Smith Nick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Smith Nick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7345] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 This Government is characterised by dodgy behaviour by its capacity to continuously invent new taxes and by empty slogans. I want to hone in on each of those three issues. 
It is interesting that we have not heard too much from Labour members in the debate today about their best friend and dear colleague Phillip Field. I want to talk about the record of corrupt and dodgy behaviour by the Government in respect of Phillip Field. 
I want to talk about the Government’s invention of new taxes. Over the adjournment periods this Government is always in the business of finding ways in which it can get its sticky little fingers into the pockets of hard-working New Zealanders. We have the Minister of Finance’s idea of a home mortgage tax. We have record low-homeownership rates here yet the Government wants to tax poor old middle New Zealanders on their home mortgages. Then we had the Prime Minister with her latest idea for a rubbish tax. It is another tax on ordinary New Zealanders. Then we have a deforestation tax to attack those New Zealanders who did the right thing for our economy and for the environment by planting forests in recent years. 
The third thing I want to talk about is the Prime Minister’s empty rhetoric on sustainability and I want to compare it with this Government’s appalling record on the environment. But let me just comment on the speech made by Trevor Mallard. It was so characteristic of where this Government is at. Its big king-hit on John Key was a debate on the 1981 Springbok Tour. 
Paula Bennett 
: 1981? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: 1981—25 years ago! This is a Government with its eyes on the rear-vision mirror. We need a Government that is looking to the future and that is what John Key is all about. John Key said it all when he said we have a Walkman Government in an iPod age. That really does sum it up. 
I come to the Phillip Field issue. [ 
Interruption 
] It is interesting that the Government whip has come to his feet. I find it ironic that for 15 months the Prime Minister and the Labour Party have vigorously defended Phillip Field. It did not matter that he used constituents to make a quick buck. It did not matter that he paid people slave wages. It did not matter that he abused desperate Thai migrants for his own personal benefit. It did not matter that he made a mint out of constituents who came to him in property deals that were to his benefit. That is OK but what is not OK is to rain on the Prime Minister’s parade. If Phillip Field dares to enter into the press when the Prime Minister is giving her state of the nation speech then it is off with his head. That speaks volumes about the moral fabric of this tired Labour Government. 
Labour turns a blind eye to corruption in its own ranks. It turns a blind eye to people who pay slave wages. It turns a blind eye when immigrants are abused by members of this House. But if somebody dares to interfere in the Prime Minister’s spin machine it is off with his or her head. We on this side of the House say that that is wrong. 
I turn to the issue of the Government’s new taxes. One thing that has characterised this Government from the day it was elected is the booming tax revenues and the way in which they are gobbling more and more of New Zealand’s wealth. We have seen the tax take increase by over $20 billion since Labour has been in office. What has disturbed me over the adjournment period is the way in which this Government is always inventing new ways to tax. If there was anything on which I thought there was a consensus in this House it is the importance of New Zealand homeownership. I was disturbed to read in the figures for my own Nelson electorate that over the course of the period between the censuses of 2001 and 2005 homeownership rates have declined New Zealand - wide by 6 percent and in my own electorate by more than that. So why on earth would a Government propose to tax the very people who have a home mortgage? Why on earth would it want to make it harder for those Kiwi battlers who are simply striving for a home of their own? 
Then we have all sorts of things dressed up in green clothes. One of them is that the Government wants to impose a new tax on rubbish. [ 
Interruption 
] I say to Mr Hughes that that is right. His Prime Minister and his Government want to put a tax on rubbish. We could make some sarcastic comments about a pretty rubbishy tax. I say to the Government that compliance costs and all of those things make a tax on rubbish a bad argument and we on this side of the House will oppose that new tax as we will others. 
Equally the Government’s proposal in the discussion paper it released prior to Christmas to impose a new tax on deforestation would be one of the dumbest ideas I have seen in my 17 years in this Chamber. We have seen record levels of deforestation under this Labour Government. If there is any way in which New Zealand can make a positive contribution to climate change it is in terms of increasing our forestry estate. The extraordinary part is this. For 50 years—under Labour and National Governments—we have consistently been seeing the New Zealand forested area grow and for the last 3 years we have had deforestation. It is not just economics that is driving it. If we look across the Tasman Australia is increasing its forest estate under exactly the same commercial conditions as New Zealand. 
What is killing forestry in New Zealand is this Government’s appalling policies. Labour’s proposal pre-Christmas to impose a $13000 a hectare deforestation tax is doing only one thing this year: it is starting up the chainsaws. If we were a little bit quiet I think we could even hear them. I have talked to forestry companies that intend to bulldoze their forests flat rather than pay that tax. I have heard some daft ideas. We have had from this Government the “fart tax” and it surrendered on that. We had the carbon tax and it surrendered on that. I challenge the Government today for goodness’ sake to drop its deforestation tax because it is going to achieve only one thing and that is the deforestation of more areas of New Zealand and New Zealand going backwards on climate change. 
Hon Member 
: What’s your policy? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I want to tell the member about policy. Yes National has put out a comprehensive 30-page on its environment policy. On climate change it talks about a tradable emissions permit system and we think that is a good idea. But I want to challenge the Government and the Prime Minister on her rhetoric yesterday. She said that New Zealand should lead the world in terms of carbon emission reductions. 
Darren Hughes 
: Good idea or bad idea? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Darren Hughes says it is a good idea. Well I want to look at Labour’s record. I want to challenge the Government’s record because it is a bit rich for Helen Clark 7 years in as Prime Minister to be talking about lower emissions when our emissions have grown at twice the rate of the United States and four times the rate of Japan. In fact out of the 23 countries in the OECD New Zealand’s emissions have been growing at the second-fastest rate. So they are growing at the second-fastest rate and Helen Clark says we want to be carbon neutral! Well there is an irony in that. 
Do members know what is happening right now in this country? The second biggest thermal power station built in New Zealand’s history is being fired up as we speak. It is a 385 megawatt mama. It is only slightly smaller than the Clyde dam. The Prime Minister comes down to this House talking about carbon neutrality at the same time as a State-owned enterprise is firing up the second biggest thermal power station built in New Zealand history. I say that that is a double standard. She cannot come to this House and sing that sort of tune with that sort of nonsense going on behind the scenes. It is the biggest power station bar Huntly. It is bigger than all the power stations that have been built in the last 15 years. 
In fact this Government has actually built only two power stations: the E3P station I speak of and an oil-fired power station in Whirinaki. So perhaps Pete Hodgson might be able to explain to the House how Labour members can talk about carbon neutrality in one breath and build oil coal and gas-fired power stations with the other. It is empty rhetoric. Carbon neutrality will go down in history just like the Prime Minister’s economic transformation speech last year. It is all hot air. New Zealand deserves better. This Government has lost the moral fibre to govern. It should go.