Bennett David: Taxation (Consequential Rate Alignment and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bennett David: Taxation (Consequential Rate Alignment and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 July 2009. Volume:656;Page:5177. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 Following that speech about— 
Chris Hipkins 
: Remind us what he said about tax cuts. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Labour members are yelling out something about tax cuts. We had an economics lesson earlier from the social conscience of the Labour Party Stuart Nash. He was telling us that the Labour Party’s agenda is that it will give money to people who will spend it. Labour thinks that for New Zealand to get out of the economic recession the Government should give money to people who will spend it. How about giving money to people who will invest it? Why do we not actually support the productive side of the economy rather than the spending side of the economy? 
The whole reason our economy is in the position it is in now—of having a high current account deficit—is that we spend more than we earn. That is the fundamental problem. The Labour Party wants to see more spending and less investment. It does not want to see a productive economy that will deliver the results we want; it just wants to live for now and give money to people so they can spend it. The Labour Party sees one great big money-go-round. That is what Labour has always seen and that is what it saw when it was in Government for 9 years. The previous Labour Government thought that if it just put the money in the economy it would come back around and everything would be fine. Well the chickens are coming home to roost in Labour. People are realising that we need a productive economy. We need an economy that can resist the world challenges out there and deliver some results. That is what the National Government will build: a productive economy that delivers a firm and secure economic base for New Zealand. 
I think that the Taxation (Consequential Rate Alignment and Remedial Matters) Bill is a good stepping stone. It aligns some of those rates in investment with what we have in our taxation system. If we want our people to invest then we want people to save and to have tax rates that respect those savings. This legislation aligns those tax rates with the tax cuts that were brought in earlier. 
Labour talks about how it is a party of taxation and how it is a party of tax cuts. The reality is that it had 9 years and did not give any tax cuts to hard-working New Zealanders. Labour had its chance in the best economic conditions for a commodity-producing country but it did not deliver. It is a bit rich for those members to come into Parliament now and try to be seen as the most taxpayer-friendly party in this Parliament when the reality is that New Zealanders understood that that was not that case. 
This legislation is a matter of aligning tax rates with the rates that were given in the tax cuts earlier in the year and deals with things around the interest rates. The resident withholding rates will be consequentially amended to reflect those changes in tax rates. The change is good for investors it is good for the New Zealand economy and it is good for delivering a stronger future for New Zealanders. Labour cannot understand that and will never understand it. It still votes for legislation because it wants to be seen as being politically correct as it has been doing for the last 9 years. Thank you.