Copeland Gordon: Taxation (Disaster Relief) Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
Copeland Gordon: Taxation (Disaster Relief) Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:11680] 
GORDON COPELAND (United Future) 
: 
 February of 2004 will be registered forever in the memory of the farmers and the other inhabitants of the lower North Island. I am as not as young as I used to be and in my lifetime I cannot remember a February quite like the February that we have just experienced in this part of the world. For many parts of the lower North Island the rainfall that we had during the month of February broke all records since records were first kept way back into the 1860s and 1850s. By any stretch of the imagination this has been a truly disastrous time for people in the lower North Island. A flood is always a devastating experience for people who have their homes their possessions and indeed the very soil of their farms slip away into the ocean but on this occasion it was made so much worse because some individual areas and farms had not one not two but three floods during the month of February. It is the cumulative effect of that on people’s finances and aspirations—seeing their dreams swept down the river—that has been so completely devastating. 
Like the other parties United Future would like to record its sympathy tonight for the many families that were involved in those events. We recognise the traumatic nature of those events. We wish those families very well in the months ahead and a speedy recovery from those unfortunate events. 
The other side of the coin of course is the way in which the New Zealand community has reacted—the tremendous generosity of people that expressed itself immediately in things like the Television One appeal which received $3 million and in many donations given to many other organisations and charities such as the mayoral relief funds. 
The members of United Future went to the Minister of Revenue and asked whether we could not have special legislation tabled in Parliament that recognised the event and that would allow people to deduct more than the usual stingy $1900 per annum in donations for tax purposes recognising the fact that anybody who gives money for flood relief should get a tax deduction for that. We were delighted that that eventually evolved as officials worked with the Government to a dollar-for-dollar matching subsidy from the consolidated account to each of those funds that have been driven by the generosity of New Zealanders. 
Simon Power and others have mentioned the great outpouring of goods and services that have flowed into places throughout the lower North Island replenishing all kinds of things—from clothing to food to farm supplies and so on and so forth. Gerrard Eckhoff and others have also mentioned that cows and other animals have been donated which I had not realised until tonight. Again that is an expression of the tremendous sense of generosity that lives in the hearts of Kiwis. 
The other thing that is always an amazing example to all of us is the farmer-to-farmer solidarity that emerges on these occasions not just on this occasion but on so many other occasions be they drought flood or fire. The farming community of this country has an amazing ability to rise to the occasion and to help out fellow-farmers and we have seen that happen again on this occasion. 
We need to recognise as others have that in spite of our best efforts there will be very serious financial and other losses for many farmers. Many of the landslips and landslides and the silt that has covered paddocks are not covered by any form of insurance. There is no piggy bank that can be called on to offset those losses. Ian Ewen-Street picked up on the fact that here we are in Parliament putting through a bill—which United Future totally supports—that will give some much-needed relief in terms of provisional tax and interest rates. Ian mentioned that it would be good if the banks were to follow suit and it reminded me— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will refer to members by their full names. 
GORDON COPELAND 
: Yes—Ian Ewen-Street. Members will remember the telethons we used to have where people would make a donation and challenge other people to do the same. Maybe here in Parliament tonight when passing this bill with I think the unanimous support of all parties we should actually be saying to the banks: “We now challenge you to do the same.” Maybe the banks can look at a bit of interest write-off for these hard-pressed families. With those remarks I am happy to signify United Future’s wholehearted support for the Taxation (Disaster Relief) Bill.