Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax Rate Amendments) Bill — First Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax Rate Amendments) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9386] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 I would like to be a little bit more positive than the Hon Dr Lockwood Smith. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: It is “Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith.” 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Dr the Hon—is it that way round? 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: That’s the way he likes it. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: I would like to be more positive than him anyway. I do not usually talk about my family but I want to do so tonight because I want to be positive. But before I do that I want to say that I think taking the company tax rate down from 33c to 30c in the dollar is positive. I think it is long overdue. It is something that needed to be done in this country. Now it has been done and I applaud the Government for doing it. New Zealand First would like to take the rate down further but that is something for the future. 
As we are talking about incentivised savings and tax cuts I want to talk about the Working for Families package and how it affected my family. My youngest son who is a hard-working funeral director has a wife and two young children the second of whom was born only a year ago. We were talking about Working for Families during the time his wife was unable to earn an income to help with the bills. At that point—I am quoting from memory and I am not as exact as some of my more financially learned colleagues—I think under National’s tax cuts I as an MP would receive something like $90 a week and my son with a newborn babe would earn no income at all from tax cuts or perhaps at best $5 a week. Under Working for Families my son now receives something like $120 a week extra and I—and I do not believe I need anything—receive nothing. I would like it but I do not believe I need it. I think that is right I think that is proper and more than any of that I think that is just. 
We are more than happy to see that sort of thing continue. It is a tax cut it is targeted and it is targeted at the people we want to encourage in this country. I go on talking about my son and say that if the KiwiSaver scheme incentivised as it is with an employer contribution will help him and my daughter-in-law and my other family members to save for their future then I say it is fantastic and we are voting for it—and we are. These things are of real interest because I believe that at some point in life we do have enough. 
I know that people say one has to have more and more to invest more and more. I have three brothers—I said I would talk about my family and I hope they are not listening to this—who are millionaires of substantial means. Good luck to them; they worked really really hard and I am very very proud of them. But I have to say that at this point in their lives when they have that wealth rather than entrepreneurial investors I see cautious people who are intent on retaining their wealth. I think that that is right and proper too. But members should not come into this House and say that tax savings for the rich will go into investment because they will not and they have not for anybody I have known in my lifetime. Tax cuts go into consumption. That is what this Budget is about. This Budget is about trying to cool an overheated economy without putting penalties on people and I think that has been done in innovative ways and in ways that protect the future of families and people in this country. I applaud that and New Zealand First applauds that. 
I am not saying that wealth should be punished. I am not suggesting in any way that the seeking of wealth—and I am saying this for my brothers because they are all bigger than me—should be inhibited. Hard work should be encouraged and while I am talking about hard work I must say that I do not see my son who is receiving money from Working for Families working any less. I do not see that his drive to succeed is any less than it has ever been. In fact I see just the opposite. He is able to go to work and give his skills his sympathy and his empathy to the people who need it without having to worry that he might have to go out and get another job or that his beloved wife will have to go out and work when she should be looking after that child in its first year and things like that. We are not talking about losing incentives to work. I will always work. My sons work hard. My daughter works hard and my brothers have worked hard and because they have been shall I say perhaps more cautious than me and perhaps less profligate than me they are commensurately wealthier and God bless that fact. I do not deny them one cent of what they have. 
But I think that when we retire into our corners and talk politically we should at some point admit that there is a crossover here between one side of politics and the other. I do not like to hear the bold statement that if one gives a young person a chance not to work then those young people will not work. That is not true. By the same token if one says that the rich should be stopped from getting richer that is not true either. It is also not true to say that the wealthier a person gets the more that person will invest. I know from experience that that is sometimes true but not always. New Zealand First is in favour of this bill. New Zealand First has long wanted to see company tax rates reduced and to see some incentives in the taxation system. This bill is a recognition that we need to catch up to other countries in that area. I applaud this bill.