Smith Lockwood: Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Smith Lockwood: Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:623;Page:18420] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 In speaking to the second reading of the Customs and Excise (Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill I shall repeat what the Hon Marian Hobbs has just told this country. She has just told this country that New Zealand is lightly taxed. 
Jill Pettis 
: Yes that’s right. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: And the senior Government whip confirms that view. That is outrageous. This Government controls 40 percent of the economy. That is darn near communist stuff. The Labour Government controls 40 percent of the economy. That is how much it spends in terms of GDP in this country—40 percent of GDP at all levels of Government. That is a high level of taxation compared with Australia and the United States. In relation to the countries we have to compete with that is a high level of taxation and Marian Hobbs has just confirmed to New Zealand that this Labour Government has no understanding of taxation—none. 
I am shocked that a Minister in this Labour Government can say that. I can accept that a Government could say that it will not reduce taxation but to argue in this Chamber that New Zealand is lightly taxed is an absolute outrage. There is no way this economy can perform at the moment with the tax burden it is carrying. No developed country in history has grown at the rate this country has to grow at if it is to close the gap in its living standards compared to those of Australia while carrying the tax burden that New Zealand is currently carrying. The Minister Marian Hobbs needs to do a little bit of homework. As a former schoolteacher and principal she should understand what homework is all about. She should do a little bit of homework and read up on the impacts of taxation and the tax burden on the potential for economies to grow. 
What was also revealing about what she said was that she wanted that money for more public transport and for more highway patrols out there to issue more speeding tickets. I shall share with her a survey I have done in my electorate and I have had several thousand responses. I want the Minister to listen to this. The question I asked—admittedly this question is a wee bit loaded—in the survey was whether people believed that the Government was putting too much effort into policing the speed limit and not enough effort into protecting us from criminals. I want Marian Hobbs to listen to the answer. I had over 4000 responses. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Please bring the speech around. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: I am just wondering about what the Minister said. This is about money that will be gained through this legislation and how it will be spent. Out of 4000 responses—over 90 percent and this includes even Labour Party supporters—well over 80 percent of Labour Party supporters said yes this Government is putting too much effort into policing the speed limit and not enough effort into protecting them from criminals. Marian Hobbs thinks more of this money should go into issuing more speeding tickets. 
I shall come back to the detail of the bill. Part 1 indexes the petrol tax to inflation. What is outrageous about that is that it puts into the hands of the executive a power that should reside in this Parliament. It is this Parliament that sets tax rates. This legislation gives the executive the power through an Order in Council issued at a time chosen by the Government—not by this Parliament. It may be just after the next election. Would that not be convenient to raise the fuel tax by 5c just after the next election! It would not be before the election. We would hate the voters of New Zealand to have a 5c rise in petrol tax before the election. No I do not think Marian Hobbs would do that. The executive will have the power to increase taxes following the passing of this bill. It will do it when it chooses and it will do it for political reasons. 
Jill Pettis 
: Gosh fancy that! 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: The senior Government whip says: “Gosh fancy that!.” Taxation should not be levied for political reasons. 
Part 2 provides for a 5c per litre increase in the motor spirits duty. What makes me so angry about this increase is that motorists in New Zealand cannot afford it. The average wage earner in New Zealand according to OECD data has had the highest tax increases since this Labour Government has been in office and in fact the second-highest tax increases in the OECD. This Labour Government will up the taxes again on the long-suffering average worker in New Zealand who has to use his or her motorcar to get to work or to do anything. 
Revenue is not what is holding up roading development in this country right now. Transfund had a surplus of over $100 million sitting in the bank for years not being spent. Why? Because of dopey Government legislation that makes it darn near impossible to develop roading in this country. The Resource Management Act has to be fixed up. It has stopped roading developments in this country. The crazy crazy Land Transport Management Act that Labour passed in 2003 is making it harder to get on with public-private partnerships and toll roads that could open up the roading infrastructure in this country. That is what this Government should be focusing on fixing up not on taxing road users still more because the average worker in this country is paying too much tax already. 
Finally I shall deal with the appalling contribution tonight from Gordon Copeland of United Future. Forgive me I do not want to attack the man personally. It is the policy of United Future that I want to attack. United Future said: “Please don’t take our support for granted.” What an appallingly pathetic thing to say to this Parliament and to this Government. What kind of puppet or doormat has United Future become? United Future should take a leaf out of the Greens book. I detest the Greens policies. There is not a single bone in my body that supports anything the Greens stand for. They do not stand for green stuff. They stand for anti-business and anti-motor vehicles. The thing that unites the Greens is their absolute hatred of the multinational corporations that actually do a lot of good in New Zealand and around the world. I respect the Greens with their dopey backward-looking horse-and-cart arguments. At least they had the guts to stand up to the Government and tell it that if it did not do what they wanted on the crazy Land Transport Management Bill of 2003 if it did not do what they wanted on the Rodney District Council (PENLINK Toll Road) Empowering Bill in my electorate they would not support it. Government members buckled at the knee like the bunch of wimps they are and the Greens got their way. The Penlink toll road was stuffed and thousands of motorists in my electorate despise the Greens for that as they sit stuck in traffic every day as a consequence. 
But United Future does not have the gumption to tell the Government that it does not agree with this legislation that it believes New Zealanders are too highly taxed and that it will support the legislation only if it indexes the thresholds on income tax for example. I say to Gordon Copeland in this House—although this is not a personal attack on him—that he should stand up to this wimpish Government. He knows that it is taxing this country too highly. He does not believe the Marian Hobbs’ tripe that we are a lightly taxed country. We are too heavily taxed. Our average wage and salary earners are crippled by tax. Their lives are being deprived by the rapacious tax-gathering of this Government. United Future should stand up to this Government say that enough is enough and that it will support National New Zealand First and the other parties that are against this legislation and stop its passage.