McClay Todd: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcClay Todd: General Debate[Sitting date: 19 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5946. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TODD McCLAY (Minister of Revenue): Well that was 5 minutes of our lives we will never get back. Thank you for that Chris Hipkins.Today in this House I have seen it all. The so-called Leader of the Opposition Andrew Little put his hands up and said: “I don’t want to ask any questions.” Hands up giving up not asking any questions—but then of course later on he followed the Rt Hon Winston Peters to ask those questions. And that makes a lot of sense because in the last poll that I saw Winston Peters was higher in the preferred Prime Minister poll than Andrew Little was. So this is a theme about who the real Leader of the Opposition is. I guess we are not sure but when Mr Little puts his hands up and gives up he is making it easier.The country needs the Labour Party’s help. Not so long ago it announced a crisis in manufacturing and what did we see in the very next quarter? Manufacturing increasing around the country going from strength to strength. It announced a power price crisis. What happened there? There was a stabilisation of prices. They have not been moving up at all. A house price crisis in parts of regional New Zealand—well that is certainly not happening. Then we had the mythical housebuyers with Chinese-sounding names crisis. Well we cannot find them. The interest rates crisis—interest rates are at a record low. A currency crisis—currency rates are at a level that means our exports are competitive overseas. And then it announced a dairy crisis last week and what did we see last night? We saw a 20 percent increase in the price of wholesale milk powder.There is one more crisis the Labour Party needs to announce on behalf of all New Zealanders and that is a crisis in the All Blacks camp guaranteeing the All Blacks will win the Rugby World Cup this year. If it does that then there is a chance that Mr Little could sneak ahead of Mr Peters in the preferred Prime Minister stakes but that would be only if he held that line. You see if Mr Little said “There’s a crisis in the All Blacks.” well tomorrow he would change his mind.Before the election he was in favour of a referendum on the flag. In fact he thought we should have a new flag. He said: “Let’s have a referendum. It’s important that New Zealanders have a greater sense of pride in their own country. Yes let’s have a referendum.” As soon as he is leader of the Labour Party he says: “Oh no we shouldn’t be having one of those at all. We can’t have a referendum. It’s not for New Zealanders to decide.”Also he does not like the national anthem. He thinks New Zealanders like the Australian national anthem. So guess what—let us have a referendum on the national anthem. At least that was on one day in a speech in this House. The next day he said: “No we are not going to have a referendum anymore.”Do you remember the means testing of New Zealand superannuation? That was certainly a brain fade. “Let’s means test New Zealand superannuation against hard-working New Zealanders.” Winston Peters as the real Leader of the Opposition actually came out heavily against that straightaway. He knows about politics. But of course that was only one day. The very next day Mr Little said: “Oh no we’re not in favour of means testing any more.”So on behalf of the New Zealand public I ask Mr Little for a bit of consistency. Tomorrow afternoon come down to this House declare a crisis in the All Blacks and stick with it because then they are guaranteed to win the Rugby World Cup. But I think that the disaffected many on the side of the Labour Party will overrule him whatever he says there.This is a Government that is focused and we are looking at the things that are important and that matter. Our economy is still strong. It goes up and it goes down—as dairy prices do and other things—Dr David Clark: Worst economic record in 50 years.Hon TODD McCLAY: That member is actually the worst member in 50 years for the seat of Dunedin but let us keep trying that one. The thing is here that across our portfolios Ministers are working hard and our other MPs are supporting them and coming up with good ideas and new ideas for a third-term Government.In one of my responsibility areas of taxation there is a lot of work under way. Business Transformation—we launched earlier this year two consultation documents to look at the future of taxation including an announcement around provisional tax: PAYE for Tax and PAYE for Businesses. We consulted on them and we received responses and we are out in the public talking about them.What did Mr Little do a few weeks ago? He announced a late submission to my consultation PAYE for Business. So what I would say to members opposite is that a day’s work is not Twitter a day’s work is not cutting and pasting from international magazines and newspapers a day’s work is not plagiarism; a day’s work is what everyday New Zealanders are doing up and down this country and this is a Government that is supporting them.