Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Depreciation Payment Dates Alignment FBT and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Third Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Depreciation Payment Dates Alignment FBT and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:630;Page:2105] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 Tonight we are witnessing a unique event. We are seeing a tax bill proposed by Labour going through the House supported by National and supported I might say by New Zealand First as well. During this debate we have heard a lot about the Supplementary Order Paper introduced by the Rt Hon Winston Peters Minister for Racing and we have had claims from National Party members that it is National Party policy. All I would say to the public of New Zealand is that if it really was National Party policy I think I can say fairly that National has been in Government more often than New Zealand First so how come National did not put it into legislation? How come the National Party did not put this racing policy into legislation? Because it was not National Party policy back then; that is why. The National Government was busy cutting this cutting that relying on the free market for everything and the last thing it was interested in doing was aligning the racing industry with casinos which New Zealand First has had to do. 
Just for the record New Zealand First’s racing policy was posted on its website on 18 July 2001 and that was some time before the National Party’s racing policy. If National is going to swipe our policies it should either implement them when it is in Government or shut up about them and get on with the business. 
New Zealand First has introduced a policy for the racing industry that will return $30 million to that industry. We are confident that it will be used well that the racing industry finally understands that as well as being in the export industry and the breeding industry it is also in the entertainment industry. If the pages of the  
New Zealand Herald  
are anything to go by where there are not many pictures of racehorses on carnival day but a lot of pictures of beautiful women in very fashionable clothes the industry has certainly come to grips with the idea that it is in the entertainment business as well. But we are pleased to help the industry along with the introduction of this legislation. It now lines them up fairly for the first time for many years with gambling and other types of gaming. 
We also make no bones about the fact that New Zealand First believes that the taxation system can and should be used by way of incentivising and giving messages to industry. We have had no hesitation in saying that depreciation on brood mares and other stock in the thoroughbred industry should be speeded up so that it is more advantageous for those people to get into producing good mares producing good breeding stock and indeed exporting them thus helping us with our chronic balance of payments deficit. 
It is no surprise to anybody that through this taxation bill—and I might say that the Finance and Expenditure Committee was ably chaired by Mr Shane Jones and he is getting better and better every day— 
Hon David Carter 
: He’s the last up-and-coming star they’ve got. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: That is true. 
Hon David Carter 
: It won’t be long before he falls off. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: That is true. I said to him at the select committee—and I hope I am not hauled before the Privileges Committee for letting out things that happened at the select committee— 
Hon David Carter 
: I will give evidence on your behalf. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Thank you Mr Carter. I said to Mr Jones that I was surprised to see him because as he is one of the few last rising stars I would have thought that today would be the day when he was plucked from amongst us and elevated to a higher position. But it was not to be. 
Hon David Carter 
: Still could happen. There’s a couple of hours to go yet. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: That is true. The day is not over. He will just have to wait for another day. I am sure he is waiting and I am sure he is looking forward to holding the office that everybody expects him to achieve one day. But it will be no surprise to anybody that during the debate and discussion on this bill we had calls for tax cuts by the National Party. All sorts of cunning little plans were laid out by the members on the National side of the table. They asked deep and piercing questions of all the submitters and the officials. As Blackadder would say: “Any smarter and they could have pinned a tail on it.” But those members were on about tax cuts. That is the new mantra in the National Party. It used to be that the free market will fix everything; now it is that tax cuts will fix everything and they are still searching for the silver bullet. 
 There is no silver bullet—“bullet” might be the wrong word—and we in New Zealand First are pleased to see that some aspects of depreciation are taken care of in this bill. We would urge this Labour-led Government to go further. As we go head to head with the industrialised nations of the world—and we are talking about China India Vietnam Cambodia Thailand and all of those countries—we will not compete with them on an hourly pay rate that is for sure. We will not compete with them when it comes to mass production that is for sure. We will have to compete with them in the areas in which we have some expertise areas where we will have to use our brains areas where we have a niche market and they will be areas where the advantages we obtain for ourselves are very brief very lucrative and they will not be by means of mass labour. So the machines the equipment the scientific knowledge that is used in developing those sorts of products that will reward us with high income will have to have an increased rate of depreciation. 
I look forward to the day when we in this Parliament are looking at realistic rates of depreciation for machinery and increased depreciation rates for all sorts of scientific endeavour. Rather than have tax cuts across the board I believe that incentivised areas like that are the areas that we should be looking to. However this bill goes some way towards that and we applaud it. 
I must put on record that I am sorry for Lockwood Smith. Week after week on the select committee he would go on about his asset register and how he needed to drop those things off that were depreciated to a low level. As members heard the previous speaker Chris Tremain said that that did not happen. It is sad but the saddle the bridle and the whip that Lockwood Smith keeps in his shed will just have to stay on his asset register and have to be depreciated at the normal rate for some years yet to come. I cannot pretend to come to grips with the mathematical equations that Dr Lockwood Smith aspires to but suffice to say that he tells me that the figure can never reach nought at least in our lifetime and I take his word for that. But depreciation is something that New Zealand First is all in favour of and we would like to see more of it. If there are to be any amendments to this bill in the future we look forward to depreciation being one of the main ones.