Hodgson Pete: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Hodgson Pete: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:4004] 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Labour—Dunedin North) 
: 
 This story began last year when National members went on to the hustings and said we do not have a debt problem but we have a growth problem and therefore we have to have some tax cuts. As the election campaign unfolded and as the clouds of economic gloom gathered they said that we do not have a debt problem. They maintained that mantra right up until 8 November; we did not. We said in the course of the election campaign there would be no more spending promises. We said we did not believe that there was an opportunity for large expenditure be it in the form of tax cuts or in the form of new Government programmes. And that is how both parties went into the election. 
But wait! There is more! After 8 November all of a sudden the advice to Michael Cullen and therefore to the Labour side stopped and the advice to Bill English and therefore to the National Government started. That advice grew gloomier by the day. Even after the election the news got worse. By the time we came to the second week of December these Government members having been in receipt of 6 full weeks of Treasury advice said we could still afford tax cuts. They said they were part of the Government’s 100 days of action. I guess we are now in 100 days of U-turns. They said we could afford those tax cuts so they went ahead. 
We opposed the tax cuts which I presume means we have to support this legislation today. But we will do more than say “We told you so.” We will say “You misled us.” That was never better explained than yesterday in Brian Rudman’s article in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 where he talked about the need for the National Government to squirm. He pointed out in words of one syllable that by the second week of December the National Government knew very well the circumstances that this little country was in. 
Do members know what happened yesterday? The Prime Minister of this land rang the editor of the largest newspaper in this land and tore a strip off him for running that article. What is prime ministerial about that? Why did John Key say to the editor of the  
New Zealand Herald 
 he did not want to see that sort of stuff run in his newspaper? Who does the Prime Minister think he is? Does he think somehow that we have a democracy in which the Government should not be challenged for breaking promises? Does he think somehow that this Government is able to get away with broken promises without there being some sort of public spat? The Prime Minister has a habit of doing this. Remember when he did it to that Northland agency before he became the Prime Minister? The nice man appears to— 
Craig Foss 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. We are in the Committee stage. We have had about 2½ or 3 minutes of this gentleman’s speech and we are yet to hear anything about what is in the bill. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I do not need any help. I ask the member to continue. We are on Part 1. I know that some of your comments have strayed a bit. 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Mr Chairperson my speech has been entirely about tax cuts—their passage under urgency their reversal under urgency and now the Prime Minister getting up and ripping into the editor of the  
New Zealand Herald 
 because he did not like a bit of criticism. You see Brian Rudman made the mistake apparently of pointing out that in the second week of December the Government must have known the circumstances the country was in. That is what he said. In other words the urgency before Christmas was known to be a fake and that is an outrage. 
Government members were so full of themselves so big on their 100 days of action and so triumphalist that they were prepared to fool themselves and the rest of the nation with legislation and that was only 5 months ago. They have made a U-turn in 5 months: from tax cuts to no tax cuts. When someone gets up and says that is a broken promise and the National Government had better get ready to squirm which is what Mr Rudman said the Prime Minister rings up the editor of the  
New Zealand Herald  
and does his nana. He cannot take the criticism. He is happy to break the promise happy to do the U-turn happy to do the deceit and happy to fool everyone that in December the tax cuts were real—