Nash Stuart: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
Nash Stuart: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:666;Page:13472] 
STUART NASH (Labour) 
: 
 We are nearing lunchtime so I will sum up some of the arguments the Labour Opposition has made in the debate on the Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill. As has been alluded to by Minister Dunne Labour supports this bill. It supports two Supplementary Order Papers one put forward by Minister Dunne and one put forward by the ACT MP David Garrett and we ask Minister Dunne to seriously consider supporting Labour’s amendment. 
One of the main reasons that Labour has put forward this amendment is to give some GST relief in terms of rates relief to good hard-working New Zealanders. The other reason we would like Mr Dunne to consider supporting this amendment is that in principle and in practice it is incredibly similar to the other provisions that are being exempted until the end of this financial year. By that I mean that the rates bills are out. Ratepayers have the bills in their hands they have been in the letterbox and they know what their rates will be. A lot of councils have put on the bottom of the rates notice that if the bill is paid in full ratepayers will pay only 12.5 percent GST but if payment is staggered ratepayers will pay 12.5 percent GST on the first part and 15 percent GST on any payment after 1 October. 
There are two reasons why this is a good amendment. As mentioned the first is that it provides a measure of relief to good hard-working New Zealanders and the second is that it fits into the general practice and the general theory of the other parts of Mr Dunne’s Supplementary Order Paper 157 which Labour is supporting. So we would like the Minister of Revenue Peter Dunne to support this amendment and to look at it with the philosophical and the practical approach taken by his other Supplementary Order Papers. 
There have been other arguments. It has been held up by Mr Foss and Mr Dunne that Labour is supporting this bill and that by supporting it we support an increase in GST. Nothing could be further from the truth. I want to have it on record once more that Labour does not support any increase in GST. Labour has never supported any increase in GST. If this bill were about an increase in GST then we would absolutely not be supporting it. In fact we are supporting amendments that limit GST to 12.5 percent through to the end of the financial year. 
We have talked about savings. We have talked about the complete and utter lack of a plan. Labour is the party that put measures in place to increase the savings of New Zealanders. There was the Kirk Government savings plan which National abolished and there was the Cullen Superannuation Fund which National has stopped making contributions to. We now have a Government that comes out and says that it will set up a committee. It is to set up a committee. Two years after assuming the Treasury benches it will set up a committee. I wonder whether that is what its polling tells it to do. 
Labour has been talking about savings for a long long time. Ever since we assumed Opposition for this brief 3-year period we have articulated clearly the issue of savings. As Mr Dunne will know as Minister of Revenue in the previous Labour Government savings was a big part of Labour’s platform. As the vast majority of Kiwis will attest to in any sort of polling done by any party KiwiSaver was incredibly important and the Cullen fund was supported. 
Again I come back to the Labour amendment because we are talking about savings and we are talking about families. Mr Dunne in fact set up the Families Commission. In the Labour amendment we are asking for some relief for families who are living the dream who own their own home but who will struggle to pay the rates at 15 percent GST. When someone like Mr Gilmore stands up and says that it is only $25 I suggest that that member is a little out of touch. Any amount of money is important to families who are really struggling. They are struggling to budget with an increase in GST anyway. The price of their petrol the price of their food and the price of their clothes—basic necessities—are to go up. We are asking the Minister in the chair the Minister of Revenue to give them some relief along these lines because it is in absolute alignment with the Minister’s own principles about families. It is absolutely in line with the Minister’s principles as set out in his Supplementary Order Paper. 
We support this bill for a whole raft of reasons. It closes loopholes it makes it easier for Kiwis to come home—which we support even though I doubt that many will come home under this Government—and it makes it easier for Kiwis to do business. Thank you.