King Annette: Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Border Processing (Arrivals and Departures) Levy Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3909. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour):This of course is now a wide-ranging debate because we can cover absolutely everything that is in the bill in one job lot. The first thing that I wanted to say to the members opposite is we are voting against this bill because it is a nasty sneaky little tax that has been brought into this House with no consultation with the very industry bodies that are affected by it. That is not good policy-making.I want to go back to trust because in 2003 the Government in conjunction with the airline industry and the tourism industry decided on an agreement. It was agreed that the airline industry would be responsible for aviation safety because it benefited airlines and passengers and the Government would pay for customs and for agricultural screening because it was of benefit to the public and to primary industries.The first question to the Minister in the chair is: did he go and consult with the industries that were part of that agreement that was made in 2003? Did he go and speak to the airline industry and to the tourism industry before he had work done on this bill before this bill was brought before this Parliament? When did that consultation take place? Did he say to those in the industry: “I am going to break an agreement that was made in 2003.” an agreement that the industry would pay for the aviation safety costs and that the Government would pay for agriculture and customs costs? I want to know if the Minister did not consult what right he has got to come into this Parliament and override an agreement that was made between the Government the airlines and also the tourism industry. You see when you treat such agreements in such a cavalier way there cannot be trust in a Government. You cannot believe what it is going to do and what it is going to say. So Minister when did that consultation—if there was any consultation—take place? Were they warned that you wanted to bring in a tax that was going to have to be added to the fares of the passengers travelling?The next question I want to ask the Minister is: why was there no regulatory impact statement prepared for this bill? We have got the department’s disclosure statement. It is dated 10 May and it shows that it was done 11 days before the Budget. It also shows that no review or evaluation had been done on this policy. There is no regulatory impact statement but it does say that there is going to be consultation around a regulatory impact statement later on. Why Minister is there not a regulatory impact statement on the Table of this House so that the members of this Parliament could look at the musings that went on when you were deciding to put a tax on New Zealanders which will be paid by New Zealanders but one that I do not believe was ever consulted on with the industries? When will we receive this public consultation document?We are told that there is going to be a public consultation document with a final design in October 2015 so when is it going to be available for perhaps this House to have a look at—well at least for the industry to have a look at? Maybe the public would want to have a look at it because after all they are given no input into this bill at all. There are no submissions on this bill. It was just slam bam here it is—another tax. There was no ability to be able to have a say on it at all. So Minister the consultation document or the regulatory impact analysis—when will that be available to sit on the floor of this House and when will we get to debate that?What we are seeing here is a Government that wants us to pass under urgency tonight legislation without the detail and I am surprised that the Green Party would be voting for something that it does not know the detail of. Those members are putting their trust in a Government that has already welshed on a deal with the airline industry and the tourism industry. Why would any party put its trust in a Government that has not honoured an agreement that has been in place since 2003? We were all told: “Just trust the Government. It is going to give us the details later on.” We are not even sure that it will be the levy that we are being told about tonight. It may or may not be $22. I suspect that as they work on the detail and the design of this maybe there are a few other things that will creep in—“Oh no we didn’t mean $22. It has just gone up to $27. No no maybe it’s $35.” Why should we trust a Government that could not honour an agreement that it made?I would like to see the Regulations Review Committee look at the design of these taxes after the Government has finalised what they are going to be. I would like that committee to see whether in fact this is a levy or a tax that is actually doing what they say it is going to do and the right amount of money has been taxed and levied against New Zealanders. I think we ought to insist that the Regulations Review Committee look at this. This is setting a levy tax. We have had no consultation with the public. We do not know whether it actually does cover the costs. We are told that by 2016-17 we are going to have $80 million gathered from it and we are told it goes into a trust account and therefore cannot be used for anything else. Well as we said what happened to ACC? What happened to ACC? That is a dedicated levy that goes to an organisation that can spend on virtually what it likes. Why should we believe the Government when it comes to this?I believe that this Government has been incredibly sneaky with this bill. It has brought it in without talking to the industry. The Government’s own Prime Minister who is the Minister of Tourism was two-faced to his own industry. He went to a conference and he did not tell them he was going to do this. Was it on your advice Minister that he did not tell them this is what was going to happen?I would like the Minister to now get on his feet and explain to this Committee whether the Government consulted with the industry before it did this. Has the Government discussed with the industry the agreement that was made in 2003? When are we going to get to look at what is going to be the design and the shape of this so-called tax levy? When is this House going to be able to scrutinise that? Is the Minister prepared for it to go to the Regulations Review Committee to see whether it can determine that this is a tax that has been properly imposed on New Zealanders? None of that has been answered tonight. I agree with Mr Prosser. There is so much missing that any party would be idiots to vote for this on trust from this Government.