Mallard Trevor: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mallard Trevor: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 20 May 2010. Volume:663;Page:11137. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 That speech was a bit rich coming from that member Sir Roger Douglas. He talked about the gap opening up between Australia and New Zealand. When did that gap open up? It was when his policies and those of his acolytes especially Ruth Richardson were biting. It was at the very end of the 1980s and through the 1990s that that gap opened up and it was when his policies and his approach were at their height. It was especially in the early 1990s when Ruth Richardson was implementing the things that Roger Douglas wanted to do but was not allowed to. That is when the gap opened up between New Zealand and Australia and he should take some responsibility for it rather than trying to develop again the policies that would make it worse. 
“Rip Van Winkle” went to sleep for about a decade and when he woke up he found that unemployment was down he found that early childhood education was working well and he found that Working for Families meant that a number of families that had been below the poverty line were now above the poverty line. He woke up and said that he did not like it and that there was not enough pressure on the poor. He wanted to put some more pressure on the poor. That was the approach of Sir Roger Douglas when he woke up from his decade of sleep away from the political world. 
This is a disgraceful Budget. I invite people to have a very good look at the table on page A2 of today’s  
Dominion Post 
. Forget the headline; look at the numbers. I ask people to think carefully about what happens when we apply 5.9 percent instead of 2.2 percent. 
Louise Upston 
: What about the headline? It’s a great headline. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The member wants someone to read her the headline. The member for Taupo would like someone to read her the headline in the paper. I will do better than that. I will tell her that people on $120000— 
Paul Quinn 
: That’s Trevor Mallard. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No I am on significantly more than that I say to Mr Quinn. 
Louise Upston 
: How much more Trevor? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Enough—that is the answer to that. When we apply 5.9 percent instead of 2 percent—because 5.9 percent will be the inflation rate—people who are on $120000 a year are no better off. They are no better off at $120000 a year when we apply the 5.9 percent inflation rate that Treasury says will happen. What does that mean? That is a cut-off point. What does that mean? Does that mean all the people below are better off? No it does not. It means all the people below are worse off. So every family in New Zealand earning $120000 or less is going to be poorer in 12 months than they are now. 
I ask members opposite how they will feel about that in November or August next year when they go to the election and we have the chance of inflation being higher than it has been at any time since Roger Douglas was the Minister of Finance. There is no debate about it; they are Treasury figures. It has never been so close. Roger Douglas has the record for inflation in recent times in New Zealand and it will not be broken. We will not get to Sir Roger’s level but it will be the highest level of inflation since the mid-1980s—since GST first came in—at 5.9 percent which is slightly more than double the rate of inflation that the Government inherited and with unemployment at about three times the level that it was. I ask members opposite what they will think about that and how they will explain to their constituents that they have done a big tax deal but their constituents will be worse off.