Tremain Chris: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Tremain Chris: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:18949] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 Just before I start my speech on the unfair incidence of taxes an issue that the Opposition has been raising today I want to put on the parliamentary record that those of us on this side of the Chamber have been enduring about 80 or 90 decibels—[ 
Interruption 
] in fact 95 decibels—from Mr Quinn. I was thinking we would quite possibly have to bring in the Occupational Safety and Health Service before I commence my speech. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: The decibel counter! 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: The decibel counter—yes it was indeed up there. 
We are talking about Part 1 of the Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill. In Part 1 we are talking about the taxation rates that will apply for the coming year. On this side of the Chamber we have been listening to Labour members talk about the unfair incidence of tax so I thought I would stand up and take a brief call on that. I will talk about the unfair incidence of tax that occurred through the 9 years of the previous Labour Government. If we are talking about people who should not be at the highest marginal tax rates then I am thinking about nurses police teachers wharfies and welders. I am thinking about highly qualified blue-collar workers. What happened over the 9 years of the Labour Government? Many many of those people ended up paying the highest rate of marginal tax. That party on the other side of the Chamber called teachers welders wharfies and nurses “rich”. Now that shows that a party is starting to lose it—Labour called those guys “rich pricks”. Well by no way or means were those workers rich. That was an unfair incidence of tax. 
When National became the Government we changed that so that on any level of the marginal or progressive tax rate people in New Zealand are paying lower tax rates on their income and earnings. That is a fact. Let me talk members through the particular rates. Right now people earning under $14000 based on this tax bill will pay no more than 10.5c in the dollar. That is down from 12.5c—a 2 percent drop in the tax rate. People earning between $14000 and $48000 will pay no more than 17.5c in the dollar. That is down from 21c. That is a big drop for those middle-income earners. On the other side of the Chamber members are arguing that middle-income New Zealanders did not receive decent tax cuts but in fact there has been a huge a massive drop. In fact if we take the 10.5 percent on income under $14000 and the 17.5 percent on income between $14000 and $48000 the average tax rate is even lower than 17.5 percent and that is absolutely fantastic. 
On income between $48000 and $70000 people now pay only 30c in the dollar and many people—the nurses the police the doctors—in this country sit within that range. We delivered them a lower tax rate. We do not believe they are rich. They are hard-working Kiwis who do not deserve to be on the top tax rate but they were put on the top tax rate by the Labour Government—not by this Government. But people on the higher tax rates people earning over $70000 still pay the highest progressive tax rate in this county. That is down from 38c to 33c. The top 13 percent of people in this country pay 51 percent of the tax. They should pay a higher tax rate—I have no problems with that. But those people are often the entrepreneurs the people who invest their own hard-earned capital into businesses that employ other people and create jobs. On this side of the Chamber we are not all about endless rinky-dink schemes created by the Government to create jobs. We believe that it is businesses that create jobs. It is people who are prepared to put their money on the line to mortgage their houses to invest in their businesses who create jobs and actually yes if they do that and they make a profit we believe they deserve to keep a fair bit of it—in fact a lot of it. 
Many years ago when my dad was working Muldoon had set the highest marginal tax rate at—I think it was—66c in the dollar. My dad came home one day and he said: “You know CJ it ain’t worth working any more. Every time I earn a dollar I get to keep only about 30c of it.” I rest my case.