Peck Mark: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Peck Mark: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6499] 
MARK PECK (NZ Labour—Invercargill) 
: 
 I move  
That the question be now put 
. 
LINDSAY TISCH (NZ National—Piako) 
:  
Last week I had the opportunity to talk in the second reading of this bill and I said I was absolutely horrified that the Government talks about how it is fair yet it is to impose a levy that is nothing more than a tax on business on those with fixed incomes and on the professional drivers of vehicles. And this Government says that it cares! Members should remember that Labour members said in 1999 that we should watch their lips when they said there would be no increase in taxes. What have we seen in this legislation? [ 
Interruption 
] It is all very convenient for the Government is it not? 
What concerns me—I mentioned this in the debate the other night—is that by way of regulation which comes in under clause 6 this legislation simply imposes a provision that the rate of tax can go up without it coming back to this House for scrutiny. The Government is using that technique more and more. Those who have sat on the Regulations Review Committee will know that this Government wants to bring in by stealth all these taxes—no scrutiny by Parliament—and it does that by way of regulation. If we look at clause 6—Simon Power and other speakers mentioned this but I have not heard any Government speakers stand up and defend it—which relates to the rate of levies we see it states that the rate of the levy will go up from 2.3c to 5.08c per litre. 
Rodney Hide 
: How much? 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: To 5.08c per litre. That is a 120 percent increase. How can the Government justify a 120 percent increase from 2.3c per litre to 5.08c per litre? That is absolutely disgraceful. 
This Government will hit all those people who are on fixed incomes. They have no way to recoup this tax. They will pay for this accident compensation levy to swell the coffers so the Accident Compensation Corporation will be able to pay for the accidents. Why is the 18c per litre that is collected now and goes into the consolidated account—this came up in an earlier debate—not going towards the accidents that the Accident Compensation Corporation has to account for? We are paying for that now in the registration of our vehicles. We are already paying it there and it has gone into the big fund. [ 
Interruption 
] If the member over there on the Government benches wants to stand up and defend that I would be really interested to know what he has to say. I know that in his electorate in Invercargill all the people who need to drive vehicles will be carrying the can on this levy. Maybe the Minister in the chair the Hon Judith Tizard can take a call on this measure because I find it quite disgraceful and unacceptable that we have this huge increase in compliance costs. Here it is—an increase of 120 percent with no justification for that. 
I wonder why at this stage diesel is not included. I know that diesel in the long term will be included but why do we not have diesel in the equation here? It will not be included at this stage; it is not subject to an excise duty. We say that if the Government is to be fair— 
Brian Connell 
: Ask Harry Duynhoven. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: Yes the Minister over there on the Government benches might take a call. Why are we not including diesel at this present time? Why did the Government miss it out? We have a section of the community that has no way to recover these costs. If we look at the professional drivers we see that those people because of the nature of their work and the training that they have are not the ones who have the accidents—yet we are hitting those sorts of people with a 120 percent increase in the levy. I find that quite unacceptable. [ 
Interruption 
] It is. It is a 120 percent increase. Putting up a 2.3c per litre levy to 5.08c per litre—that is a 120 percent increase. 
Rodney Hide 
: They call that an improvement! 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: Yes that is right. What about these high compliance costs and regulatory regimes? If we look at this measure we see it is an extra 3c per litre and there is no chance of those people being able to recoup that.