Cunliffe David: Taxation (Annual Rates Returns Filing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cunliffe David: Taxation (Annual Rates Returns Filing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 28 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4830. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairman as it gives me the opportunity to point out several inconsistencies in the contribution of the Minister in the chair the Minister of Revenue. Firstly at no stage has the Labour Party or this member said that KiwiSaver was in decline merely that the rate of growth of savings under Labour’s plan was four times that of the rate under National’s plan. The disturbing thing is that the Minister of Revenue cannot tell the difference between a plus sign and a minus sign in front of a financial aggregate. That is of deep concern. This bill in fact does explain something because as we noted earlier this bill is raising a contribution rate that the same Minister previously dropped. It may be that he was confused on one or both occasions and has not meant to do another U-turn in policy but it may be that it is deliberate and I ask the Minister to take a call and explain to the Committee whether he is confused or whether he actually meant to change his previous amendment again. 
But there is of course a bigger debate here and that is about how we grow New Zealand business. What we need for New Zealand businesses to grow—we get told as we go around the country—and what we hear from businesses is that they want the capital for growth. They want to be able to invest in good Kiwi jobs. 
David Bennett 
: They want a National Government. That’s what they want. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: And in dairy farms says the “member for dairy farm accumulation”. They want dairy farms they want businesses they want to be able to invest in them I say to—what should we say—the “member for tax efficiency in the rural sector”. That is a very good phrase. Members can figure that out amongst themselves. 
The issue here is that when all the incentives in the tax system are for people to get rich quick through property and not to build honest businesses this country suffers. We do not have as many higher-paying jobs. We do not have as many people in work. Unemployment in New Zealand has gone back up to nearly 7 percent years after the current Government told us it would be back down towards 5 percent. This is a scandal of epic proportions in New Zealand. New Zealanders are really suffering. The current Government does not have a plan. It has deserted the hopes and dreams of New Zealanders. If this is as good as it gets—changing the savings contribution rate from 2 percent to 3 percent after having cut it from 4 percent to 2 percent—then we really can conclude that this is a visionless vacuum of a Government. 
It makes no difference then whether this is an annual or a perennial bill—you know an annual bill from a perennial Minister which is where we started this little debate—because this Government is going to be time-limited not perennial and because New Zealanders are going to wake up and they are going to understand that if they want their kids to have a future in this country they are going to need a Government with some vision and some guts and some boldness that is actually going to have a plan to make some changes. 
Maggie Barry 
: They’ve got one. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Oh they have got one says the “member for annuals”. They have got one she says. They have got such a great Government that those members did not ask the question of whether asset sales ought to have a Treaty examination before they started. So other than upper-income tax cuts which we are debating in this bill the Taxation (Annual Rates Returns Filing and Remedial Matters) Bill they pinned their economic strategy on flogging off the family silver. But just like the renowned celebration in the brewery they could not even organise that properly. They could not organise a celebration in a brewery. They could not even flog off their own family silver—actually New Zealanders’ family silver. So inept are they that they did not ask themselves the question: “Oh I wonder whether there’s a Treaty problem. I wonder whether we should ask iwi. I wonder whether we should ask the Waitangi Tribunal.” Why does that matter in the context of this bill? They have just got themselves another $6 billion of fiscal hole because they could not even manage to do the wrong thing effectively. 
They are so hopeless that they are doing the wrong thing ineffectively which I suppose is a good thing but it only proves how hapless hopeless and ineffective they are. So I implore New Zealanders these clowns may think they are perennials but let us lop them off at the growth buds let us turn them into annuals and let us have an election this year.