Little Andrew: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Little Andrew: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2478. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW LITTLE (Labour) 
: 
 I suppose we should be thankful that this is a Government that even 2 or 3 years after it introduced a meaningless provision has had the fortitude to step up and say it got it wrong and is going to change it back. But the fact we are doing this—here we are less than 24 hours after the introduction of this great game-changing Budget spending time now having to undo the unnecessary things that were done some years ago—is symbolic unfortunately not only of what this Budget overall represents but of what this Government represents. It is tinkering around and faffing around the edges rather than doing anything meaningful and substantial. And if there is anything that is needed in our country today particularly in tertiary education it is to attract as many as we can to get there.  
If there is one thing that New Zealand needs like so many other countries in the grip of recession and in the grip of world-changing times we actually need to be focusing on and investing in our young people and building up our skills base our education and the talented people we have got. But what we have got is a Government that is not interested in that. It fiddles around the edges. It has introduced the other measure in terms of the student loan scheme that is going to put pressure on those at the lower-income end of the spectrum who are repaying loans. It was foreseen from the outset that this measure here would never have the effect or the impact that was claimed of it and now it has to be undone. 
 But of all the challenges facing this country and after yesterday’s Budget what do we find ourselves—on this bright cheery Friday morning—talking about? We are talking about undoing another of this Government’s mistakes. Sadly there are many more of them. There are many more mistakes that we should be undoing. But actually it takes away from what is most important and that is doing the genuine heavy-lifting work of making economic policy and social policy. That work is about rebuilding this nation and its people so that we can thrive and prosper in the future.  
There is nothing in this part of the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill that is going to address the very serious issues that we have got. So what is left to do in the time of this Parliament? It is to undo the measures that were brought in but were never going to have any meaningful or substantial impact at all. That is what we are reduced to doing now. It is not as if there are not issues that are crying out for attention. It is not as if this is not a country that is crying out for a decent Budget. We have yet to see it. Yesterday’s Budget does not cut the mustard and barely passes mark. It does nothing meaningful or substantial.  
We have some big challenges ahead. Education and tertiary education lie at the heart of a programme that is about building a future for New Zealand and retaining our young people here. We look at the unprecedented numbers of people leaving the country—53000 or 54000 a year now—and so many of them are our talented young skilled people. They take with them offshore the skills that we as a community have invested in. Whereas 20 or 30 years ago those people would have come back here with their international level of skills the tragedy now is they are not coming back. We need a student loan scheme—if we need one at all—that does not create further incentives to lose our young people overseas. Instead of dealing with the real issues about tertiary education funding and financing both of the student and of the institution and instead of talking about the real issues of how we are going to improve or maximise tertiary education provision we are left here in this mighty Parliament of Parliaments to talk about undoing measures—silly measures—that this Government knew at the time would not work. We now have to backtrack and get out of them. That is a tragedy. It is a travesty. It is symbolic of so much of what happens and passes for good lawmaking under this Government.  
We welcome this measure but we understand the symbolism of it. It is disappointing that we have to spend our time and Budget time at a time when this country is looking for genuine policy leadership and economic leadership diverting our attention to these sorts of things. We support the measure but let us not obscure the fact that it was pointless to begin with and it now has to be undone.