Ryall Tony: Third Readings 
Ryall Tony: Third Readings 
[Volume:607;Page:4339] 
Hon TONY RYALL (NZ National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 I take a call on the third readings of these bills and in particular I will discuss the Taxation (Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. I join with my colleagues in restating the opposition of the National Party to that bill. We are opposed to it because it puts into legislation two standards of citizenship in this country. The bill awards to one group in our community on the basis of the colour of people’s skin a preferential tax rate that no other group in the community is entitled to. I shall explain what that is. The bill proposes that distributions from certain trusts will be taxed at 19.5c in the dollar. That applies to Maori trusts where the beneficiaries are Maori. However if the trusts have beneficiaries who are Pakeha under this legislation they will pay tax of 33c in the dollar. 
That is not right. Increasingly in this country there is a sense of dis-ease at the separatism that this Government is pursuing. Every day there are new laws and regulations that separate our country on the basis of race. Every day there are announcements of grants and new schemes that seek to separate our country on the basis of race. Every day there is a never-ending stream of stories of mismanagement and inequity resulting from that separation. Just in the last 10 minutes in this House we have heard about the funding going through Maori broadcasting where there has been no accountability and none of the professionalism that one would expect with regard to funds coming from the taxpayer. 
Our leader the next Prime Minister of New Zealand the Hon Bill English has made it clear that we are opposed to this legislation because we are drawing a line in the sand when it comes to the segregationist policies of the Labour Government. We will call this legislation what it is. It is segregation and separatism and I am prepared to stand up in this House and say that. But I have to tell members that fewer and fewer New Zealanders are prepared to stand up to say that because if they do they are called racists by the Beehive or are accused of Maori bashing by the bovver boys on the front bench of the Labour Party. More and more New Zealanders are wising up to what is going on in the Government. They are wising up to the fact that Helen Clark and Margaret Wilson have New Zealand headed down a path of separatism that is anathema to the core values of this country. This Government Labour the Progressive Coalition the Greens and United Future support this legislation. 
This legislation states that if the beneficiaries of a trust are Maori they will have a lower tax rate than the beneficiaries of a trust who are Pakeha. That is appalling. Why should the children of Maori millionaires have their distributions taxed at 19.5c in the dollar but the children of hard-working working-class New Zealanders have their distributions taxed at 33c in the dollar? The member should answer that. I do not hear a word from Metiria Turei. There is not a word from her about why she will support this legislation. 
There is also no word about that from Annette King the Minister from Rongotai. The voters of Rongotai would be shocked to know that she is supporting a bill that states that Maori will have a cheaper tax rate than Pakeha. That is not right. I do not think Annette King knew that when the paper about this bill went through Cabinet; in fact I am pretty sure that the Cabinet papers will show that she did not know that. I cannot believe that she supports this measure. However Annette King is the Minister who has introduced primary health organisations. At the Western Heights Health Centre in Rotorua under her plan community service cardholders will pay $1 more for a visit to the doctor than they do now. She is requiring an $18 charge across the whole of Rotorua and right now the Western Heights Health Centre is charging a community service cardholder $17. She is making that go up to $18. She has been told that will happen and she has ignored it. 
Members will be hearing more about what is happening at the Western Heights Health Centre in Rotorua under the primary health organisation in the next few days. But there is one thing I will say about that now: that stuff happens whether one is Maori or Pakeha—one is treated in the same way when one turns up at the Western Heights Health Centre in Rotorua and under the primary health organisation one pays more if one has a community services card. It is true. The subsidy in Rotorua will be changed—people with a community services card must pay $18 under the primary health organisation card yet that health centre was charging only $17 before the primary health organisation—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Would the member please come back to the bills. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: The point is that that policy is being implemented in Rotorua whether one is Maori or Pakeha and frankly it is being implemented whether one has $1 million in the bank or $10 in the bank—one still gets the benefit of the cheaper doctors’ visits. 
Hon Annette King 
: Isn’t that great! 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Women in the Bay of Plenty cannot receive radiation treatment for cancer but it is great that the wealthiest people in Rotorua will get money—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have told the member to come back to the bills. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: The point in this legislation is that the Government supported by United Future is proposing to have for the first time in my memory separatist tax policy. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: It has been around since 1939. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I tell Mr Clayton Cosgrove that the tax rate has been the same since 1939 regardless of whether one is a Maori or a Pakeha. The difference—the reason that we are opposing this legislation—is that for the first time a Government is introducing legislation that gives a Maori a cheaper tax rate than a non-Maori. I tell Mr Cosgrove that that is not right. It is not right that people should have a cheaper tax rate because of the colour of their skin. That is not New Zealand. That is not what people voted for at the last election. They did not expect that Maori would be given a cheaper tax rate than Pakeha. 
If one is to have a cheaper tax rate then the tax rate should be lowered for everybody. I am in favour of lower taxes for everybody not just for the select few to whom the Government thinks its owes its electoral mandate. That is what is wrong with this legislation and that is why the Opposition parties strongly oppose this taxation legislation and have taken every opportunity to oppose it. I ask members to mark my words: the people of New Zealand will not stand for this Government promoting race-based tax policies any more. That is one of the reasons that support for Labour continues to fall around the country and that economic confidence is plummeting. Members should mark my words: the focus groups are telling this Government it is in big trouble because of its segregationist policies. I say that we will not see another piece of legislation like this out of the Labour Government in the next 18 months.