Power Simon: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Power Simon: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:16270] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 Well that speech just says it all! There is a Minister of the Crown who wants to protect her own personal legacy in not standing up and endorsing tax cuts. There is a Minister from the left of the Labour Party who wants no record in  
Hansard 
 whatsoever that she supports tax cuts. I have to say there must be a huge amount of tension in the Labour caucus at the moment. When Michael Cullen introduced this bill prior to the dinner break he essentially gave a speech about all the reasons why tax cuts were a bad idea and how he was having his arm wound right up his back to have to do this. Yet the Hon Ruth Dyson somebody who would be regarded as one of the leaders of the left wing of the Labour Party although probably not likely to vote for Phil Goff when the leadership spill comes none the less could not get the words out—“tax cut”! Ms Dyson could not say “tax cut”. That is what her Government is proposing; that is what is before the House at the moment. 
If only I had a dollar for every single “meet the candidates” meeting I have been to with Labour candidates and Labour MPs over the last 10 years. I have sat on the stage with those people and I have heard them stand up and say year after year: “Tax cuts are not on the agenda for the Labour Party and never will be.” They said at those “meet the candidates” meetings: “We’re a party that will not cut tax because we’re too concerned about social services.” Well what has changed from those 10 15 20 meetings a year that National Party members fronted up to with Labour candidates where they said that no tax cuts would come from Labour? What has changed? What has changed is that this is election year. Not only has that changed but Michael Cullen is so reluctant to drive this package through the House that he has even decided to do a bit before the election reluctantly—and then do nothing for 2 years after that. That is purely because he knows in his heart of hearts that he did not want to do this. He was interested in protecting his own legacy by doing as little as possible to initiate what all New Zealanders have known for a long time—that is that they deserve some of their own money back. It is not the Government’s money to sort of wave about and hand down to the working folk of New Zealand. It is their money. 
What I found most interesting about the Budget debate today was when we sat here reading through the Budget speech and I waited for the applause after the paragraph where Michael Cullen announced the tax cuts and do you know what? It did not come. There was not a whisper not a clap not even a “Hmm!” or any sort of approval at all. The first clap from the Labour Party came when Dr Cullen talked about superannuitants receiving a bit more as a result of this legislation and the Budget today. But when the actual tax cut package was announced in the Budget there was not a clap. Not one single Labour member of Parliament put his or her hands together to say that that was a job well done. Does that not just say it all! This is too little too late; and the public will not fall for it. 
Was it not interesting that when the Prime Minister stood to speak following John Key she talked about the Springbok Tour the Viet Nam War and Rob Muldoon’s Budget in 1984. Well sorry Prime Minister but a whole lot of us out there in voter land are not having those debates any more. In fact we have not had those debates for 24 years. So if the Labour Party wants to keep having those debates wants to keep looking backwards then that is where it will end up. Out there in voter land they are not having a discussion about the Viet Nam War. They are not having a discussion about the Springbok Tour. They are not having a discussion about Rob Muldoon’s Budget in 1984. They are talking about the fact that under this Government interest rates have doubled. They are talking about how under this Government where petrol prices are $2 a litre and where cheese is $16 a kilogram we do not want to have a discussion about the Springbok Tour in 1981 or the Viet Nam War in the 1960s or 1970s; we want to know after 9 years what those people on the other side of the House are going to do about relieving the pressure on household incomes. It has taken far too long for those people to realise that. People out there in voter land have had a gutsful of reliving those debates which are 25 years old. 
I want to talk about squeezing social services if tax cuts were introduced as Labour candidates and MPs have been saying on the platform for the last 8 or 9 years. Well how about we not overspend half a billion dollars building four prisons. Maybe that sort of dollar amount could have been put to better use in tax cuts over the last 7 or 8 years. Instead what do we get? We get $16 a week for the average household wage earner—enough to go out and buy that elusive block of cheese! The Prime Minister stands in this House on Budget day and says: “I know where I stood on the Springbok Tour.” Well we do not care! We want relief to household incomes and we want to have a debate about where New Zealand is going not where New Zealand has been. Too many Labour MPs are way way back in history where Labour has been. 
What we are seeing today is legislation being rushed through this House for those tax cuts to be introduced for one reason and one reason only—that is the Prime Minister does not trust the Minister of Finance to do the business. After 2005’s broken promise on the “chewing gum tax cuts” the Prime Minister has said to the Minister of Finance: “You will legislate for those tax cuts to avoid us getting into a situation we got into in 2005.” Back-downs are no longer acceptable and that is why the National Party is here to keep them honest. 
The pressure this Government is feeling is in economic households. The problem is being solved only because that Government is feeling political pressure. That is the only reason this tax cut legislation has finally made it to the floor of the House. As Bill English and Gerry Brownlee have said tonight we will vote for the tax cuts because we have consistently said that that is what New Zealand needs. We have not just turned on our tail in introducing those things 2 weeks before an election to try to save our own skins at the polls. We are going to keep talking about the future while that party keeps talking about the past.