Coleman Jonathan: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Coleman Jonathan: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:16325] 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 If Dr Cullen were really being honest about this Budget if he were telling us what he really thinks he would be calling this the “tax cuts are largely offered as a political bribe not because of beneficial economic or social effects Budget”. That is what he has said in the past. He has been on record many many times noting his aversion to tax cuts. I can tell members that there will not be anyone happier about this Budget than Shane Jones. He knows that Labour is going down the drain and this is its last gasp. Shane Jones will be very very well positioned perhaps with his friend Annette King to launch a coup straight after the election. 
Mark Burton of course will not be quite so happy. He knows he is toast. He will be out of here. He will not be here. We can look at the Taupo electorate and say that it will not be a Labour seat after the next election. He will be getting out the retirement plan and calculating his parliamentary superannuation. He will be very concerned. Of course there will not be much room for people like Louisa Wall to get back into the Labour caucus as a result of this bill. She is the promising future of the Labour Party but on the back of this Budget she probably will not be returned. We knew long ago that Jill Pettis would be going. Sue Moroney who is a Labour whip is supposed to be coming back into Parliament on the back of this bill. But I say that things will be looking pretty shaky for her too. She has the big smile but it is with gritted teeth. 
Sue Moroney 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. One of the National members complained previously that he did not want to be here because he felt the bill was being rushed through. We now have a member on his feet who is not even talking to the bill. Can he please speak to the bill? 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I say to the member that although this is a wide-ranging debate one always has to be careful it does not lead to disorder. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Members can tell that what I was saying was hitting the nail right on the head because Sue Moroney immediately rose to take a point of order. It shows that we are right on the button. 
We heard a wide-ranging speech from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was talking about embassies in Stockholm and what happened in the 1990s but I can tell members that the people of New Zealand are concerned about what is happening in New Zealand today. They are worried about the real concerns of real New Zealanders such as filling up the gas tank at the petrol station. [ 
Interruption 
] These interjections from the Minister of Foreign Affairs are the best reason I have heard yet for us to install breathalysers in the lobbies. We heard all this stuff. He had his head in the wine box during that speech. [ 
Interruption 
] Here we go. I knew this would happen. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I tell that member that I want an apology right now and if I do not get it I will nail about four of his colleagues. If that is the kind of conversation— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: The member cannot make that sort of comment. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Is the member raising a point of order? 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: That man said something totally defamatory that if it were said outside this Chamber would be slanderous. He is not going to get away with it. I tell him that either he apologises now fulsomely or I will nail four or five of his colleagues and he will be responsible. If he wants to throw that sort of dirt he is going to get it back and in double measure. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: If the member made any defamatory remarks and exception has been taken then he should withdraw and apologise. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I withdraw and apologise. We have to sit here all the time and hear stuff about cigars and cigar smoke but when we give a little bit of dirt back to a member who has been sitting here for 30 years he is on his feet whingeing and complaining and crying to the Chair. Is it not amazing? I would have thought that after 30 years a member could sit there and grin and bear it and take what comes his or her way in a robust debate. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: But can you? 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Exactly! Can I? The record will show it. I come back to the tax cuts. Of course David Benson-Pope will not be here but for totally different reasons. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I said I was coming back to the tax cuts. I have another word on the title. How about this as a quote from the 2000 Labour Party conference: “Tax cuts are a path to inequality. They are the promises of a visionless and intellectually bankrupt people.” I say that that pretty much sums up the Labour Party. Annette King is sitting in the chair. She has her arms folded. She is not very happy because she knows that this is a Budget that shows how desperate and down on its luck Labour is. It has thrown the kitchen sink at this Budget. Its members know that there was nothing left for Labour but to put absolutely everything it could in this Budget. They know in the bottom of their hearts that this will not be enough to win the next election. They know that the phone is off in middle New Zealand; the phone is off amongst their core Labour supporters—in fact it has been ripped out of the wall and thrown into the swimming pool. 
People have had enough of this crowd. When I go out door-knocking in Northcote the mood now is completely different from what it was in 2005. People are saying “You’ve got to get rid of this mob.” They are also saying “I’ve voted Labour for the last seven elections. Never again! I have been let down by this crowd.” We can see that the heads are down now. Labour members are looking in their newspapers. They know that it is true.