English Bill: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
English Bill: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13494] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 Now we know what Labour’s policy is: cancel tax cuts and give an exemption for GST on rates. That is the policy. Well I invite Mrs King and Mr Goff to go out to Mana in the by-election and campaign on that—cancel the tax cuts but provide an exemption for GST on rates. Let us see how popular that is. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Calm down man—calm down “Mr Angry”. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Well I think that the former member for Otaki who has lost that seat twice would know what the people in that part of New Zealand will say to that policy. 
Hon Member 
: He’s on a hat trick. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: He is on a hat trick. That is why when we are talking about issues to do with KiwiSaver GST and tax Labour has no credibility. Well it is just politically stupid. It is just a stupid policy. There is nothing to be said for it. 
Where is the wisdom in that policy? From an economic point of view it is nuts to cancel the tax cuts and provide exemptions for one little part of people’s expenditure. It would make almost everyone in New Zealand worse off and that is where Labour’s thinking is up to. It would make almost everyone in New Zealand worse off as they go into Christmas. It would be telling them: “Sorry we’ve cancelled your tax cuts but you’ve got a GST exemption on rates.” The Labour backbenchers must shudder when they see so-called experienced people like Mrs King and “Dazza” coming up with dazzling policies like that. It makes no sense for the economy and absolutely no sense for the people of the Mana electorate. Let us make the by-election in Mana if there is one a referendum on that policy. That is how confident we are that when New Zealanders see the increase in GST alongside their tax cuts they will see that this is the right direction for the economy and is beneficial for their households. 
When Labour members are getting around and talking about GST they need to look at themselves in the mirror. When Labour members read the letter from the man in Auckland they should look at themselves in the mirror. The previous speaker mentioned accident compensation charges and a former Minister for ACC Ruth Dyson is sitting here. The previous Government cost the Accident Compensation Corporation billions of dollars. Rehabilitation rates went backwards entitlements exploded and levies were held too low. We have had to clean up that mess and what a mess it was. When anyone says anything to me about increases in accident compensation levies I just tell them what a good job we have done of turning them round. If they have a complaint they should send it to the Labour Party because the previous Labour Government wrecked accident compensation with politics and incompetence. One of the effects is that accident compensation levies have gone up for some businesses. Labour has been against every measure we have taken to contain accident compensation rises; Labour has opposed them. Labour is in favour of higher accident compensation levies because it wants to expand entitlements further and for us to continue to run the scheme as an incompetent monopoly as Labour did. Labour is in favour of higher accident compensation levies as well as getting rid of the income tax cuts. 
I have a question: can the next speaker get up and tell us whether Labour supports the tax cuts on 1 October? That is what we want to know. We want to know what Labour thinks about this bill and we want to know what it thinks about the tax cuts on 1 October. The way Labour is campaigning on GST it gives us the sense that there are no tax cuts. Whenever Labour members talk about the impact on households they talk only about GST.