McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Mr Chair thank you very much. I was thinking that there would not be a reason to speak in this debate because members would see common sense but I couldn't help it having listened to the anaemic speech of the last member Dr Deborah Russell calling from somewhere else in the country. You see for every single member of the Labour Party the mantra that they teach them before they become MPs is There is not a problem that can't be fixed with a new tax." And that's what we've seen over 4½ years. You know Minister Parker can be quoting other very high tax jurisdictions around the world and patting himself and his colleagues on the back for being better than them but this is a high-tax Government at a time when Kiwis are doing it hard. What we've seen this week in a reaction to ongoing pressure from the Opposition from the National Party about cost of living is finally the Prime Minister said "Well I suppose there's a little tiny bit of a crisis and we're going to give a little bit of the extra extra extra tax we're getting because fuel rates have gone up so much back to you for just three months and could you be grateful to us please." That was the message that was delivered to Kiwis.Then we saw in the House today Minister Woods who is completely out of touch with what the energy companies are doing saying that actually the announcement yesterday of 25c a litre that's being given back—well it's not being given because it's actually already been taken. So they're taking it with one hand and giving it back with the other. The 25c tax per litre is being given back. The oil companies have already applied that. Well of course they have and the reason for that is—and this is a problem with Labour Party members of Parliament: they fundamentally don't understand business. Of course the petrol companies had to implement that straight away otherwise few people would buy petrol until the Government gave the tax back at midnight last night. And that's the thing about a business: when you have costs you have to meet them. On the forecourt of a petrol station you have costs when you're sitting there whether you're selling gas or not and because of the Government's announcement they wouldn't have been. So they have forced them to implement it straight away.The Government cannot take credit for what the fuel companies did—taking a cut waiting for them to get around to it. And by the way that cut to petrol tax should have taken place a long time ago. In fact if they really believed there was a crisis they would take the extra tax [Interruption] that they have placed—well this is a debate about tax Mr Chair—but they would have given—ASSISTANT CHAIRPERSON (Ian McKelvie): Not this broad.Hon TODD McCLAY: I'm coming to the point very quickly: they would have taken that extra Auckland tax off a long long time ago and not kept it in place asking people to be grateful.We should be seeing changes to the tax system in New Zealand and this isn't a philosophical debate. Kiwis are taxed too much. You know when somebody on the minimum wage who works 44 hours a week pays a 30 percent tax rate—well that's just ridiculous. It's crazy. It's a Government that's out of touch. When the middle-income earner is on the 33 percent tax rate—remember when that used to be the top tax rate? Well what the Government is saying is actually if you are an average earner in New Zealand you have to pay the top tax rate except we don't want you to so we're going to create a whole other higher tax rate to take some more off people. But when the average income earner is paying the 33 percent tax rate the system is not working. And don't get me started when they go out there with what in the end for some would be an "envy tax" a 39 percent tax rate—not because actually they're making the case of fairness in the tax system; because they need as much as they can get to spend on projects that are not delivering for Kiwis at all. Fifty million dollars on a bridge for cyclists that's never going to be built: well that was a great use of somebody's tax! Put the tax rate up a bit higher so you can spend more money on more bridges you're never going to build I say to the Labour Government!New Zealanders are overtaxed. There is a cost of living crisis. Twenty-five cents a litre of tax being handed back at a time when the Government doesn't need it because they're getting more tax from fuel than they ever have before than they dreamed of actually speaks to the challenge here. This isn't a philosophical debate. It's not about the practicalities; it's about a Government the Labour Party that believes—entrenched deep in their DNA their psyche—that there isn't a problem that can't be solved with a new tax. And there are many many problems in New Zealand today up and down the country. That means many many more taxes from the Labour Party."