Cosgrove Clayton: Taxation (Annual Rates and Urgent Measures) Bill — Second Reading 
Cosgrove Clayton: Taxation (Annual Rates and Urgent Measures) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:704] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Associate Minister of Finance) 
: 
 For those who did not know that was Mr Key the so-called finance spokesperson for the National Party. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: No point in speaking. Not like Mike Moore. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: And there is Dr Lockwood Smith who has trolled that line out every time; it does not get any smarter any brighter or any better because he is incapable of some original thought. 
The image makers have been out in the National Party. Mr Key with an apricot tie like that thinks he is on a winner. Someone I think it was Mr Mark asked whether Mr Key had a community services card. I tell Mr Mark that I do not think Mr Key could spell it or maybe if he could he could line it up with what he cites as one of the biggest achievements in his career—being the only man in New Zealand so he told the Finance and Expenditure Committee to get a black American Express card. Apparently it is better than a platinum one; the holder can go and buy a jumbo jet or something so Mr Key told that committee. 
That member said there were no public submissions on this package. Well I say to that member that there was a major public submission on the package we are debating today. It was called a general election where we put our policies—which included the Working for Families and the extended Working for Families packages and our student loan package—up against National’s. The people spoke; we have a coalition. This bill is about keeping our promises. It is about a philosophical divide between that party and us. 
National launched a tax policy that got rejected. It would have seen Mr Key add to his lofty estates and immense wealth to the tune of 95 bucks a week. That is what he and every member including his leader would have got if National’s tax package had been passed. About two thirds of other New Zealanders—the people we are targeting families with kids—would have got around $10 a week. John Key would have been very comfortable I am sure with the black American Express card. He would have wheeled it out and had a good go to spend his 95 bucks a week when most other Kiwis would have got 10 bucks a week. So that is where this House divides. 
We believe in backing 160000 working families and we believe in backing parents with kids because we know—unlike Dr Smith of course when it comes to talking about kids—that it is expensive and tough to bring up a family. So we say that members of Parliament do not deserve 95 bucks a week. I do not deserve it that member does not deserve it and we do not need it. We in this Parliament are on good salaries but I believe that parents with children who are battling away to make good lives deserve a break from the Government. 
Our tax package delivers on our promises. I know that members of the National Party have a mental blockage when it comes to a Government delivering on its promises. I know that John Key of course who made his name as a junk bond dealer trading down the Kiwi dollar for many years—that is how he showed his loyalty to the country—would have no idea what it was like to be a battler out there or that integrity is required for a Government to keep its promises. He represents a party that is short on policy short on commitment and seriously short on keeping any promises that it made during the election. That is why his party spent the last couple of weeks of the last sitting slowly backing away from the election commitments they had made because they were not going to honour them. I think that was probably the reason. 
 The other measure—[ 
Interruption 
] Oh not likely especially when we have dopey Opposition members like that member who got sacked as the trade spokesperson. He need not tell me I am running out of speed; he got usurped. The other important measure in this bill is the student loans package. It is very apt that Dr Smith sits in this Chamber. After all it was him who saddled every student in this country with a massive debt. That man says publicly that he is still proud of the student loan policy he put in place which now sits on the Government’s books as a debt—or as we call it technically an asset—of about $3.8 billion. But of course he got his PhD in animal husbandry I think it was. There may be another word for that—I do not know the technical terms. But when he got his PhD the State paid for it. The State paid for the course. [ 
Interruption 
] I am told Mr Woolerton is aptly qualified in that discipline as well so he says. He got his PhD and the State paid for it. 
Of course Dr Smith does not give a damn about the students the best and the brightest whom we are trying to attract back to this country—and this policy will attract them. He does not give a damn about the best and the brightest students whom we are trying to incentivise and retain in this country. Oh no! He is on the pig’s back—technically or figuratively I do not know. But he got his PhD and the State paid for it—and that is neat and that is wonderful and good on him. Or was it his undergraduate degree? I do not know but I know he got it under the old system. He should sit here and reflect on his legacy as an education Minister. He still sits there with pride of course. I recall being at the Finance and Expenditure Committee during the first term we were in Government when the students brought in a birthday cake to celebrate the anniversary of his student loan scheme which saddles every student with a mortgage before he or she has a house. 
We say no to that scheme; we will incentivise and back the best and the brightest in this country. We will do something about it. We will provide interest-free loans to those students so that they in turn will show a commitment to this country stay here and fill the major skills gaps. We will also provide an incentive for those of our best and brightest who are overseas to come home. 
The reason those members over there are so grumpy is that they cannot compete with the truth and they certainly cannot compete with a Government that actually keeps its promises. When I went on the stump during the election campaign I did not meet one person apart from the National candidate who did not back this policy. I met parents. I met grandparents. Do members know what the biggest cry of grandparents was when this policy came out? [ 
Interruption 
] Before this policy came out they would come to me and others like Mr Woolerton and say they were worried that their grandkids would not come home that they would not see their grandchildren come back to our shores. The day we released the policy that we will pass in this bill today that changed. They now say they will see their grandkids again because they will come home. 
I wind up by saying—and I suggest the new members take a lesson from Dr Smith and do not make the same mistakes he made—I will stand by this policy which completes an election promise. I will stand by the legacy of this Government which has always honoured its election promises. I will stand up at the next election before those weather-beaten members over there who could not meet a promise if they bumped into one and debate with Dr Smith and we will see who the country backs on this issue of student loans and the family assistance tax package.