Smith Lockwood: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
Smith Lockwood: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:644;Page:13736] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I will use this debate on clauses 1 and 2 to re-establish exactly why National is opposing this legislation because there are some matters in here that we support as members listening to this debate will have heard. We support for example the reduction in the corporate tax rate. We support a number of the different measures in the bill. But the fundamental issue in respect of this bill is that this bill is what is colloquially called “the May tax bill”. It is an annual tax bill. What the annual tax bill does every year is set the income tax rates for New Zealanders. The Government had the opportunity with this bill to cut tax rates for ordinary wage and salary earning New Zealanders. This was a fantastic opportunity given that the Government now says that cutting taxes for ordinary wage and salary earning New Zealanders is a priority on its agenda and is something it now considers important. It could have done that with this legislation because this is the bill that sets those income tax rates. But the Government has not. It has not had the slightest interest in reducing income taxes for New Zealanders. Sure the corporate tax rate is reduced but there are not that many corporates in New Zealand. Most New Zealanders pay personal income tax. This bill the annual tax bill is the vehicle for dealing with that. It is spelt out in the title of the bill. Clause 1 “Title” spells it out. It has those words “annual rates”. 
This is a bill that sets the annual income tax rates and the Labour members could have used this bill if they genuinely believed in lower income tax rates for wage and salary earning New Zealanders. They could have done it with this bill that we have been debating for these last few hours which has been in front of this Parliament since May this year. But the Government has not done so. That is why the Opposition is opposed to this bill. We believe in reducing personal income taxes on all New Zealanders. That is what we totally support. We are committed to it. The ACT party is committed with us but certainly none of the Government parties are committed to income tax reductions for New Zealanders. I know that the Minister in the chair the Hon Peter Dunne has taken exception to that comment and I accept that United Future believes in personal income tax reduction. But does that not show the paradox? He is the Minister of Revenue. Does he not feel something like a neuter? What an extraordinary situation we have in this country today—the Minister of Revenue can say he personally thinks that income taxes should come down and everyone knows his views are irrelevant. His views do not matter a damn. This Labour Government is not about to bring down income taxes regardless of what the Hon Peter Dunne personally believes. It is staggering. I was at a conference with the Hon Peter Dunne the other day and as the Opposition spokesperson I dared not say what I believed because it would have set the hares running whereas Peter Dunne the Minister of Revenue could say what he thought should happen to personal income taxes because everyone knows it does not matter what he thinks. Everyone knows that Labour takes no notice of what he thinks. 
What we all know in this Parliament and I think what New Zealanders are coming to see is that Labour might in election years talk about tax cuts. It did last time; Labour talked about tax cuts prior to the last election and once it got back into office it changed its mind. Labour promised to shift the income tax thresholds—a very minimal move but it would have helped. It would have helped avoid the need to deal with redundancy payments in this legislation as an ad hoc measure brought in at the last minute. If the Government had shifted those tax thresholds as promised at the last election we would not need the ad hoc measures that are being brought in by this legislation. So that is what the people of New Zealand have to be very sceptical about. Labour promised personal income tax cuts prior to the last election and then backed down. It broke its promise on it. We know that Labour will promise income tax cuts again as we head towards this election. We know that Labour thinks about personal income tax cuts only in election years and all New Zealanders should be very suspicious. Last time Labour promised tax cuts and reneged after the election. New Zealanders should be very suspicious because everyone knows that Dr Cullen does not believe in lower personal taxes.