Cunliffe David: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10316. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): Here we are in the dead of morning and it may be that there are only about five New Zealanders outside the people in this Chamber listening to this debate but for the record that is deliberate on the part of this Government. An interesting thing colleagues is that this debate was originally to be scheduled by the Government for the start of the urgency motion. At the last minute the order was changed because some genius in the Government whips’ office worked out the truth which is that if the public hears this debate they will work out that the Government has staked its political reputation on one of the most monumental lies in political history which is getting back to surplus. How often have we heard that? “We are going to get back to surplus. We are going to get the Government’s books in the black.” Well that is the colossal lie about this Budget: there is no surplus. The Government called it wafer-thin—$75 million in 2014 off a Budget of $84 billion. That is a margin of 1/1000th of the total spend.And do you know what? By a rough back-of-the-envelope calculation I am going to point to $3 billion worth of porkies bulldust and blather that get the Government to that line—$3 billion. Here is the list. We are here to talk about an excise bill the Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill. This excise bill puts petrol taxes up for hard-pressed New Zealand families by 9c a litre. That is 9c a litre that ordinary Kiwis can barely afford and that rakes in—wait for it—$7 billion extra over 10 years. That is $7 billion out of Kiwis’ pockets to try to help the Government balance its bogus Budget.But you see it does not get there without a whole lot of other things. Regarding ACC officials told the Government to give back to hard-working New Zealanders in 2014-15 $700 million worth of overcharges. Did it do that? No. It is not doing that. It has put that off until the following year and it is banking the $700 million of New Zealanders’ money so that it can get its wafer-thin bogus Budget over the line. It does not get there without cutting the forecast expenditure track by $200 million in that year. It does not get there without an extraordinary bunch of tax fiddles.I want to just draw the House’s attention to this worthy document. It is called the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update or the BEFU—a lovely name. On page 30 of it are the tax-flow assumptions. Guess what happens in the forecast 2014 year? A magic $400 million worth of tax credits occurs out of nowhere for that year only—$400 million is magicked as if by fairy dust. There is $1.1 billion worth of extra corporate tax that magics its way into the Budget for that year only before falling to $200 million the year after. And $1.1 billion of extra PAYE and employee tax falls from the sky in that year only before falling away again. It is an extraordinary conjuring trick. This Budget is not worth the paper it is printed on. There is no surplus. What there is is $3 billion worth of bogus numbers that are a conjuring trick that this Government should be ashamed of.The Budget does not get there without for example promising business research and development tax cuts. Well that is playing catch-up with Labour. We promised that in the last election. We costed ours. From memory it was about $300 million. The Government has put it in the Budget but there is nothing in the books. There is not one cent in the forward expenditure track for its research and development tax cut promise—not one cent. Mr Dunne a couple of weeks ago announced $1.5 billion for the research and development computer system. I do not know how you spend $1.5 billionon a computer system but guess what? Not one dollar is in this Budget for a $1.5 billion computer system—not one dollar colleagues.This Budget is a sham. There is no surplus because in about 7 minutes I have been able to reel off over $3 billion worth of porkies misprints favourable assumptions and money spreading. Those backbenchers did not get told that in caucus you can bet that. They are lambs to the slaughter in the National Government and there is a very large shepherd right out in front.Let us just suppose that the Budget did balance. Let us just suppose it really did get into the black. Would that be the be-all and end-all for New Zealanders? Would that make a million flowers bloom? Would that get 270000 children out of poverty? Would that get our inflation rate down? Would that get our unemployment rate down? The answer is no because guess what? Nobody has told Bill English it is not his job just to balance the Government’s books; it is to balance the country’s books. These people are balancing their books at the expense of your books New Zealanders—not you Mr Assistant Speaker but their books. The Government is taking money out of the wallets of Kiwis putting it in the Treasury coffers and calling it a surplus when it is not—when it is not.Mike Sabin: “I have a dream.”Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: Oh Brook Sabin’s been having dreams. I wonder what kind of dreams—Mike Sabin sorry. He is almost as good-looking as his son but not quite. All I am hoping is that it proves that there are enough synapses between his ears to actually fire up and create a dream and that is very good.But coming back to the point if this Budget did balance and if the Government had a strategy to grow the economy which it does not then we would still be left with a third question: is it putting people first? Does this economy serve New Zealanders or do Government members see New Zealanders as pawns and peons to serve a magic economy? They have got it the wrong way round. They trumpeted this Budget as a social equity Budget. How ironic is that? They said: “Oh this won’t be a typical dry National Party Budget. We’re going to have food in schools. We’re going to have a landlord retail warrant of fitness.” and do you know what? That was absolute window dressing New Zealanders—absolute window dressing. This Budget is as dry as dust. It is a miserly mingy Budget. It is a visionless bore. But the key point today is to remember that there is no surplus. This is a bogus document.It has got $3 billion worth of sham worth of lost money worth of what we can only call porkies. This bill adds 9c over 3 years to ordinary New Zealanders’ petrol bills for every litre that they use. It is part of a series of measures that try to get these clowns to balance their books at the expense of New Zealanders’ books. The saddest part about it is that after all they are putting New Zealanders through they still do not get there. They have to claw away $200 million worth of expenditure from next year. They have to magic up $4.1 billion worth of extra tax flows. They have to hold back $700 million worth of ACC levies that belong to New Zealanders. They have to penny pinch lie and scrounge and they still do not get there. This is a sham. It is a bogus Budget. It is a Budget to be ashamed of and when those backbenchers go and have a thumb through it—of course they never will because they probably cannot read at that level of detail. But if they ever did—[Interruption] David Bennett is happy in his ignorance. You have got to give him that. Some people are ignorant and miserable; David Bennett is happy to be ignorant. He knows he is ignorant. It is like Chris Auchinvole right? He is a man happy in his work. He knows the Budget is a waste of time. He knows—David Bennett: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think the member was using the wrong surname. Were you meaning David Shearer or—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is not a point of order and will lead to disorder.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: That one has hair—that one has hair.Hon Member: Sensitive flower.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: He is a sensitive flower. The reason that we are here in the dead of morning on a Saturday sharing a few jokes amongst colleagues is that this is a debate that the Government does not want the public to hear. They do not want—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired.