Clark David: Telecommunications (Development Levy) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClark David: Telecommunications (Development Levy) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3709. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): It is not often that I rise as speaker No. 11 on a bill with some breaking news but today I have some breaking news. It is interesting that the member opposite who has just taken a seat Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi mentioned a visit to Spark because Spark has just put out a press release in the last hour explaining very clearly that this bill is going to cost customers across their whole user base. This is a new tax. Spark is saying that it is going to pass it on to its users and it is going to be transparent about that. It has just put out a press release—and the members opposite might like to think about the cannon fodder they are going to be when they get back to their electorate offices—saying that it is going to pass it on to every single user in New Zealand. This is a new tax. It is going to cost New Zealanders and that is another broken promise from this Government.I will read out what it says in the press release for the benefit of this House: “ ‘Now that the Government has confirmed the levy will continue rather than reduce as originally legislated for it has put upward pressure on future costs and we will have to pass that cost through to our broadband and on-account mobile customers. We are exploring options for adding this cost in a transparent way to our customers’ monthly statements so they understand the contribution they are making to the Government’s Telecommunications Development Levy fund’ says Mr Moutter.” That is a clear picture of a new cost to customers. That is what Amy Adams said would not happen in her speech in slot No. 1. By slot No. 11 the news is out: it is happening New Zealand.This Government has broken another promise. It is introducing a new tax. Government members should have known this—they should have known this. This is also new and has not been covered in the previous speeches. Perhaps they have not read the departmental disclosure statement. Perhaps it was too rushed for them to get to. But I believe that the Minister will have read this. If members in the House turn to page 8 of the departmental disclosure statement I will read it out to them. It is headed “Charges in the nature of a tax” in the departmental disclosure statement and asks: “4.2 Does this Bill create or amend a power to impose a fee levy or charge in the nature of a tax?”. The department says and I will hold the statement up for those at home—they probably cannot read it. It is highlighted but it is on the website if anyone wants to go and have a look. The answer the department has given is “Yes”.This is a new tax. It is in the nature of a new tax. We heard yesterday Paddy Gower on TV3 ask the Minister of Finance: “Is this another broken promise? Is this a new tax Mr English?”. He said: “Well um mm ah you can call it what you like.” and so on. He would not admit that this was another broken promise from this Government. Well now we know that it is going to be an additional cost to customers and different from what Amy Adams said in speech No. 1 in the first reading of this bill. Now in speech No. 11 we know that there is an additional cost to New Zealand broadband users.This is a Government that is determined to charge more people for the use of rural broadband. It has not even measured the effectiveness of this scheme. That is the great shame. My colleague Kris Faafoi drew attention to this and so did my colleague Clare Curran earlier on. We have heard from InternetNZ that it believes that it would be in the interests of the select committee to take leadership on this issue. We do not know whether the Rural Broadband Initiative has worked. We do not know whether it is a successful scheme because there is no data to measure it. The Government has not measured the success of the scheme but it is about to give another $150 million in the area. Current spending on the scheme amounts to about $7000—my colleague Clare Curran has calculated—for each and every household that has taken up this scheme. It is hardly value for money.This is a Government that is failing. It is scratching around. It does not have a long-term plan. It is trying to make it look like it is doing something but we learnt today that there is a new charge a new tax. The Government had been warned about it in the disclosure statement. The Government knew this was a new tax and it did nothing to stop it despite promising to the electorate before the election that it would introduce no new taxes. It reminds us of course of the GST increase. John Key said he would not increase GST and then fast forward in Government and it went up to 15 percent.It reminds us of the wage rise promise. By the end of next year employees should expect a wage increase of about $7000. Well in this Budget we heard the Minister of Finance kick that promise out 3 years. We were promised that exports as a percentage of GDP would rise to 40 percent under this Government and then we have heard since that Bill English says they would need to double the rate of improvement that they currently have in order to achieve the target. It is out of reach.The final biggest promise that the Government has broken the promise that was central to its election campaign was that it would get to a surplus. It is broken promise after broken promise after broken promise after broken promise after broken promise. That is five I have gone through—five broken promises in this Budget alone.This is a Government that is out of touch with New Zealand. It is now so arrogant that it thinks it can say to the electorate “We will not introduce new taxes.” and then put them in straight away in its first Budget after the election. This is a Government that is out of touch and out of ideas. We will hold it to account on this side of the House.There has been a review called for. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment says that there is no way it can measure whether this has been good value for money. The Government does not care what happens with New Zealanders’ money any more. It does not want the criticism. It does not want to know if it is not working. We are being told by the companies using the system that it is not working. We are being told by the department that it cannot measure it. It is not good enough. Taxpayers deserve better.Then of course the point has been made that this bill is being passed under urgency without the opportunity for example for those telecommunications companies to tell the Government that this tax is going to increase costs for customers that this tax is going hurt ordinary New Zealanders that it is a broken promise that the Government should not go through with it and that it should indeed review the system to make sure that the money is being well spent.I know why the Government is hiding this. I know why the Government is rushing this through under urgency. It is because the programme is failing. I know that from my own electorate. The people out at Karitane a rural area put up a petition to this House because they were so concerned about the internet speeds they were experiencing. People were telling me they could not run businesses from home—they simply could not run businesses from home as things were so bad.Then there were letters to the providers and there were letters to the Minister. Nothing happened but following a petition to the select committee and other petitions to the select committee lo and behold the problem was fixed. Well I urge all of those rural communities around New Zealand—if you are unhappy with a new tax and unhappy with the slow progress on rural broadband and unhappy with the broken promises of this Government please start a petition yourselves. Please ask for proper rural broadband in your areas.This is a Government that is failing to diversify the economy. It is failing to deliver on its export targets. If the Government does not actually review what it is doing and increase rural broadband and broaden the base of our economy so people can run other new industries then it will continue to fail and we will slip further and further behind. A Government that is prepared to manage decline is not a Government that we need. We need a Government with a plan. We need a Government that will keep its promise and actually stick to what it says it is going to do.This broken promise is not acceptable and New Zealanders will not roll over and take it without a fight. This tax is just another broken promise. The broken promises mount up. A Government with so many broken promises is losing the confidence of New Zealanders. So I ask New Zealanders to start their own petitions in those rural areas to petition any committee. Ask your local MP how you at home can start a petition that will be acceptable to Parliament and passed on to a select committee for consideration.This Government needs to hear it. It is so out of touch that it does not even know what is going on and it does not want to know what is going on. The Government will not launch an inquiry into what has happened. It is determined to spend more money without asking what is happening without consulting stakeholders and to ram legislation through this House. We have heard it today we have heard it now in the last hour that this levy which the department says is in the nature of a tax—another broken promise—is going to be passed on directly to customers who are users of broadband. Broadband is the very thing we need to be happening for our economy to broaden and get ahead.The Government has broken its promise to grow jobs it has broken its promise to lift wages it has broken its promise not to introduce new taxes and it has broken its promise to get to surplus. This is a Government that is out of ideas and a new tax seems to be what passes for a big idea under National. It will not do.