Wong Pansy: Taxation (Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill Taxation (Annual Rates of Income Tax 2004-05) Bill — Third Readings 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wong Pansy: Taxation (Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill Taxation (Annual Rates of Income Tax 2004-05) Bill — Third Readings 
[Sitting date: 14 December 2004. Volume:622;Page:17836. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 I guess the only excuse one can give the Hon Ruth Dyson for saying that the venture capital provision in this legislation will make New Zealand more compatible or competitive compared with Australia is that she is not even remotely connected to the revenue portfolio—and New Zealanders should be grateful for that. This venture capital provision does nothing to make New Zealand competitive compared with Australia. At least Australia is further down the track with provision of a limited partnership mechanism that would enable it to work. 
But I want the United Future Party members to reflect on what message they are delivering to the public. United Future Party members are denying hard-working New Zealanders a well-earned tax cut. That is what New Zealanders would get if United Future members stuck to their principles and opposed this legislation. They say they cannot do that because they are worried that Labour will start to favour the Greens over United Future. Hard-working New Zealanders will suffer because United Future wants to be in the good books of the Labour Government. 
As for Gordon Copeland’s logic I think he has not quite worked it out. He said that his Supplementary Order Paper was not put to the vote because the Labour Government was worried about the Greens. But we have just done a numbers check and if the Green Party supported the Government then I am sure the Hon Dr Michael Cullen would have been very comfortable and happy to accept Gordon Copeland’s Supplementary Order Paper amendments that proposed a taxation threshold adjustment to benefit hard-working New Zealanders. Today in about 15 minutes’ time a vote will be taken and I think United Future members will have to take responsibility for denying hard-working New Zealanders a well-deserved tax cut. 
After that United Future went on to say— 
Gordon Copeland 
: We support tax cuts for crying out loud. 
PANSY WONG 
: Oh United Future supports tax cuts but it would not support that move by voting against this legislation which supports high tax rates. I am so glad to hear that United Future member yelling out to the public that his party supports tax cuts. Well it is simple to demonstrate that. In 15 minutes’ time we shall all watch the way that United Future members cast their votes. 
Hon David Carter 
: It must be tough being a doormat! 
PANSY WONG 
: I presume day in and day out United Future members are just waiting for somebody to walk all over them. 
The Hon Dr Michael Cullen must be smiling in his dreams. He has been successful. His spin is that he is a fiscally responsible Minister that he is very tight in his spending and that he somehow is very responsible. It works very well on only the Labour MPs. After we had pointed out that the Labour Government is rolling in a surplus of $6.7 billion and is raking in $34 billion from tax Lynne Pillay said: “That’s what makes a good Government.”—taxing people in order to be rolling in a surplus. Then the Hon David Cunliffe told us that this legislation was no big deal that it was only a mechanism to enable more money to roll in for this tax-and-spend Labour Government. The Hon Dr Michael Cullen has obviously been very successful in conning his own caucus colleagues. 
The other thing I wanted to point out about the Green Party is that Rod Donald complained that the Labour Government’s Working for Families package was not being promoted. I do not know where he has been. Can members guess how many millions of dollars in the Budget will be spent on promoting the Working for Families package? 
Hon David Carter 
: $21 million. 
PANSY WONG 
: My colleague got it in one go. I also want to share with the public that I found out that the Inland Revenue Department has $8 million in its budget for promotion. When I asked the department how it would spend that money it said that it did not have much idea of how to spend it that it did not know where to target the money—whether on print media radio or whatever. It did not have a clue. The Inland Revenue Department was just handed $8 million. That is the department that tells people not to worry and that it is there to look after taxpayers. The department has $8 million that it does not know how to spend. I am sure the advertising consultancies will be queuing up in front of it to get their hands on that money. 
National is totally opposed to this legislation not only because it confirms the high tax rates which are not fair but because the Hon Dr Michael Cullen continues to refuse to tell the public when will be the right time to cut tax rates. He raised expectations by saying that he would not rule out a tax cut when the timing was right. He continues to say that the economy is doing well—despite may I remind the public this Labour Government—yet it still is not the right time. When will Labour ever find that the time is right to reduce tax rates for hard-working New Zealanders? 
We are also against the legislation because Labour has brought in a lot of provisions that fall into the category of feel-good provisions but have no substance. Once again we would like to point out that the venture capital mechanism is nothing but words on paper. Submitter after submitter said to the select committee that it would not work until work had been done on allowing a limited partnership mechanism and that the New Zealand Parliament needed to recognise that further amendments needed to be brought in to allow investors from countries other than those on the “grey list” to have the same advantage in terms of the distribution of capital profit not being taxable. 
The third part is to do with closing loopholes such as the Australian unit trusts. I pointed out in the Committee stage that getting Inland Revenue Department officials to go on a witch-hunt to close loopholes was a waste of time when the problem was glaring us in the face. When the Labour Government continues to hold up high tax rates investors and tax consultants will continue to look for mechanisms for loopholes to gain an advantage for themselves or their clients. If the Labour Government simply did the sensible thing and brought down both personal and company tax rates it would find that Government departments such as the Inland Revenue Department and Treasury could spend time on more constructive areas and could really reflect the statements that continue to be made by Labour about it encouraging growth and enterprise.