McNair Craig: Taxation (Depreciation Payment Dates Alignment FBT and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — First Reading 
McNair Craig: Taxation (Depreciation Payment Dates Alignment FBT and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21220] 
CRAIG McNAIR (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First supports the referral of the Taxation (Deprecation Payment Dates Alignment FBT and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. This bill contains a lot of material and there will be much to talk about during the first reading debate and during its consideration by the select committee. I look forward to submissions from individual New Zealanders and companies and to hearing what they have to say. I know that many enhancements will be suggested and could be included in the bill. The bill is a very very small step in the right direction. 
We have heard both the chairman of the Finance and Expenditure Committee and the Minister of Finance rant and rave about how the world will change because of this bill and about how people will have more money in their pockets. I say to the House and those two members in particular that we have a very long way to go. Previous speakers have talked specifically about Part 1 “Annual rates of income tax for 2005-06 tax year” which is the provision that sets the annual income tax rates that will apply for the 2005-06 tax year. It will also apply we know now if the Labour Government still has its way which we know it will not after the election— 
Rod Donald 
: Aren’t you going to help them? 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: Oh well we might. 
Rod Donald 
: Aren’t you going to help them? 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: We might. We are not saying. 
Rod Donald 
: You just made a commitment in the House. 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: No I did not make a commitment. 
Hon Member 
: That’s a bit untidy. 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: Well it might be a little bit untidy but I can clear it up pretty quickly. New Zealand First has always stated that it will wait until the voters have decided. So Labour might have to deal with us. Somebody is going to have to deal with us and that is exactly what I meant. Mr Donald might try to twist what I say but the fact is—and the people of New Zealand are starting to see it in the polls—that one of the parties in this House is going to have to deal with New Zealand First. That is what I meant. After the election New Zealand First will have a big role to play regarding this bill whether or not Mr Donald likes it—and we know he does not like it. He is starting to come out with some scurrilous comments about my leader and about my party which have backfired on him. 
Members of the Green Party all over New Zealand are saying that the Green Party has lost its way. Even one of its own members said at their conference—and it was reported in the newspaper—that the Green Party has lost its way on environmental issues. They know it. They know they will not have any part to play in this tax bill after the election. 
Rod Donald 
: So there! 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: So there—that is right. I come back to the income tax rates in Part 1. If this Government is going to keep overtaxing New Zealanders then it should at least increase spending where it counts—on social services the elderly and protecting our borders. This Government fails on all those counts. While maintaining income tax levels this Government will spend millions keeping ethnic communities happy but it will not spend one cent raising superannuation for struggling New Zealand senior citizens. 
The Government delivered a Budget 3 weeks ago and this bill which is a development of that Budget could have imparted vision and injected enthusiasm excitement and gravitas into the New Zealand economy. But this bill has done none of that. It has no vision as far as income tax is concerned. It has no vision in relation to tax incentives for exporters or the allocation of tax deductions for research and development expenditure. It makes little tinkerings but it has no vision. That is what this bill stands for—no vision. If we were debating Part 1 during the Committee stage I would suggest that the title of the bill should be the “No Vision Tax Bill”. 
Jill Pettis 
: Shush! I was beginning to think we were in church. 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: That is what it should be I say to the member for Whanganui. What do we have in this tax bill? There is no vision but in 3 years the average hard-working Kiwi will get a tax cut that could buy a stick of gum. That is all Kiwis get—one piece of gum. A stick of gum in 3 years is the Labour Government’s vision as far as tax is concerned. That is the Labour Government’s vision for this economy—one stick of gum for an average Kiwi in 3 years. Quite frankly we could say that that is disgraceful. We could say it is heartless. I prefer to say it is heartless because that is simply what it is. 
As far as vision injecting a bit of excitement into the economy and among other things reducing our current account deficit are concerned this Government could have been more creative. It could have been a bit more creative about income tax and superannuation. It could have given money back to average New Zealanders who want to save for their future. Average New Zealanders want to save for their future but this Government has said that it does not really want to help them. It will give them $5000 over 10 years but with high immigration house prices will continue to increase by tens of thousands and that piddly little amount will be a drop in the bucket. The Government is giving them a drop in the bucket—absolutely nothing. 
What also surprises me when we talk about tax policy is United Future’s tax policy which was released I think last week. The United Future spokesperson on finance Gordon Copeland talked about how that party would fund its tax cuts by selling off 40 percent of some of our strategic State-owned enterprises. 
Rod Donald 
: Dumb policy. 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: What a stupid policy! Mr Donald and I do not agree on a lot but we do agree on that. 
The United Future party is trying to position itself in the centre. It says though that it will join National and Labour in the hall of shame and sell off State-owned assets. It wants to sell our assets to foreign enterprises whereby the money goes straight over our borders and overseas. What do Kiwis see of it? They do not see anything of it—nothing at all! Telecom which was sold for $4.2 billion has made $7.2 billion. What have New Zealanders seen of that money? They have seen absolutely diddly-squat. The mates of the Labour Party and the National Party have seen a heck of a lot more of it than the average Kiwi has. New Zealand First was astonished at United Future’s right-wing “loony tunes” crazy tax policy. It absolutely baffled me but it will be the reason that United Future will do very badly in the polls.