Robertson Grant: Budget Measures (Miscellaneous Fiscal Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Budget Measures (Miscellaneous Fiscal Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:18036. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): The second reading is the stage of the bill at which we would normally be reflecting upon what people might have said when the bill went to the select committee. That is when members of the public have their opportunity to assess a bill in terms of its value to the country. And what might those members of the public have said had they had the chance to have a look at this legislation the Budget Measures (Miscellaneous Fiscal Matters) Bill? I suspect we would have heard words like “piecemeal” “fragmented” “timid” and “hopeless” because that is actually what this bill is. This is meant to be under urgency the big moment of the National Government’s Budget revealing the transformational changes to our economy that will drive higher wages and better jobs—and it is not here.What is here is cheque duty. The 1980s have been caught up with by the National Government. It has worked out that people are not writing out as many cheques although I am a little confused I have to confess about what the Government is trying to achieve with the repeal of cheque duty. Is it meant to be the return of the cheque? Is it the idea that we take the duty off and we will all be out there writing out our cheques? Perhaps that is what it is. Or is it saving New Zealanders that massive 35c a year? Is that what it is? Is it about the dividend? Finally after all these years of austerity New Zealanders get the dividend the 35c mixture at the dairy. That is it. That is what they are going to get. If people were making submissions on this bill I suspect what they would say is: “Where is the vision? Where’s the plan?”. New Zealand is facing some serious economic and social problems and the Government’s response is removing cheque duty. That is the brighter future ladies and gentlemen that you were promised by the National Government.What we do not see in here is the way that we will lift wages and get better jobs. We have to diversify our economy. We have to add value. It is not just about volume any longer. It has to be about adding value to products in New Zealand to help create those jobs and that is absent from this bill. Perhaps submitters might have gone looking in the bill for how to reduce inequality and how to see that New Zealand becomes a fairer place. Surely that is the goal of any Budget but people come looking to the Budget legislation passed under urgency and they find nothing. The reason for that is that there is nothing in the Budget that will truly do that. The lowest-income New Zealanders the most vulnerable New Zealanders have been left out of the Budget in the measures that are there so those hoping to make submissions on that will not be able to find that either.John Hayes: Stop telling porkies.GRANT ROBERTSON: I say to Mr Hayes a man who spent his life in the Foreign Service before he came here that maybe New Zealanders would go looking for how the export sector was going to be supported and how regional economies were going to be able to drive products that would be exported. They might have wanted to submit on that in the Budget legislation and they would find nothing. They would actually find a cut to the Regional and Industry Development Fund in the Budget so they would find none of that.What they would find when they were submitting on this legislation would be a confused response to a problem created by the Government within climate change legislation designed it would appear to annoy the forestry sector and iwi and not respond in fact to the major challenges that are there in climate change. They would also find a very odd bill on removing some tariffs and changing some anti-dumping legislation. I do note and we will come to this in the Committee stage that the Government’s belief that the housing crisis will be solved by plasterboard varnish and nails being a little bit more affordable is somewhat remarkable from this Government.So in this second reading debate really on this side of the House we are deeply underwhelmed by what the Government has brought before us. We strongly believe that as a country New Zealand needs to address the economic and social difficulties that we have: the housing crisis the inequality crisis the absence of a plan to lift wages and the absence of a plan to create better jobs. None of that is solved by pieces of threadbare piecemeal fragmented legislation that the Government has brought before the House. It is a deeply disappointing piece of legislation.