Cunliffe David: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Cunliffe David: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13498] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 The Labour Opposition rises to support in principle the Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill and to acknowledge the need for a range of remedial measures and changes driven by the rush to implement the increase to GST. Before going through the substantive matters in the bill and summarising the discussion during the Committee stage debate may I join the Minister of Revenue in acknowledging the work of officials his staff the Finance and Expenditure Committee and its chairman and staff as well. A great deal of work has gone into this bill under a very compressed time frame. I should say perhaps that it has not been the easiest of processes. The Minister has acknowledged that it has not been ideal and I cannot blame officials for that because they like the rest of us saw the Prime Minister on television saying that he would not raise GST and no doubt they were as surprised as we were when the Government did a U-turn and decided to do that. That has left Minister Dunne hitherto known as the “Minister for Remedial Measures” to bring to the House 28 pages of Supplementary Order Papers that have not had the benefit of a select committee process let alone the benefit of the normal generic tax policy process. It would be my prediction and that of the Labour Opposition that we will be “remediate-ing” the remedials before the 3-year triennium is out. 
The debate at the Committee stage was disappointing from the point of view of the Labour Opposition: Government members like the chief whip Mr Tremain rather than engaging on the substance of the issues seemed determined to use it as an opportunity to spread misinformation about Labour’s record. For example he alleged in debate that the previous Government had not reduced Government debt as a percentage of GDP and I ask him which Government he was referring to because the outgoing Labour Government reduced gross debt as a percent of GDP from 35 percent to 17 percent. We cut it in half and reduced net debt including the assets of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to zero making New Zealand a net-creditor nation for the first time in over a century. That was quite an achievement I would have thought. At the same time in particular we achieved the world’s lowest unemployment and the longest post-war economic expansion. Ask any New Zealander who is waiting for the so-called aggressive recovery. My goodness how good do those golden days seem now! Then of course we have had to endure the misrepresentations from the Minister of Finance who talked about a so-called 8.7 percent real increase in post-tax income under this Government in which he conveniently included the benefit of tax cuts brought down by the previous Labour Government in its 2008 Budget which he voted against. So when is a policy not a policy? It is when one votes against the other team’s policy and then includes it in one’s own total. Further in his speech at the end of the Committee stage Mr English misrepresented the Labour amendment which of course does not remove all GST from rates and was never intended to do that. It is a small token of recognition that people who are paying GST on rates should not retrospectively face a higher rates bill during the year of transition and thereby this amendment defers the increase for this year as is appropriate. 
It is inevitable and proper that in the debate on a bill that seeks to impose a higher goods and services tax on all New Zealanders the debate should turn to the substance of why that is happening. The stark contrast between this Government and the Opposition has been borne out. The Government is ignoring the real world costs for real Kiwis. It is ignoring the needs of real households that simply cannot afford another $20 $30 or $40 a week because they cannot pay the bills. They cannot pay their power bills in the winter. They cannot pay their rents. They are sharing houses. They are living in garages. Those people do not need a lecture about saving more spending less or being imprudent because they are doing the very best they can just to survive. If there was ever a statement that showed that the Government was out of touch it was from our colleague Mr Gilmore who said that $20 did not matter. Well it matters to too many of our constituents not to mention the real businesses—the ones that are facing the risk the cost and the hassle of having to change all their prices and are bearing the risk of the GST flow-through in the middle of the year. They have been crying out nay pleading for these 28 pages of Supplementary Order Papers that protect a few of them from unintended consequences. But if it is good enough for the Government to bring in remedial Supplementary Order Papers that protect financiers from the cost of finance leases I ask why it was not good enough to protect ratepayers from retrospective increases in rates. I ask why it took the Labour Opposition to protect those Kiwi householders. I commend my colleague Stuart Nash for his far-sighted amendment which is but a small token of the fact that Labour is in touch with heartland New Zealand and it has taken only 2 years for the National Government to get out of touch. 
The same arrogance was shown in the savings component of this bill. The Government is supporting an ACT Supplementary Order Paper—and so are we; it is OK as far as it goes—that introduces more choice in KiwiSaver by allowing individuals to contribute at a higher rate. But it is interesting that in the week that the Government has finally lurched towards setting up a committee to advise it on savings after 9 years in Opposition 2 years in Government two Budgets and not a single new idea of its own there is no mention of employer contributions. The Minister of Finance has specifically ruled out any net increase in Government contributions because it has to be “fiscally neutral”. That means I say to members and New Zealanders that Kiwis will pay for all their own savings. But I ask why they would do that if they are already stretched. The answer is because the Government intends to compel them to. The Government will not provide them with the ability to save through higher wages nor with incentives through a balanced set of contributions by employers and the Crown nor with better tools like easy save savings options; the Government will simply force them. Well the full flowering of the nanny State one might say is the granny State. When nanny State meets savings and superannuation it becomes the granny State and it is apparently here to stay. 
New Zealanders all around the country are asking why they voted for National again. They have already forgotten. They thought that National was going to give them everything they enjoyed under Labour that National would maintain social benefits that National would catch us up with Australia and that they could have everything they liked under Labour and with a nice smiley man to help them do it. His name is “Captain Panic Pants” according to the  
National Business Review 
. “Captain Panic Pants” is a man who has poll-driven his Government to a standstill. The  
National Business Review 
 is no friend in particular it might be said of Labour. We have come to accept over time the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune from that august journal. But when the  
National Business Review 
 amongst thousands of New Zealand business people says that the Government has not just lost its bottle but that it has never even found the bottle then I ask what the game plan is to get this Government out of the stagnant pool and to stop it from losing its way. I ask where the game plan is to bring real jobs real incomes and real hope to real Kiwis. Unfortunately necessary and appropriate as this bill is the game plan is clearly not in this bill. There is nothing here to sweeten savings for Kiwis. There is nothing here to bring relief for higher GST. The bottom line is that in 2011 5.9 percent inflation will eat away any gain people thought they had. This Government said that people would have 20 bucks a week in their pockets when they turned up at Countdown. Yes but they will not be able to pay for the same trolley load of groceries they will be 30 bucks short at the end because the price of everything in the trolley just like the price of rents rates power and everything else will have gone up by 2.5 percent on GST and 5.9 percent inflation and ordinary Kiwis will be worse off until at least 2014.