Finlayson Christopher: Taxation (Annual Rates and Urgent Measures) Bill — In Committee 
Finlayson Christopher: Taxation (Annual Rates and Urgent Measures) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:628;Page:765] 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) 
: 
 There are two issues in Part 2. I will deal briefly with the proposals in relation to the wine industry then turn my mind to the Working for Families package which is of course another example of economic insanity. First of all let us look at the Australian wine producer rebate. I basically endorse what my friend the member for Tukituki said. It is a scheme that is probably well overdue. New Zealand can be very proud of its wine industry. One can think back to the earliest days in for example Marlborough now represented by Mr King the MP for Kaikoura. From a very low base in 1973 the New Zealand wine industry has built up magnificently. The industry exports products to some of the finest destinations in the world and New Zealand can be very proud of what has been done. People like Peter Hubscher who did such a great job to build up Montana Wines and George Fistonich who built up Villa Maria are great New Zealanders who deserve all the support they can get. 
I endorse however the comments made by the member for Tukituki about the gradual integration of New Zealand into the Australian regulatory regime. I wonder whether that sort of thing should be done in an episodic way or whether we need to have a general national discussion about it. We have in this bill the integration of the New Zealand tax regime into the Australian tax regime and I wonder whether it is a foretaste of what is to come with other statutes such as for example the Securities Act and the Commerce Act. But that can wait for another debate. With that caveat I endorse what the member for Tukituki said. 
As for the Working for Families package much has been said before particularly by Ms Bennett. It is a system that destroys incentives and worse than that creates a super-class of beneficiaries that in the worst possible way creates middle-class welfare. I ask the Minister in the chair the Hon Pete Hodgson whether he is aware of any other country in the Western World where citizens can be earning over $100000 yet still be on some form of welfare. It is simply an absurd way to organise an economic system. That coupled with the student loan scheme and the holding of tax rates at the current level is really very distortionary and very harmful to the New Zealand economy. 
Ms Bennett raised a number of very important matters and I hope the Minister will comment on them—not simply address them as he does when purporting to answer questions but actually get down to the nitty-gritty because these are very important points. I would like him—[ 
Interruption 
] I would like the member for Otaki for once in his life to be quiet. I would also like the Minister— 
Hon Member 
: Who’s being very sensitive? 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON 
: I am not a sensitive member; I am just a member who has some very cogent and compelling points to make and who wants the member for Otaki to do something in his life that he has probably never done before—that is to learn something. If the member for Dunedin South were here I would ask him to do something with one of his tennis balls. 
The essential point that I want the Minister to address is the unfairness of this scheme for single people. What is his answer to that unfairness? I do not want some kind of half-baked half-pie call that it is good for the country in general but I ask what it does for single people. What does it do for couples who do not have a child—perhaps because they cannot? What does it do for couples with one child? This is discriminatory legislation; it is unfair to large sections of New Zealanders—and for other New Zealanders it is legislation that enslaves them in middle-class welfare. So let us try to have an answer that is not parroting platitudes. 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: You don’t believe that. 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON 
: I do believe that the member for West Coast - Tasman is a sensible person from a sensible family and I am sure that he believes the same thing. The legislation destroys incentives and I would really like the Minister to address in a fairly rational way the points we have been raising because they are very important points. Unless we get it right we will inhibit growth in this country and cause fundamental damage to the New Zealand economy. 
So I appeal to the Labour Government to take a good hard look at this and try to get away from the point where it is Dr Cullen contra mundum because Dr Cullen knows best. The Government should answer the questions that Ms Bennett has asked through the Chair of the Minister look at the essential unfairness that happens when a superclass of beneficiaries is created that covers some sections of the community but not others and ask what it does for single people. The Government should answer that.