Ryall Tony: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:606;Page:4101] 
Hon TONY RYALL (NZ National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 I want to support my colleague Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith. We are talking on the Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which is a long-titled bill. Amongst its many provisions is one that provides a concessionary taxation rate for people on the basis of the colour on their skin. That provision is not in Part 1 which we are discussing. Part 1 does not provide a taxation benefit depending on whether one is Maori; this part confirms the current tax rates. 
I think it is worth repeating to those who are listening to this debate the very very enlightening figures that the National Party’s spokesperson on revenue Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith talked about. He said that  
The Economist  
provided information not 2 weeks ago that proved that New Zealand is in the top half of the OECD—not by 2011 but now—when it comes to the level of income tax on workers with a family. In fact that information shows that New Zealand has the sixth-largest taxation burden on working families in the entire Western World. Further Dr Smith went on to tell the Committee that New Zealand has had the biggest single increase in the taxation burden on working people. The tax burden has increased more on working people here than in any other country in the Western World except the Czech Republic. So that means that New Zealand’s working families are carrying more of a tax burden than working families in any country—just in the last few years under Labour—other than the Czech Republic. I presume that in the case of the Czech Republic that has a lot to do with industrialisation yet that certainly would not have anything to do with it here in New Zealand. That is just outrageous. 
I am not prepared to vote to confirm the current tax rates. This Government is on track to collect several billion dollars more from working New Zealanders than it needs. Government members do not need to collect several billion dollars more from them and I will not vote to give it to the Government. This Government cannot be trusted with our money. It is to close down the private prison in Auckland that costs $43000 per prisoner and to have a public prison that will cost $72000 per prisoner. That is a waste of our money and I will not give this Government one extra dollar. This Government does not realise that by closing down that private prison it will now have to staff the prison as per the collective employment agreement. That means the number of staff in the prison will go from 120 to 480. Cabinet did not work that out when it made that decision. It means more of our hard-working taxpayers’ money will be wasted and I will not give the Labour Party one more dollar of that. 
During Dr Smith’s speech he talked about the fact that a low-income family earning between $10000 and $15000 a year with one child faced an effective marginal taxation rate of 100 percent. That means that for every dollar the family earns over $15000 it loses a lot of the social welfare and inland revenue add-ons. Basically it is a substitution: the family loses $1 off the add-ons for every dollar that it earns. During Dr Smith’s debate the senior Government whip Mr Benson-Pope from Dunedin said that that was too low and asked the Minister whether we could do better than that. In fact he went on to suggest the effective marginal taxation rate should be $1.05 for every dollar. He said the effective marginal taxation rate should be 105 percent. I want to explain to Mr Benson-Pope who is on $120000 a year as the senior Government whip that when one is earning $15000 a year a 100 percent effective taxation rate is an awful lot of money. He may have forgotten what it is like for those people now that he is on $125000 a year but I say that when one is on $15000 a year every dollar counts. I am not prepared to vote extra money to that Labour Government when its senior whip says an effective marginal taxation rate of 100 percent is not high enough. That is appalling. 
Dr Smith also went on to say that a working family on about $40000 a year with four kids faces an effective marginal taxation rate of 75c in the dollar. 
David Benson-Pope 
: You are so concerned— 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: That member says that we are concerned. We cut taxation for those people but he has not done so.