Cunliffe David: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
Cunliffe David: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:666;Page:13463] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 I wonder which Chamber the honourable Minister Peter Dunne was sitting in during the excellent speech made by the Leader of the Opposition. It clearly was not this one. The Leader of the Opposition said as members on this side have consistently said that although Labour will support this bill because hardworking New Zealanders need some relief from the tremendous shambles of the introduction of this tax we will put forward an amendment that will give ratepayers temporary relief and ease the burden this year on ordinary New Zealanders from the oppressive increase to this tax. 
New Zealanders up and down the country know that National is so out of touch. Aaron Gilmore said in the previous speech but one that the amounts were very small—so why would the peasants and the serfs notice? Because they cannot put food on their tables I say to Mr Gilmore. Our constituents are crowded into houses—two and three families are crowded into a house—and that is why $20 of GST a week makes a hell of a difference. If Mr Gilmore had to choose between taking his children to the doctor and putting food on the table paying $20 $30 or $40 a week more in GST would not seem like a small amount. 
That is why Labour is bringing relief in respect of the cost of living with our Supplementary Order Paper which was put forward by Mr Nash. It will ease the adjustment for ratepayers and it is a step that will be welcomed by all New Zealanders. In contrast the Minister in the chair the Minister of Revenue has had in desperation to bring to this Chamber 28 pages of tidy-up Supplementary Order Papers which are focused on all of those little things that went wrong in the drafting of the main bill. 
It is extremely complex to change GST midway through the year and the small businesses up and down New Zealand will be paying another price. Not only do they take the risk and have to collect the tax that the Government is taking from them but they pay the price of the overheads in the system change the staff training the uncertainty and the risk that customers will keep their wallets closed during the so-called aggressive recovery—so called because it is not happening. It is not happening because the New Zealand public does not believe that the Government has a plan and they are right. The Government has no plan for jobs no plan for growth and no plan for leading New Zealand forward. 
If there was any doubt about that the Government’s latest U-turn on savings is proof positive. For the 2 years of this National Government Labour has been saying that New Zealand’s savings gap is critical. Labour has been out front saying that our net international debt at 90 percent of GDP is a killer and that the Government needs to focus on it. After 9 years in Opposition 2 years in Government and two Budgets National has finally set up a committee—a committee. So bereft of ideas is the Government that it is reaching out for others to tell it what to do in the face of this enormous yawning international debt and crucial savings gap and that is instructive. 
It is instructive that in the ACT Party’s Supplementary Order Paper on this bill which gives New Zealanders the option of increasing their contribution rate—in other words going back to what it was under Labour before National gutted it—there is no mention of an employer contribution. So they are putting it back on hard-pressed Kiwi householders who are already facing a rise in GST and they are asking them to save more as well. How will they do that? It will be by compulsion. How do we know that? Because Bill English has said that there will be no new sweeteners no new money; this will be fiscally neutral. So whatever the savings committee comes up with it will have to make it fiscally neutral. There will be no sweeteners; that leaves only compulsion. 
The word around the building for New Zealanders out there is that the Government will almost certainly go the route of compulsion. If it is not why does it not rule that out now? Why do Government members not stand up and reassure hard-pressed Kiwis who cannot afford groceries that they will not force them to take more money off the table in the middle of a recession? There is silence not a word. Silence speaks for itself.