Guy Nathan: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Guy Nathan: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:16322] 
NATHAN GUY (National) 
: 
 We are in urgency today talking about the title of the Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill. I think there could be several options for a title. The bill could be called the “Catch-up Budget that Doesn’t Catch up”. Michael Cullen has delivered a catch-up Budget— 
Chris Tremain 
: Begrudgingly. 
NATHAN GUY 
: Yes begrudgingly. It is a catch-up bill that does not catch up. There is a second possible title for this bill: the “Wait 9 Long Years and Get a Jerrycan Full of Petrol on 1 October Bill”. The title of the bill could refer to the fact that people have waited 9 long years for a tax cut on 1 October that for the average wage earner will be 16 bucks. I worked out that that is about a jerrycan full of petrol. That could be another title for this bill. The third option I thought about was the “Election Bribe Tax Cut Just a Couple of Weeks Before the Polling Booth Bill”. 
This bill is too little too late. New Zealanders are now screaming about the domestic costs they have to meet in their household budgets. Dr Cullen after 9 years has delivered this bill into Parliament against the wishes of a whole lot of his caucus colleagues. When he announced the tax cuts yesterday—for those who were not listening—he did not get any applause from any of his caucus colleagues because a whole lot of them do not believe in them. Michael Cullen does not believe in them. His track record is that when he came into office in 2000 he lifted taxes. In 2005 he promised the “chewing gum tax” cuts and he could not deliver them. He reneged on his promise. That is why we are in urgency now. We have to get legislation in place because with Michael Cullen’s track record no one believes him. He has been led screaming and kicking by a chunk of his caucus to deliver tax cuts. 
Michael Cullen is ideologically opposed to these tax cuts. Let us look at Michael Cullen’s four tests for tax cuts: there has to be enough fiscal headroom; there has to be no borrowing—we know he is borrowing for these; they have to be non-inflationary—we do not know whether they will push up inflation; and they must not lead to inequalities—and we do not know that as well. National is saying that Michael Cullen’s and Labour’s track record on this is pathetic. Labour has been led screaming and kicking after 9 years to deliver a tax cut that will enable someone in the spring to mow the lawns with a jerrycan of fuel. People will be able to go down to the service station in October and fill up their jerrycans with about 6 litres of fuel. By then the forecast is that it will cost them about 16 bucks which is their tax cut. It is absolutely pathetic. 
We see the waste in this Government’s spending where it is spending $600 million through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to do something with an embassy building in Stockholm. There is a whole lot of waste which we believe New Zealanders should focus on and we are going to do a lot better. 
The history of this Government is pathetic. People are showing that by voting with their feet. In the last 12 months 44000 people have left New Zealand to go to Australia indefinitely—44000. That is the whole number of voters in the Kapiti and Horowhenua area combined. Our youngest and brightest have gone to Australia in the last 12 months. [ 
Interruption 
] Does Mr Jones know why they have gone? They have gone because they are getting one-third higher wages their pay packets are better by a third and they are paying less tax. This Budget will not turn those people around because they do not believe that Labour can deliver. They do not believe that $16 for the average hard-working New Zealander is enough. Is that going to be enough to keep them in New Zealand? We need to re-incentivise people in this country. We need to tell them that it is fantastic here. We need to create the right incentives in education to grow our wages and to have a longer-term tax package.