McClay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcClay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15768. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TODD McCLAY (Minister of Revenue): I do not think that the last member who spoke in this debate David Shearer believed anything that he said there but at least finally we have received an apology from the Labour Party for the atrocious mess that New Zealand was left in when we took office and it was a heartfelt apology to the New Zealand people. In fact as I looked across it was almost like that was a speech from the latest member of the former leaders’ club and there are two of them sitting there together. It used to be so very very exclusive but it is not that exclusive any more—almost as exclusive as the membership of former chiefs of staff of leaders of the Labour Party—numbering around about five now.But both of those men over there are better than their current leader because they are genuine men who believe in making a difference for New Zealanders. They are not tricky. They do not go to one audience and say one thing and then go to another audience and say another thing. The one thing I would say that I learnt in my 5 years in this time about Phil Goff and David Shearer is that when they stood up in the hustings and said something they meant it. They might have been wrong every single time but at least they meant it.That cannot be said for the new leader of the Labour Party “Mr Tricky Dickie” who actually likes to go to parts of Auckland and stand on top of buses with a microphone putting on funny voices and telling people what they should do and how they should vote. I have got to tell you on behalf of those people whom he was speaking about thatthat was an outrageous thing that he did. He was condescending to them. He was horrible to them and I bet you that he then went to another audience changed his voice was oh so very tricky and gave them such a different idea of what the country would be like.I actually say that there needs to be another member of the former leaders’ club and that is their current leader on that side “Mr Tricky”. He should go and join them. On behalf of the Labour Party and New Zealanders I say that either of those last two gentlemen David Shearer or Phil Goff who actually did a great job on behalf of the Labour Party and who were let down by the Labour Party should come back and actually fill the great void that sits over there.Hon Simon Bridges: Now who’s being tricky?Hon TODD McCLAY: I am not being tricky at all; I am being genuine. Anyway enough about them because that is it. What I want to do is congratulate my friend and colleague and our newest Minister the Hon Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga. What a great thing it is—and such a diverse party we have here in the National Party—that he becomes a Minister in our Government. Indeed the great thing about this Government compared with that party opposite that governed for 9 very long years when New Zealanders were left in the cold is that it is about what is best for New Zealanders going forward. I think that having Sam Lotu-Iiga become a Minister says so very very much.Indeed I read in a newspaper the other day that when we come to the election later this year there will be 13 people who were members of this Parliament from the National Party as it stood at the 2011 election who will have resigned. Some have already gone. Some are retiring and going back to their lives—great service to New Zealand—and they are going on. As I skimmed down that article and had a look there was only one person from the Labour Party who actually has done a great service to Labour over many years who has decided to retire and who can be very proud of what they have done. I think the reason that that person has decided to retire is that they have just had enough of the trickiness and they want to go back to their life—and some members are nodding their heads—and they said that the Labour Party they are in today which they have served dutifully for all of those years is not the Labour Party that they joined all those years ago which actually seemed to care about New Zealanders at the time but now will just say anything to any audience to get any vote so it can get over on this side and start ruining the country again.Can I say I am grateful to our Prime Minister not only for the leadership he has shown over the last 5 years but also for giving me the honour of doing a little bit of extra work as part of his Government as a Minister.I want to pay a tribute to another very hard-working member of this Parliament who I think has many many years of good service ahead of him and that is the Hon Peter Dunne. Can I say that when I took on the revenue portfolio I thought there were very big shoes to fill but I can say honestly with my hand on my heart that there is a man who did a great job on behalf of New Zealand taxpayers to make our tax base fair so that New Zealanders would comply and pay their taxes and to make sure that we had a broad base and low rates compared with most countries of the world. I know that he had to fight tooth and nail when he was part of a previous Government under the Labour Party to try to get those tax rates down to be fairer to New Zealanders. If you work hard and earn income we want you to actually be responsible for spending it yourself rather than taking it off you spending it on your behalf and expecting you to be grateful. I think that Peter Dunne has done a great job and I look forward to working closely with him in his new portfolio areas.I can also say that in the 6 or 7 months that I have been Minister of Revenue I have had a chance to get out and meet so very many people who work for the Inland RevenueDepartment—our staff—and they are hard-working individuals who actually also come to work every day to serve New Zealanders and to make their lives better.Here is the great thing about tax: we all have to pay it but we know that lots of people do not want to. I heard a story not so long ago during this term of Parliament about somebody who had a bank account in New York who was keeping money there. That would not be so that they did not pay tax on it at all. It must have been because they wanted to save up that $200000 deposit that they are now saying they need to go and buy a house on the old street that they grew up in. But the thing about tax rates is that when they are lower when they are broad and when New Zealanders see that they are fair then they will pay them. As soon as you start tinkering with these things—if you try to be tricky if you try to move the rates around and put them up in some areas—then people look for ways within the law to avoid those taxes.The great thing that we have in New Zealand is that our tax base is broad the tax income that the Government is getting is going up and we are doing so in an extremely fair manner. New Zealanders expect to pay their fair share and they are happy to when they see that their Government is using that money well and using it to good effect to better things in society. They do not want to pay their taxes when the rates are far too high when they are unfair or when the money is being used and squandered. Let us say for example that you put the tax rate up as far as you can and then you take that money and you give it back to a couple who might—I do not know—earn $300000 a year. The wife decides to have a child and not work and their income goes down to $150000 a year and you give them 60 bucks a week for that child.Sue Moroney: They have a child and they stop work.Hon TODD McCLAY: I guarantee you that there will be hard-working people—hard-working plumbers and builders in Hamilton the seat that that member opposite has continued to fail to be elected in—who are earning $60000 or $70000 a year. They go to work every day and they do not have any kids. The Labour Party wants to be tricky and take their hard-earned taxes and give them to somebody down the road—from the really expensive houses like the Leader of the Opposition owns—who earns $150000 a year. Labour wants to give them $60 of the hard-earned taxes that that builder has paid. I think that that is ridiculous. It is sad and it is disgraceful that members opposite will say and do anything—by being quiet when their leader makes things up and is tricky—to get any vote so that they can get on this side of the House and ruin the great record that New Zealanders have worked hard on over the last 5 years.Here it is as easy as it gets. Most other countries in the world have an unemployment rate higher than ours and it is going up. Our rate went down. Labour does not like that because it wants people to be dependent and miserable and that is why the number of people in the country who are members of the Labour Party is at a record low.Sue Moroney: The unemployment rate was the lowest under Labour.Hon TODD McCLAY: Here is the thing about the member opposite with the loudest voice on that side. It sounds good when she is on TV but every 3 years when it comes time for people to vote for her she is too tricky and it never works out. Here is a prediction: if she does not swap seats and go somewhere to help out another National Party candidate to get a bigger majority Tim Macindoe up and down his electorate will tell people what is going on. The people of Hamilton are very very intelligent people. I give you an absolute heartfelt guarantee that her result will be worse than that of the member opposite who is really tricky the leader of their party who is trying to convince people all over the country. It will be. Tim Macindoe will continue to be the hard-working MP for Hamilton as David Bennett is. The Prime Minister was right: if those guys want to be tricky I cannot wait for the election this year. Let us bring it on.