Bennett David: Taxation (Business Tax Measures) Bill — Third Reading 
Bennett David: Taxation (Business Tax Measures) Bill — Third Reading 
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DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 According to the previous speaker Stuart Nash this Taxation (Business Tax Measures) Bill is a Labour bill. Any bill that has taxation in it must be a Labour bill is that not right? That is what the small-business community has learnt about Labour over the past 9 years—Labour was not there to help them but was there only to take money from them and spend it on Labour’s promises. That is what Labour did. 
We have had a new member come to this House and in such a bright-eyed fashion—I do not know whether he really fits into that party at the moment; he is saying the wrong things about what the Labour Party talks about—he has given us a history lesson. It was a history lesson that Michael Cullen would have been proud to give I am sure. Dr Cullen is one of the great historians in this House but he was not a great Minister of Finance. In this case we have a new history teacher coming along to show us the history of finance—it is “Nashonomics”. Mr Nash told us about the way the world operates and about the great things Labour could do for small business. But I think it is important that we look at the words “could do” because Labour had 9 years in office and I ask what it did for small business. 
If we want to talk about history I say that Labour has a history of hurting and of not helping small business. But it is now saying in this House after it has lost an election that it would have done all of these things anyway. It is saying that the Labour members had these plans they had these agendas but they just had not got around to it. Is that the problem? Did those members not get around to it? Or is it as Mr Nash said: they had the money in the bank? They just put the money in the bank for a rainy day. 
 It is very hard to find that money in the bank now is it not? I do not know what bank he is talking about. Maybe it is the “Labour Bank”. But there is no money in the bank because that previous Government gave us a decade of deficits. That is what it left New Zealand with—a decade of deficits. 
Labour left us with some of the worst balance of payments figures in the OECD and with year on year of deficit after deficit projected for this economy. That is what that Labour Government left small business. That is what it actually did for small business. It did not pass any business tax measures bills as the National Government is doing. Bills like one that we are debating are not rocket science. They are basically about threshold changes the use of money interest and other initiatives but they are not rocket science. It does not take a Government 9 years to work out how to do these things. It took National only a couple of months. In fact but for Christmas the country would have got these bills before then under our Government. 
The Labour Government had talked long and hard about what it wanted to do for small businesses but it could not actually deliver for them. It could not go out there and deliver for small business. There is a reason behind that which is that Labour will not support people who go out and make the most of their opportunities. National is quite different. National wants to send the right signals and incentives for people to go out there. We want to create an environment that will grow this economy. We want to create an environment that keeps people in jobs. National is worried about keeping people in jobs; we are not thinking about what could have been what we could have done or merely what is possible. We are looking at the realities of action and delivery—[ 
Interruption 
]—and that is the difference between the two political parties if Mr Nash wants to know what the difference is. National is the party of action of delivery of ideas and of vision; Labour is the party of looking across the fence and saying: “We wish we could do that.” The whole political mantra of Labour members is based on jealousy. They look across and say: “These people have got too much. They have done too well. Let’s take it off them.” It is the same in their policy. Labour members do not actually have any policy; they look at our policy and want to take it off us. That is what Labour is about. It does not have initiative it does not have direction and it does not have delivery. Labour is all about what somebody else has done and about what it can do to make it look as if that were Labour’s idea. That is Labour. 
Then we look at this bill. It is about delivery for New Zealanders so that we can help keep people in jobs. This bill is part of that stimulus package to help New Zealand get through this terrible terrible time. We need a recessionary package that is practical simple effective and that we can action quite quickly. These are actions that we can do now. Measures like the GST registration threshold will make a huge difference. The increase from $40000 to $60000 is a big thing for small businesses especially when small businesses are struggling now to get a lot of sales. That $60000 is worth more than it would have been worth a year ago essentially in real terms because to get $60000 in sales now is a lot harder than it was a year ago. These measures that we have put forward are actually more than what the market demands in a sense. We are going out there to deliver the best possible circumstances for New Zealanders in order to keep our small-business community strong and viable and to provide those crucial jobs for our communities throughout this country. 
I think we need to take great pride in a Government that makes those decisions and makes those actions a reality. We can take great pride in a Government that is not afraid to do things. We do not wait for elections to do something. We do not wait for policy groups to tell us what we need to do; we go out there and do what is the best thing for our country at the right time. That is the big difference between the two main political parties. Our motivation comes from what is best for New Zealand and best for our people. National is not motivated by what is best for our political party which is what motivates Labour. Labour members have not talked about this bill. If anything those members have tried to say that these ideas were their own and that this was their bill and they were going to do these things anyway—that does not count in the real world. 
People want to see action and they want to see delivery and they are able to see those things now under the National Government. They will get more because this will not be the end of it. No we will work hard to look at what the next level of reforms could be and to deliver more for our small-business community and for those people who rely on that community for their jobs. We will deliver more for those who rely on that community of business people to keep this country ticking over. That is how a strong country is built. We have to look at what is going on out there and time and time again try to deliver what will refine it and make it better. National is not afraid to do that. We are not afraid to go out and deliver the best possible environment in which small business can progress. That is something that defines us and makes us different from Labour—an Opposition that is jealous and that looks across from the other side of the House to try to steal ideas. Over its 9 years in Government Labour never had the guts to go out there and do what it could have done to set up New Zealand for a better situation. But the National Government will deliver that vision. We will deliver those concrete changes. We are doing it now and there is more to come. We commend this bill to this House.