Connell Brian: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Connell Brian: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6493] 
BRIAN CONNELL (NZ National—Rakaia) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise to make a contribution to this debate. I shall concentrate on paragraphs (a) and (b) of clause 3 “Purpose”. Paragraph (a) establishes as a levy “the portion of excise and excise-equivalent duty payable on motor spirit that is paid to the Motor Vehicle Account;”. We have already decided that a levy is a tax and we actually have had that confirmed by Mickey Cullen so I do not think we need to debate exactly what is intended. Paragraph (b) is to “avoid the need for an amending Act to consequentially adjust the rates of excise duty and excise-equivalent duty” whenever the levy changes. We need to ask ourselves why the Government would want to do that. I suggest it is because the rate will change and the Government will not want the fuss of having to amend the legislation every time. It is my confident suspicion that the rate will go up not down. That is what happened to that temporary petrol/roading tax. That was the temporary tax we were going to have for 18 months. It seems that it has now been extended. 
If I had been able to take a call in the debate on the title I would have suggested that it be “Injury Prevention Compensation and Pilfering Pockets of Petrol-users Amendment Bill”. I would have omitted the word “Rehabilitation” because the bill does not mention it. The motorists of Auckland who are listening to this as they drive home as they sit in traffic queues will have heard John Carter and John Key make the point that motorists will now be paying more for their petrol because what happened with the last petrol hike the road-user charge was the money went straight into the consolidated account. It did not go into roading. I challenge members of this House to tell me of one project that has been started to decongest Auckland roads or South Island roads for that matter. Maybe one of the members from the South Island could enlighten me as to what is happening in that regard. 
This is simply just another tax; it is the worst type of deception. Do members remember the words of the credit card promises? 
John Carter 
: What are they? 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: There will be no more taxes. 
John Carter 
: Levies are not taxes though. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: Well according to Michael Cullen they are. 
John Carter 
: Are they? 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: Oh absolutely He said that levies are just a back-door way to introduce taxes. That is what he said. Mickey Cullen has been here longer than me so if he says it I assume it is right. 
John Carter 
: What did they say on their credit card? 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: Well on the credit card Labour said there would be no more taxes. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: The member should use the correct name for members. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: Oh I apologise. Do you want me to take “Mickey” out? 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: The member should use correct names. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: I thank the Chair for that advice. Michael Cullen said that levies were taxes. That is a fact. They are back-door taxes. 
John Carter 
: And this is a levy? 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: This is a levy. So I do not think there is any argument about that. It is almost Bill Clintonish is it not? “There will be no more taxes.” He was not telling the truth. 
John Carter 
: Is that what he said? 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: Well he did not quite say that. I think he said something like: “I did not [something] with that woman!”. But my point is: would one believe him? Would one believe this Government when it says there will be no more taxes? Listen to this: in the last few months this Government has introduced a flatulence tax and that stinks; a reserved generational electricity tax; a petrol tax; and an accident compensation levy tax. For the farming community around Rakaia and I am sure across the rest of the country taxes have gone up by between 30 and 40 percent. Road-user charges have already been talked about. Drivers’ licences fees have increased. And we have heard about the sherry tax. Those poor old folks who were going to have a cold winter as it was could not even reach for a bottle of sherry without being slugged. A customs tax was introduced. Remember we were told there would be no more taxes! Fringe benefit tax went from 49c to 64c. “Corporations can carry that no problem at all.” said the Minister of Finance. This Government has an insatiable appetite for tax. 
This particular tax would not be necessary if there was competition in accident compensation. This Government has renationalised accident compensation. It was not necessary. It is a very clear market fact that if one does not have competition then there is no market leveller and prices simply go up.