Moroney Sue: Taxation (Annual Rates Foreign Superannuation and Remedial Matters) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Taxation (Annual Rates Foreign Superannuation and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 18 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:16000. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): Thank you so much for the opportunity to take a call on Part 1 of the Taxation (Annual Rates Foreign Superannuation and Remedial Matters) Bill. Of course Part 1 actually deals with the annual rates part which is really what most New Zealanders come into contact with when they come into contact with our taxation system. So Part 1 is a lost opportunity because there was an opportunity for the Government—and goodness knows that it has had long enough because it has had this bill on the Order Paper for such a long time that it has had to bring amendments forward to actually change the start date of this bill because it has been languishing on the Order Paper for so long. So the first thing that we would have to ask is why that is. Why has this bill been so badly mismanaged that the Government has now had it in front of Parliament for so long that the start dates have to be amended? Also why is it that the Government is so stuck in its old ways—the same old mantra that the National Party always has—that it has not taken the opportunity to recognise the opportunity that this bill presents to actually have a fairer tax system than the one we currently have?Part 1 of this bill continues the problem that we have with every single National Government that I have seen in the course of my lifetime and that I imagine most people listening to this debate have also seen in the course of their lifetime. There is—David Bennett: Come on Sue change the record.SUE MORONEY: David Bennett says: “Change the record.” That is exactly what I am saying to the Government. I am saying to the Government “Change the record.” because here is the record of the National Party. A National Government always cuts taxes for those at the top who do not need it. Then it goes about cutting public services because it cries poor about not having enough money to fund public services properly. Then it flogs off State assets. Then it flogs off State assets. It is the same old formula that this Government has followed and that every other National Government has followed.It starts off with what the Government is continuing in Part 1 of this bill and that is the old tax switch as they call it—the old switcheroo of taxation—which the rest of us would call the tax swindle. John Key despite promising that he would not raise GST in one of his first Budgets—well not his first but probably at his instruction Bill English’s—did exactly that. Despite promising that he would not do it he raised GST from 12.5 percent to 15 percent. Remember when GST used to be 10 percent?The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy): Order! This is an income tax bill. It has not got a lot about GST. I appreciate that the member can talk about GST but you have to make it relevant to Part 1 or schedule 1.SUE MORONEY: Thank you Mr Chair. The reason why this debate is relevant to Part 1 is that not only did Mr Goldsmith the chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee raise the issue of GST in his Part 1 debate but also it is the entire package around the whole way in which the National Government has shaped up its taxation.David Bennett: It’s waffle. She’s got no idea.SUE MORONEY: Mr Bennett says: “It’s waffle.” It is not waffle to those people for whom every single item they bought went up overnight. His leader broke a promise to the electorate and that is what happened. Where people were paying 12.5 percent on GST they suddenly found themselves paying 15 percent and everyone’s living costs went up overnight. Did their wages go up to compensate? No but what did happen—and this is where Part 1 continues to make the mistake—is that the people at the top end of the income scale got huge tax cuts. They got huge walloping tax cuts. We believe—and he has never denied it—that the tax cut that the Prime Minister himself got was in the order of $1000 a week. That was not what he paid; that is what he stopped paying. Every week there was $1000 in the back pocket of the Prime Minister and everyone else’s GST went up to pay for it. That was the tax swindle and not the tax switch.That is what Part 1 continues to keep in place. It keeps in place a taxation regime that saw those at the very top end of income—in the middle of a recession for goodness’ sake—get an absolutely huge benefit. What we know about people at the top end of the tax scale is that they do not spend every cent they earn. Every week they get to save quite a lot of money because they earn more than what it costs most people—