Hide Rodney: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Hide Rodney: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:627;Page:22118] 
2.  
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: What percentage of the workforce are paying the 39 percent tax rate and how does this compare with his statement on 22 December 1999 that the 39 percent tax rate will “affect only about 5 percent of the workforce”? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 The information at the time I made that statement related to the 1998 tax year when the proportion of taxpayers earning more than $60000 was 5.3 percent. The current percentage is 8.7 percent. Had we intended to index the threshold for the 39c in the dollar rate at the time the policy would have said so because this Government does what it says it will do. 
Rodney Hide 
: Does the Minister accept that he is referring to all taxpayers not to the workforce and that if one looks at the workforce one sees by his own admission that 22 percent of the workforce are paying the top rate of tax and is that not just another example that this Government cannot be trusted to keep its word because it has always been more than 5 percent of the workforce—and indeed 5 percent of taxpayers—who have had to pay the top rate of tax? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I understand the member’s fascination with a 5 percent threshold—I do indeed. And I accept that I made an error in that press statement referring to the workforce. That king hit by the member will not lift him from 1 percent to 5 percent overnight. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Those were very interesting comments by the Minister but I ask you: at what point did he address the question? Not once did he attempt— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: He did. 
Rodney Hide 
: Well David Cunliffe may want to help me with this point of order but the reality is that the Minister is required to address the question. Not once did he address the question in that answer. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Speaking to the point of order Madam Speaker I point out that the member asked me whether I incorrectly referred to the workforce in the press statement and I said yes. That is the best king hit he has had on me in 5½ years. 
John Key 
: Why do working New Zealanders including those paying the top rate have to wait 3 years for Labour’s tax cuts which cost only $360 million per year when there was clearly enough money in the kitty to give that amount and more to those with student loans today—or does Labour not care about workers any more? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: The first point is that this was a 3-year policy and actually announced as such. The second point is that on present reckoning the threshold change will probably arrive before National announces its tax policy. 
Kenneth Wang 
: Why is it that the Minister can afford a $300 million a year pledge to his favourite student-vote group but cannot afford to cut the 39c in the dollar rate at all especially given that there are now 320000 people or 11 percent of taxpayers paying the 39c in the dollar rate—or is it just that there is an ideological opposition in the Labour caucus to lowering people’s taxes but full support for election bribes? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I do note that the party promising $5.7 billion of tax cuts is at approximately 1 percent in the polls and that the Labour Party is at approximately 40 times that number in the latest opinion polls. On the point the member makes he does need to understand that the two have to be added together if we do them both. We cannot count the same $300 million twice. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: In my valedictory question can I help the Minister by asking him whether he has ever considered that he could actually lower the 39c in the dollar tax rate to 33c in the dollar for about $680 million and that he could easily find that money by just cutting out support for hip-hop tours the sending of port-a-loos to Venice and twilight golf and by cutting down social welfare fraud and abuse; if not why not? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: We have already cut out the support for the hip-hop tour and at $27000 it adds up to roughly a 1c a year tax cut once for all taxpayers.