Bennett David: Budget Debate 
Bennett David: Budget Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9583] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 Today we saw the real intentions of the Labour Government. Today during question time we saw Bill English get Labour in a corner and we saw its true colours. Bill English asked which Government services will be cut by this Labour Government. Which health and education services will be cut for a billion dollars in tax relief? The Government could not answer. Michael Cullen could not answer. His mind was working overtime. He worked out that if he answered that question that would destroy Labour’s campaign in the next year it would destroy its arguments made in the last campaign and it would show the true colours of Labour. Labour people say one thing and do another. They are not true to their word and they are not true to the New Zealanders whom they are supposed to be governing in this Parliament. 
Bill English found that out today. The public saw that today. The media saw that today. The backbenchers in Labour saw that today. Michael Cullen is in his office knowing he is in trouble. He can never use that argument again. There can be no excuse for not having tax cuts in the future. Tax cuts are part of what a Government should deliver and what National will deliver when we are next in Government. Labour can say all it likes: the reality is that the people want tax cuts the people need them and the people will get them. 
This Budget has been disappointing for even the most hardcore Labour supporters. Even Matt McCarten has been writing in the paper how disappointed he has been with the Budget and the Labour Government. I shall quote: “The breathtaking paradox is that under a workers’ government”—supposedly the Labour Government—“corporates get tax cuts while workers effectively receive a tax increase. The tax cuts for businesses could have been used to fund electric trains in Auckland solving the infrastructure and transport problems in our biggest city.” That was Matt McCarten. He is on one side of the line of the rail network; he is on the left of any argument and he is saying that Labour has forgotten its own people. 
Labour has stomped on the people who voted it in. Labour has ignored the wishes of its constituents by giving tax cuts to the rich. That is what Labour members have done. They have given only a corporate tax cut. Why did they not give a tax cut to ordinary New Zealanders? Why did they not do that? Why did they not make it a compulsory scheme and give a tax cut to all salary and wage earners? 
Hon Member 
: Why not? 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Because Labour members are not that smart. They have to rely on the National Party to give them policy. They have to rely on the National Party to go out there and say that the company tax rate should be reduced from 33 to 30 percent. It takes them about 4 or 5 years to work out what that actually means but after that time they can dress it up and use it in their own way. 
The policy on charities was another example of theft and stealth by the Labour Government. Those members took a policy that we had gone out and sold to the public of New Zealand. It was a policy that was being received well and that people were getting in behind. Local churches and local sports organisations were looking forward to that policy. It was the way they could get under way building programmes that had been sitting there for years. It was the way to enable people to donate with the generosity that we expect from New Zealanders. National was going to give them that opportunity. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: But what happened? 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Labour stole it from the National Party. Those members stole it from our hands. They did it themselves. They were the great pretenders and they said that they would deliver it. 
But they did not help their own people on Budget day did they? How can Labour members go on the hustings next year look at their own people and say that they have delivered for them? They cannot because they know that they have not delivered and they know that they never will because they are after only one thing in this Parliament—that is to stay in power. 
Let us look at what Matt McCarten also said in that interesting article he wrote for the  
New Zealand Herald 
: “Effectively the compulsory levy on workers for their own pensions is intended to reduce spending with the hoped-for side effects of reducing inflation. The money can be used by professional investors to buy company shares and properties. But the Government has put this money into private corporate hands to invest in businesses—mainly overseas”. Do members know what will happen? The same thing will happen that has happened with our Superannuation Fund. That money will go to the US stock exchange. It will take the Green Party about a year to work out that the money is buying mines and other military equipment from US companies. 
But the reality is that that money will not be invested in New Zealand because there is nothing much to invest in here now. Whatever is decent the Government owns and whatever is left the Australians own. So there is nothing here for New Zealanders to invest in. They have to invest in overseas interests because that is the rational prudent investment policy. New Zealanders will lose out in that the money will not be used in New Zealand. 
If the Government members want an idea why do not they use that money for infrastructural development? Instead of making people pay another 10c if they drive through Auckland why does the Government not actually build some roads and electrify some of the rail system in Auckland without having to make motorists in the rest of the country pay for it? All the other regions will see that opportunity and they will do the same thing now. They will all put on a 10c petrol tax because they want the ability to build their own roads. 
New Zealanders will not notice that until we have a flow-on effect when the dollar drops. When the dollar drops our petrol prices will go through the roof and every 10c in petrol tax that we have on top of a high petrol price will hurt the low and middle income New Zealanders who have to travel to work and who are dependent on jobs in the transport industry anyway. They will feel it again. Labour voters will feel it again. They will lose their jobs because transport companies will not be able to afford to continue to pay those prices and exporters will not be able to continue to use the infrastructure they need because they cannot afford the fuel prices. And what is happening in this Government? Those members are sitting there ignoring that problem. They are ignoring it but it will hit them and it will hit their own people. 
Chris Tremain 
: What about lost wage opportunities? 
DAVID BENNETT 
: There will be huge lost wage opportunities because Dr Cullen has said that there will be no wage increases. Dr Cullen has said that there will be no wage increases at the next round. Do people believe that? Can people actually believe that he would have gone to Andrew Little and said that there would be no wage increases in the next round? Forgive me but I do not believe that. I cannot believe that that is the deal that the Labour Government made with the unions. 
Debate interrupted.