Sio Su'a William: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Sio Su'a William: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:18986] 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairman. I have been here since 11 o’clock fighting tooth and nail for an opportunity to speak. I have seen off two other Chairs and you are the first one who has given me the opportunity to speak in such an important debate. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Here to help. 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO 
: I am happy to make my contribution on clauses 1 and 2 now. The first clause is the title clause of this legislation and the second clause refers to the commencement date of the legislation. Clause 2(2) refers to when the family tax credit and family tax abatement changes will take place. Clause 2(6) refers to the tax credit being cut in half and I will make detailed references to that in the course of my contribution. But I will reflect a bit before I get into the detail. 
Some years ago I met a gentleman from Africa. He worked in the national parks saving animals—very beautiful animals including elephants and rhinoceroses. He valued the protection of these particularly large animals. The problem was that there was a lot of poaching. I asked him how people could destroy one of these beautiful animals. He said the poachers used one bullet or one slash but generally a bullet to the head or a bullet to the heart and they allowed the animal to bleed to death—they allowed the animal to bleed to death. I will use that analogy in terms of what is happening now with KiwiSaver and the Working for Families tax credits. What we are seeing from this Government in the introduction of its Budget is that instead of giving confidence to those who are in KiwiSaver and to those who are not in KiwiSaver and instead of giving confidence to families who have children and who are struggling to make ends meet this legislation destroys every shred of confidence that those families have now and will have in the future. 
I draw members’ attention to this cartoon from the  
New Zealand Herald 
 a couple of days ago. I do not know whether they have seen it. It is a caricature of Bill English and John Key both of them half-naked in a pool of what looks like dirty water. Mr English is saying “This is by far my favourite economic stimulus policy”. Mr Key responds “Mine too” and then—this is the quote I want to draw members’ attention to—he says “You can look awful busy doing bugger-all”. That is what this Government is doing: it is looking busy doing bugger all for the economy and doing bugger all for the families of our nation. I would suggest that instead of being called the Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill the bill should be called “National’s (Bugger All Budget) Bill”. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I just seek your help in terms of describing whether that emanation from the member for Mangere which was repeated on many occasions was actually parliamentary. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I thank the member for his intervention. To use the word that the member used in describing the title of a bill is unacceptable so I tell him not do it again. 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO 
: Thank you Mr Chairperson. I was merely quoting from the  
New Zealand Herald  
article here. 
Let me take members back a bit. For 9 years when Labour was in Government we operated in surplus. Why? Because we had a Minister of Finance who knew how to manage the economy and who had a plan. He was not fixated on one particular part of the economy but had an overall plan. We had a fair tax system. We had a fair tax system in which everybody from those on low incomes to those on high incomes paid their fair share—from 19.5 percent for those on low incomes to 33 percent for those earning between $40000 and $60000 and to 39 percent beyond that. We had a targeted approach to ensure that we invested in education to ensure that we invested in early childhood centres and to ensure that we invested in health. When the overall high cost of food began to loom we introduced Working for Families because that was a way to help working families through the difficult times. When we recognised that there was a need for savings we introduced KiwiSaver. The point I am making is that both Working for Families and KiwiSaver are so important to this nation. The evidence is the $1.7 million people who have signed up to KiwiSaver. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I just remind members that we are on clauses 1 and 2 and this is a peroration about what has happened in the debate. It is not an opportunity to bring new material into the debate. We are talking specifically about a summary of clauses 1 and 2 in relation to the title and the commencement.