Tremain Chris: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Tremain Chris: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:16288] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 It is always a pleasure to follow the Hon Paul Swain in any debate in this House. As he quite rightly points out he has been here for 18 years— 
Simon Power 
: He’s a cheerful member. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: He is a cheerful member. I have enjoyed his company on the Finance and Expenditure Committee and he has taught me more than a thing or two in my time there. But I have to say that after 18 years he has fallen into the same trap as his leader fell in today of regurgitating the memories the policies and the issues of the past. Once again we heard him drag up the asset sales of the past. I might add that Michael Cullen was an Associate Minister of Finance at the time of a number of asset sales. Paul Swain dragged up the bed-night charge which I think goes back to the days of Florence Nightingale. Like his leader he slipped into the habit of bringing up the past in respect of a whole lot of issues. Quite frankly they are issues of a bygone era. They are issues of another century. For members of this House who were aged 10 12 or 13 then those days are history. 
This Budget this Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill is too little too late. That is the phrase that is ringing out around the country. That phrase is ringing out from Doug Woolerton’s part of the country up north from Mark Gosche’s area of Auckland from Mr Swain’s electorate of Rimutaka and even from Dr Cullen’s home area of Napier in Hawke’s Bay. That is what people are saying around the country—that it is too little too late. That is the phrase that is ringing out from over 1.6 million hard-working Kiwis from Napier Taradale Hastings Puketapu—from all around the country. Those 1.6 million hard-working taxpayers have not had a tax break in over 9 years under this Labour Government. We have had 9 years of the best economic conditions that any Treasurer of any nation in the OECD could expect. We have had 9 long years when the tax take has risen from $32 billion to nearly $60 billion. We have had 9 years when hard-working Kiwis have been taxed harder and longer than people in most other countries in the OECD. 
And after 9 long years we have achieved the remarkable feat—and it is a remarkable feat—of having 79000 Kiwis leave our country per annum for a brighter future with 40000 of them going to Australia alone. Just this week Helen Clark said that that is not a problem because we have got net positive migration. She does not care that 79000 hard-working Kiwis are leaving this nation because they are being replaced with people from overseas. But she forgets that we have invested millions and millions of dollars in those Kiwis over the years in their education and in all sorts of things to get them to a level where they can contribute back to New Zealand. 
Under this bill we see a change in personal tax rates. National has been calling for that for years and it is a step in the right direction but it is a timid step. National will support the legislation because we believe that we need to return dollars to hard-working Kiwis’ pockets regardless of the size of the tax cut offered under this Budget—regardless of its size. We believe that Kiwis know better than the Government how to spend their money and any acknowledgment of that should be welcomed and that is why we are supporting this bill. But I should remind Mr Swain that it is this bill that we are supporting not the Budget. We are supporting this bill not the Budget—which is not what he pointed out to members tonight. You see these tax cuts will deliver between $12 and $28 per week to hard-working Kiwis and in 3 years’ time in April 2011 they will deliver a total of between $22 and $55 per week. That is an increase of between $5 and $13.50 per week in 2010 and in 2011. What are Kiwis around the country saying about that? They are saying it is too little too late. 
I am a relatively new boy to this House. I am from a generation of people who are not interested in the political battles of the 1980s and 1990s—the debates over the Viet Nam War or the Springbok Tour. I think I was 12 at the time of the Springbok Tour and I watched a couple of the All Black games with my family which was part of the rugby community at that time. But who cares about those debates of the 1980s and 1990s? We are here to look to the future to where we are taking this country. As members know not just Generation X and Generation Y but most Kiwis want to look forward. Only the tired old Labour Party members sitting across the House want to continue to dwell in the cellar of the past. 
Our generation is interested in the future. We are interested in putting Treaty settlements behind us and that is why Kiwis support National’s policy of settling all Treaty settlements by 2014. We are interested in getting our kids educated and improving the tail end—the 25 percent of kids at National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 1 who cannot read properly. We know that we are in an increasingly global community and that educational skills are gold. That is why Kiwis are listening to National’s policy about introducing national education standards and focusing on trade training at schools. They are good policies that we have rolled out. We are interested in how we can connect with the world and that is why National’s policy of a $1.5 billion investment in broadband has got Kiwis excited about the future under a National Government. It is another policy that takes us forward into the future. We are interested in ensuring that the rate of violent crime comes down and that New Zealand is a safe place to live. That is why Kiwis are listening to National’s policy to strengthen the bail laws and to make it illegal to be a member of a criminal organisation. That is why Kiwis support the stand taken recently by Judge Tony Adeane in Napier. 
Many of my generation are living overseas where they have great-paying jobs but quite seriously they want to come home and they want to come home to different cities around New Zealand to the places where they were born. They are actually looking for excuses to come home. That is why my generation believes in a programme of ongoing personal tax cuts. We want a Government that is serious about curbing its spending that will rein in the burgeoning bureaucracy and that will invest in our infrastructure. We want to know where this nation is heading over the next 10 years not just the next 2 or 3 years with a $6 tax break in 2 years’ time. We are looking for a leader who is not immersed in the ideology of the 1980s who has a strong vision for New Zealand and who has the capacity to deliver that vision. That is why New Zealanders are looking to John Key for the future and that is why they are looking to a National Government.