Delahunty Catherine: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Delahunty Catherine: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:4037] 
CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Barker The Green Party is voting for the Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill because Part 1 is obviously necessary. Part 2 is highly dubious and both parts should have been debated in a select committee. It is very peculiar that the Green Party was the only party to vote against Part 2. I do not actually understand that. 
As our co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons stated clearly in the Committee stage less haste and more speed would have been a good idea in respect of both parts of this bill. But at the risk of being almost repetitive—as some of the speeches in the Committee stage were—I say that we do not accept the need for urgency as used by this Government. As a new member of this House I am amazed and bewildered by the use of urgency as a tool. The definitions of “urgency” include one that says it means “pressing necessity”. Every single bill forced through this House under urgency since I have been here has not met that test and now some of them are being repealed. Each one may have been seen as a pressing necessity by the Government but I am not sure whether anyone else feels that way either in this House or on the planet. 
The Green Party is very surprised that United Future which has campaigned on transparency and common sense agreed to Part 2 without the bill going to a select committee and without the issues about the mortgage diversion scheme being properly debated particularly as the recession bites. We urge the Government to take serious stock of Part 2 and to abandon it. After all just because only 600 people were supposedly involved so far is not a good reason to close the mortgage diversion facility. If 600 people are on a heart surgery list we do not abandon the heart surgery team. It is short-sighted thinking. 
Urgency is also a bad idea in that it seems to make people even more petty fractious righteous and abusive—at the same time—than Parliament normally is and that is quite an achievement. It does absolutely nothing for our reputation with the public of Aotearoa New Zealand. 
The absolute worst thing about this bill is not the bill as it looks; it is the context of it. The cynical populism that characterised an election campaign based on tax cuts has led us to this highly predictable moment. Numerous extremely conservative economic commentators have been predicting a serious downturn in the global economy for the last year if not for 5 years. No one can tell the Green Party that it was news to the Minister of Finance. On that cynical basis the election was won and now the promise is being broken. The voters have a great opportunity to reflect on questions of honesty in politics and questions of what is fiscally responsible economic policy in terms of tax. The repeal of the tax cuts is necessary but tax cuts were always the peddling of an unhealthy and irresistible fast-food solution to this failing economy. 
What amazes me about this House is that we hear all about who ate McDonald’s on Monday but we do not have any acknowledgment that the Government has just banned the healthy food scheme in schools. So it has no leg to stand on on either issue. 
To go back to the issue of tax cuts I say they are irresistible to people but they are a failed solution. The really sad thing—and I want to finish on this point because the Green Party is realistic about what is happening and the inevitability of getting rid of the tax cuts—about the Budget yesterday and the bill today is that they ignore the substantive economic and ecological crisis that is facing this country and the world. Lester Brown said that economy is what we borrow from each other and ecology is what we steal from future generations. But anyone sitting in this House would not think that the Government had ever heard of such concepts as ecology or future generations. 
Although Green members will vote for the bill we do so with a sad realisation that we are in a situation that will probably continue throughout this term and it does this House no good at all. Let us be really really clear: we cannot have tax cuts National never should have offered them it was always a dumb idea and now we have to tidy up the mess. Kia ora koutou katoa.