulted; they are being told to make—a 5c contribution that will go to the Government coffers yet again. 
I was recently at a function of rural people of farmers. They asked me whether it was really correct that when they filled up the old farm truck and headed up their roads—roads the Government contributes nothing to—they would actually have to pay 5c a litre which would go towards Auckland’s costs. I said: “My friend a vast majority of those 5c will end up in Auckland.” Well I cannot really tell the Committee what their reaction was but let me assure members that there will be a profound reaction. They should try telling that to a Canterbury or Otago taxi driver in tootling down the highway as I have done. I have asked how they feel about that 5c going towards Auckland roads. Well unless one is well strapped in one will almost go through the windscreen. They are hot about it because they know they have never been consulted on this issue. They also remember the Prime Minister’s comment that there would be no increase in income tax. It is sort of like robbing Paul to pay Paul is it not? We do not take it out of people’s income tax; we take it out of their so-called discretionary spending. That is something we will remind the Government about on a constant basis during the next few months.