Boyack RachelRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Thank you thank you thank you. Now it is quite bizarre that the day after the Budget following what was a very long debate on the tax bill this is the second bill that the Government puts up. This is what they want to put forward for New Zealanders. This is why they're here on a Friday night. It's because they want to charge people more for the cost recovery of their parking fines. I mean we're really really focusing on the big issues aren't we? I mean they could have put a bill up tonight about how they're going to move forward on funding cancer drugs. That would have been a better option. They could have put a bill forward about how they're going to fund more public houses. That would have been a good bill. But no none of these things. Instead they have a parking ticket tax to bring to the House on a Friday night. I hope those people who are listening on a Friday night will be hearing that the Government's major priority after tax is to add a new tax through a parking ticket tax.Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Those people should write to their MP.RACHEL BOYACK: They should write to their MP. I mean one person has actually written to me tonight calling the tax cuts a complete laugh. I won't go into the full email because it's actually quite depressing for that person. That is the kind of person who could well and truly be hit by this increase in the cost recovery of a parking ticket.So the Government's priorities are all over the shop. Then they're trying to blame cost pressures for this. Now what's caused the biggest issue around cost pressures? Just looking here at the cost recovery impact statement the biggest issue actually is cuts—cuts from that Government side where they've said What we're going to do is we're going to borrow and we're going to cut so that we can give out unaffordable tax cuts to landlords." Then what they're going to do is introduce a nice sneaky little bill straight after the income tax debate called the Public Finance (Fines Collection Costs—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill. What this bill will do—it will create this nice little parking ticket tax and it will enable the Government to take an extra 4 percent where it collects fines on behalf of local bodies.Now this is a Government that has as other speakers have said gone around the country and said "Local government we love you. We're going to do some things for Auckland's water. We're not quite sure how it'll work for the rest of the country but we'll probably figure that out later. Let's see what happens. We're going to help you out here but oh by the way here's another little cost. Here's another little cost for you to have to gather more revenue for us." Now actually when I talk to local councils one of the things I hear is the frustration from councils when costs are imposed unnecessarily by central government. This is actually an unnecessary addition to costs that councils have to collect on behalf of central government. I actually don't think it's OK. When you look further at the cost recovery impact statement—you know we've heard from people. I've had emails from people who are literally only getting $2 a week in their tax cut. It is those people who will be disproportionately affected if you read through. [Interruption] It's interesting that the other side love to have a bit of a chat when we're chatting but they don't actually—I mean when they do their own calls they could stand up and say all these things in a call right? I mean it's like you've probably done a 10-minute call of interjections. Why don't you just do the 10-minute call? I mean it's just a suggestion.One of the things that the cost recovery impact statement has made really clear is that this bill will disproportionately impact low-income New Zealanders. Actually that's really serious because a lot of the changes that have been made through this Budget will disproportionately impact low-income New Zealanders—things like removing free prescriptions; things like another transport matter things like removing free public transport for young people. All of these things are placing the burden on to people who actually have lower incomes disproportionately while they've given $2.9 billion worth of tax cuts for landlords. So it just shows the Government's priorities. I think the Government priorities are massively massively out of whack. What it also made clear when you read through—I mean you could instead of talking amongst yourselves you could actually have a read of this cost recovery impact statement. It's quite interesting. One of the things is that the increase has been rushed. There has been limited financial information for this process. So it's like the Government has thought to itself "Heck we've promised these tax cuts. We've staked our claim on it. We've said we'll resign if we don't do it."Hon Members: And we delivered.RACHEL BOYACK: Oh you did? Yes you did. Seeing as you've mentioned the delivery of the tax cuts I might just mention this person who said to me "A complete laugh. As a single person living alone in hardship I will get little to no benefit. With the reinstatement of prescription charges I am losing even more money. I have eight to 10 drugs each time at a charge of $5 each item—more nails in my coffin. I'm struggling and just hate life at the moment. I've worked hard for many years. Everything I have had is nearly all gone."So maybe the members opposite actually should listen to the response from the New Zealand public to the changes that they have introduced. Again I say after making changes that actually proportionately impact on the wealthiest those who own multiple investment properties they then said "The next thing that we're going to do is introduce this nasty little parking ticket tax." I also remind members opposite that this Government promised no new taxes and yet transport seems to be the one where they're thinking "Hey we could find a few little curly ones here." For some reason it's transport that's getting hit with these. We're going to pay more to register our car. We're going to have some massive increases in the future into some of the levies that are taken and then we're going to do this nasty little thing for people who get a parking fine.Now I've had parking fines—[Interruption] Absolutely. I know; very outrageous. I mean come on; who in this House hasn't had a parking fine?Hon Member: Celia.RACHEL BOYACK: Who hasn't? Who hasn't?Hon Member: Celia only rides bikes.RACHEL BOYACK: Oh Celia Wade-Brown hasn't had a parking fine. Well done Celia Wade-Brown. That's impressive. I mean I've had parking fines. Recently my husband got a got a phone call from the Ministry of Justice to say that he hadn't paid a parking fine from around 20 years ago which he'd never actually seen.Hon Member: Oh shame.RACHEL BOYACK: Oh no he's a very honest man my husband. Actually it ended up that he had paid it but it hadn't made its way through the system. But the reality is that many many many of us—many many many of us—have had parking fines. We know what happens when we overstay in our car park. As MPs our meetings often go over. Then when those situations occur if you don't pay your fine on time that's when the cost recovery costs come along. We know that it's people on low incomes. We know that it's those people who live week to week. We know it's those people who think "Actually it's going to be tough to fill the car this week. It's going to be tough to pay the rent or the mortgage this week."—those are the people who will often make the decision that they're actually going to delay paying the parking fine. Unlike us if I get a parking fine I'll pay it within a day or two because I'm diligent—very very diligent. But it's also acknowledging that I have the ability to pay for that parking fine as soon as I get it.That email from my constituent tonight was really sobering because it just showed that this Government has its priorities all wrong. It's basically blaming cost pressures on departments that they have cut the budgets for and they're moving to more of a user-pays model with this lovely lovely little parking ticket tax where they had promised no new taxes. Instead what we're seeing is a priority from this Government. As soon as they passed the income tax Act tonight they said "Right we're going to get into this really really really important bill." This is the most important thing for this Government to be working on on a Friday night. It's those most vulnerable people who will be disproportionately affected who don't pay their fines on time who will end up having to pay significantly more at a greater cost to them and to councils. It's a terrible little bill from a terrible Government that's not standing up for working people."