English Bill: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
English Bill: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:16253] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 I think we all know why we are here putting this bill through now. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Why? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: It is because Dr Cullen does not trust himself nor do his colleagues trust him to execute tax cuts unless there is a law that compels him to do it. Why does he not trust himself? It is because the last time he promised tax cuts before an election he cancelled them once he was re-elected. The reason why he cancelled them once he was re-elected was that Labour had big spending ideas and did not have enough money to pay for them. Well I have to say that the forecasts past the 2005 election were much more promising and generous than the forecasts published today for past the 2008 election. That means there is a much greater probability that if Dr Cullen and Helen Clark are re-elected they will do what they did before which is to say as they said in 2007 “We have other priorities so we are going to cancel the tax cuts.” 
It is all very well for Dr Cullen to shed crocodile tears for hard-working New Zealanders; what happened to hard-working New Zealanders before the 2005 election? They were promised tax cuts with the same crocodile tears that are being exhibited today. What happened to those people on the average wage paying tax of 33c in the dollar? After the election their tax cut was cancelled so that Labour could create a lot more hundred-thousand-dollar jobs doing nice fulfilling things around Wellington like liaising coordinating going to workshops launching strategies and putting out miles of publications with fawning prose about a fantastic Minister on behalf of a Government department. 
So Dr Cullen’s new-found interest in people on the average wage is new-found but it is not surprising. Why is it not surprising? Because it is election year. The tax cut will turn up 2 weeks before polling day apparently. It will be enough to top up the gas tank so that people can get to the polling booth. I have to tell Dr Cullen that when they get there they will vote against cynicism against mistrust against limited ambition against misuse of taxpayers’ money and against the arrogance that says the tax system is there for Labour politicians to take money off people so that they can spend it on what they want so that they can stay in power. 
National will support this piece of tax legislation and I will tell members why. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Cos you’re too scared. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: No. That member should be pretty worried about his seat and his place on the list. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: No no the pension increase is pretty good. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The member may not know it but the pension increase in compulsory. One cannot get around it without changing the law. If taxes on the average wage and on the lower tax brackets are cut pensioners have to get an increase. We heard the Prime Minister carrying on as if the increase was the gracious gift of the most popular and competent Prime Minister we have ever had. The truth is that she has been forced to give pensioners an increase; she has been forced by the National Party campaigning on tax cuts and by a public who have had enough and have said: “If you don’t give it to us none us will vote for you.” That is what has happened and the member for Otaki needs to know it. Labour has been forced to give superannuitants an increase. The increase today is their due right according to the law of New Zealand. That is what it is about. It is not about gifts and generosity. 
The reason we are supporting this legislation is to keep faith with all those hard-working New Zealanders who have waited 9 long years through the squandered opportunities of a growing economy to get some recognition that they should have some of the benefits of a growing economy. And they have waited a long time. How many of them are there? Well 1.6 million taxpayers at any one time do not qualify for the Working for Families package. Only 370000 taxpayers qualify for Working for Families and Labour tries to make it sound as though everyone has got a tax cut because of Working for Families. Well I tell those members that the resentment among New Zealanders who are sick of being lectured about getting tax cuts when they did not get any is growing by the day. National has to keep faith with them because they have waited for so long. 
This legislation is an admission of failure by Dr Cullen. He has tried to hold the line—and he has done so up until now. He almost lost an election over it in 2005. He still did not get the message mind you. Having almost lost an election on tax cuts that were pathetic he then stuck it to the New Zealand public by cancelling those tax cuts. He is today doing everything he has argued against for the last 8 years—everything. Whenever we said we would reduce the growth of Government spending Dr Cullen every Labour member and Helen Clark said that that meant sacking teachers and doctors. What is Dr Cullen doing today? He is reducing the growth of Government spending. He also said that any kind of tax cut would require a Government to run cash deficits that it would have to borrow to cover them and that is bad. What is he doing today? He is running biggish cash deficits and he will have to do some borrowing to cover them. And he will run down the little cash windfalls he has had sitting on the balance sheet to help finance them. That is what he is doing today. 
He always said tax cuts meant spending cuts. He is giving tax cuts and he is cutting spending. He always said giving tax cuts would mean the Government would have to borrow some money and he is giving tax cuts and he is borrowing some money. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: But it’s OK cos it’s him. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Well no. He is not totally self-obsessed about it. It is election year—that is the other reason. It is not OK just because he is doing it; it is OK because it is election year. A lot of this bill is unsatisfactory. People get a tax cut 2 weeks before the election then they have to wait 18 months. They get nothing in 2009. Why is that? 
Simon Power 
: Now that’s a programme! 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: That is the programme. 
Simon Power 
: Why? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Well it probably falls within the regulated period in the run-up to the election. Is it the Electoral Finance Act or something that is stopping the Government from giving people the next tranche in 2009? 
Nathan Guy 
: What sort of vision is that? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: What sort of vision is that? This bill is an admission of failure by Dr Cullen. It is not the best that New Zealand can do. We can do much better. It is cynical because it is trying to buy people’s votes 2 weeks before an election. But New Zealanders have waited for so long and are so deserving and this Government is so undeserving that National will support this bill in order to keep faith with those people whose concerns have been dismissed year after year with contempt until election year when they vote. In every other year Labour has said to New Zealanders concerned that their after-tax wages are not enough: “Too bad! You’re greedy—in fact most of you are rich pricks—and we want the money to spend on our little projects because we know better.” Well finally they will get some money but do members know what the real tragedy is? Dr Cullen and Helen Clark still think they know better. All week Dr Cullen has been giving us long speeches about what an anguished and tortured process it is for him. He spat it out today through the Budget speech because he cannot stand the taste of tax cuts.