Carter David: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Carter David: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:16297] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 After 9 long years we finally get a chance to vote in this Parliament for tax cuts for hard-working New Zealanders. We have just listened to another contribution from another Labour member who will begrudgingly vote for this legislation—because Mr Chauvel like Dr Cullen does not actually want to do that. He does not actually want to deliver tax cuts. As Helen Clark said in her contribution it is case of the Government giving something back to people. Never mind that Helen Clark does not realise that it is the workers’ money in the first place and it has been taken off them at a time when it did not need to be. The issue is not about the Government giving back taxpayers’ money; it is about leaving taxpayers with some of their own hard-earned cash. Charles Chauvel does not believe in tax cuts. Mark Gosche does not believe in tax cuts. Michael Cullen does not believe in tax cuts. 
When was the last time that a Budget was presented in this House and we did not see the Minister of Finance on television that night trying to sell it? But Dr Cullen does not believe in his Budget. He was not prepared to go on  
Campbell Live 
 or  
Close Up 
 tonight because he did not want to have to talk about tax cuts. Dr Cullen went so far as to say that the only way he could be sure he would deliver them was for the House to be put into urgency so they can be enshrined in legislation. He knows that otherwise when he woke up in the morning he would do what he did in 2005: have second thoughts and take the promise away. So that is why we are in urgency. It is because there is no Labour member who fundamentally believes in what Labour is doing. 
It would be interesting to know what Mr Goff says. Mr Goff has not taken a call in this debate. He might well be on the right side of the debate. He might be the only one in Labour who actually supports a tax cut. In fact we should challenge Mr Goff to take a call and to come out and say whether the cuts are enough. 
Charles Chauvel 
: We thought you were better than this David. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Charles Chauvel is not backing Mr Goff; he is still in Helen Clark’s camp. 
Tonight we are seeing Dr Cullen’s last Budget. His legacy will be one of failure because he is the man who developed the Working for Families package. At the time he sold it as being social assistance for those who needed it. As times have changed New Zealanders have become more demanding of tax cuts. Dr Cullen Helen Clark and every other Labour member now talk about Working for Families as being tax relief. That is the euphemism for social assistance—it has become tax relief. Yet at times Labour members have the audacity to claim in the House that it is a tax cut. I say to Mr Chauvel that Working for Families has never been a tax cut. 
Tonight is the first time in 9 long years that Parliament has actually had the chance to debate tax cuts and that is why National has no difficulty in supporting this measure. National is in tune with New Zealanders. We know how much they are hurting out there. It is all right for someone like Mr Chauvel to jump into a Government-funded car. He probably does not know that petrol has gone up to $2 a litre tonight but his constituents do. If he got in touch with his own constituents he would know they are hurting. Mortgage rates have doubled. The cost of food goes up every time one goes into a supermarket. Petrol costs $2 a litre and the Labour members laugh. That shows their arrogance. They have completely lost touch with their constituency. 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: The only one in the race and he lost. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: It is not surprising that a guy like Mark Gosche is so out of touch. I say to Mr Gosche that when urgency is finished and we finally lock in these tax cuts so that Michael Cullen cannot change his mind he should get back to South Auckland get in touch with his people and find out how much they are hurting. 
All the talk about building a programme of tax cuts and delivering $16 a week 2 weeks’ out from an election will not be enough to win the Labour members the game. I ask members to mark my words; it will not be enough. People know that they have been grossly overtaxed for years. There have been significant Budget surpluses—more than were needed—yet Dr Cullen has always argued against tax cuts and said it was not the right time to deliver them. In actual fact with the economy contracting his argument has more validity today than it did the last time he refused to deliver tax cuts. 
But at last after 9 long years National has its first chance to vote for tax cuts. We do it with pleasure. It is a small step in the right direction. As the media summed up things tonight it is just too little too late. New Zealanders deserve to have their own money put back in their pockets because they will spend it far more wisely than Dr Cullen would. They will not rush out and buy train sets and other wasted operations such as that. They will not buy liabilities. They will spend their money wisely and as everybody knows they need the opportunity to do so and they need it now. 
Debate interrupted.