Hide Rodney: Taxation (Annual Rates GST Trans-Tasman Imputation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Hide Rodney: Taxation (Annual Rates GST Trans-Tasman Imputation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:10095] 
RODNEY HIDE (ACT) 
: 
 The ACT party will oppose this bill but I should point out that we certainly disagree with Mr Rod Donald’s analysis of the issue. I fear— 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Rod’s feeling better already! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well the National Party ACT and New Zealand First are feeling pretty good because we like the thought of Dr Cullen campaigning at the next election on what Rod Donald is proposing for tax and economic policy in this country. 
However let me cut to the chase on the issue of annual rates. Why did this Government put the tax rate up to 39c in the dollar? The National Party ACT and New Zealand First opposed it. Why? Because we said it was not necessary. Can anyone remember that Dr Cullen said he needed the money said how much he was going to get and said he would spent it—$400 million? 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: We got $500 million. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: He got $500 million. Does he need it? No. It was a cheap election ploy that he felt honour-bound to implement. We should ask ourselves this: was putting the top tax rate up to 39c good for the economy or bad for it? 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Look at the growth. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Michael Cullen thinks it was good for the economy. My goodness no wonder he is not rated in the business world or around the world. Everyone knows that to put up taxes is bad for the economy—except Michael Cullen. He has spent too long in Parliament because he stands up and says: “But I pay the 39c rate.” But the Government pays his pay; the taxpayer pays his pay— 
Hon Member 
: And yours! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Yes and mine. But I do not get up here and pretend that I am somehow equivalent to a person who is a wealth creator—who is investing risking and in business. Michael Cullen says that it makes no difference to him whether he pays tax at a rate of 39c or 33c. That is true. Why? Because we are paid by the taxpayer. Those in business those working and those who invest actually have to create the wealth. We put taxes up and we reduce the return on their working hard we reduce the return on their investing and we reduce the return on their being entrepreneurial. I know that Dr Cullen is shaking his head trying to get his head around that because he has never been any one of those three. But that is what provides the wealth for this country which this Government is grabbing through this tax take and distributing willy-nilly. 
We say as we said in 1999 that the tax increase to 39c in the dollar was wrong. We should be going to a low flat tax not to a more disproportionate tax. I say “Shame on Dr Cullen!”. He did not need the 39c rate. I think he knows that that is bad for the economy. He shakes his head and does not agree. Why does he not put the rate up to 99c? He cannot work that out. If a rate of 39c is such a good thing for the economy what about a rate of 40c? I had better not give the Minister of Finance ideas. If putting up taxes is not bad how come it is bad to have the rate at 66c or 75c as Jim Anderton and Rod Donald would have? Dr Cullen is not that silly; a rate of 39c does not do anything but a rate of 45c or 99c would be silly. The lower we can have taxes the better it is in terms of the productivity of our nation. Of course we need a Government and of course we have to fund it but we certainly do not need taxes at 39c in the dollar—especially when we see how this Government wastes and spends the hard-earned money produced by working New Zealand. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: What rot! 
David Benson-Pope 
: Yes what rot! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: It is clear that those members are out of touch. They do not know where taxpayers’ money comes from. I doubt whether David Benson-Pope has ever worked in his life. If he did he would be cheerful instead of a miserable old grump sitting here in Parliament. If we look at David Cunliffe we can see that he has never worked in his life. We can tell. I say to this Government: remember where the money comes from.