Bennett David: Taxation (Urgent Measures and Annual Rates) Bill — In Committee 
Bennett David: Taxation (Urgent Measures and Annual Rates) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:651;Page:169] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 When we talk about the research and development tax credit it is important to remember some of the history of what has happened in the Labour Party. 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: You come from the Waikato remember? 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Yes let us talk about the Waikato and what the Labour Party has been doing there. It is pretty rich for these guys to come into this Chamber and talk about research and development tax credits when AgResearch was laying off staff before the election and they did not do a thing. Where did we see the Labour Party in the election campaign? In Hamilton East we campaigned against the Labour Party. Labour members would come along to campaign meetings and say “Look at our research and development policy.” All I had to ask them was why they were laying off people at AgResearch. They would not come to the support of scientists. 
The reality is that scientists have never got anything out of the Labour Party and they never will. Scientists’ incomes are about 15 percent lower than any other profession and the Labour Party did not come and help them did it? It had 9 years of talking about how it loves science how it loves research and development how that is the future of New Zealand and how we will have a knowledge wave and a global economy. What did it do? It gave up on the knowledge wave and it did not give those increases in wages. In fact it put AgResearch in a position where it had to lay off staff to meet its budget. That is what the Labour Party does: it says one thing and then it does another. Reality speaks and the reality is that the National Party has come to the aid of scientists helped out and made sure that we do not have the degree of job losses that the Labour Party started out with. 
There has been a great change in mood because people realise that reality is more important than words. Labour members are bringing out words today—look they have all gone silent now! They know they are in trouble. They know that they cannot go out there and say what they have been saying because it is not true. They know that they were the ones screwing the research and development budgets by making sure it was hard for AgResearch to employ people and that is the reality of the situation. How dare the Labour Party come in here today and try to say how it is the research and development party and how it is there for agricultural research! Labour should have put its money in front of it when it was in Government; it did not so it should not come in here and try to do it now. It had its chance and it blew it—it will not get another chance to do it again. 
The reality is that the biggest thing we can do for the research and development sector is to give it a growing economy. That is what it needs. If there is growth in the economy businesses will invest in the future. That is the reality. These tax cuts are the first step in providing that growth economy. This is what the National Party is about. We have a programme for growth and these tax cuts are the first step. If we really want to look at what will be best for research and development in the future we see that it is the growing economy that the National Party will produce. We will invest in this country’s infrastructure and we will give people money in their hands so that they can spend it in this economy. 
We will not invest all our money in the US stock exchange just as Mr Cullen did and lose it. We will look after our people in our country and we will build a stronger country. This is what will happen. The reality is that New Zealand will be stronger we will have a growing economy we will have a position where businesses want to invest in research and development and we will be able to deliver to the agricultural the research and the scientific sectors the vision they require. They will actually see a future ahead of themselves because they will see corporates and enterprises making money that will be able to be invested in research and development. This is not a question about the tax credit as such; this is a question about how we provide the environment for research and development to flourish. To create that environment we need a growing economy and the National Party is committed to that. 
Labour members are sitting there now and trying to attack this legislation on the basis of research and development expenditure. Well that is not the case. The case is that the Labour Party did not come to the aid of research and development did not come to the aid of AgResearch before the election—you just let them go. You were quite happy to see those people go out of work; you went through an election campaign not actually doing that— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Point of order— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I know what— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: If you are aware of it you should be stopping it. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: The member cannot use the word “you”. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: The Labour Party did not come to the aid of that sector. It did not come to the aid of those people who were going to lose their jobs.