Carter John: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Carter John: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9456] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to follow the Tory in the Labour Party Shane Jones. You know Shane Jones and I are Northland MPs and along with the other MPs from that area we all work well in the Northland scene. But the unfortunate thing with Shane Jones is that when he decided to get into politics he tripped over and fell into the wrong party because underneath it all he is a Tory at heart and he hates having to defend this Budget. If one can get Shane Jones in the quiet in the back room somewhere he will say: “Man I just do not know where we are going.” Here he is and we could see the lacklustre effort that he put in when he was trying to defend this Budget. 
I am really looking forward to the next election campaign and being on the campaign trail with Shane Jones because I would ask him three questions about this Budget that affect the people of Northland. The first thing is that he is out there saying that Labour has done it for business. Well when we look at it it may be that Labour did do just a little bit for business—until we actually start doing the maths. Then the only way we can say that businesses got an increase is if we stand on our heads and the figures will then go up the right way. The fact is that businesses will pay. Labour gives it to them on the one hand and it takes it away on the other. That is the first point. 
 My second point though—and this is the point I really want to ask Shane about—is that he talks about the fact that KiwiSaver will be great. He talks about the fact that it will work for people in Northland and he talks about businesses. Well you know in Northland most of the businesses are sole traders; they are not companies they are small individual people who have gone out and taken a chance. They have gone out and had a go. They are standing up as we would expect New Zealanders—good Kiwi people—to do. They are men and women out there having a go. But what will this legislation do for them? It will penalise them will it not? It will cause them cost; they will have to pay. They will not get any benefit from the reduced company taxes—they do not pay them. But if they are employers—and most of them are employers of one or two people—and they are paying wages of let us say $60000 they will have to pay something like $3000. Whatever the figure is it will cost them money. 
How will that benefit or encourage the small-business people in Northland? It will not help them at all. In fact it is a negative for them. Just maybe it will tip them over the edge. In Northland a good number of businesses are right on the edge—they go from hand to mouth and they just keep going. They make it they work hard they do all the things they can and now the Government comes along and says: “Well here’s another bill and here’s another tax. You are going to have to pay. You are going to have to front up.” 
What about the people who work in the Moerewa freezing works? What about the people who work in kiwifruit businesses in Kerikeri? What about the small people who work driving a school bus to Mangamuka? What will they get out of this? They will get absolutely nothing. The fact is that they will get nothing out of it because they cannot afford to take anything from it. 
How much surplus cash does the person who is earning $18000 a year have hanging around to put into KiwiSaver? Negative—they have no surplus cash at all. I say to Mr Mallard and Mr Shane Jones that these people do not have a spare cent to put into KiwiSaver. So what is their only option? They will opt out—they have to opt out. This legislation does not help the people of Northland. I know a young fella up there who has just started working at Pak ‘N Save. He has a partner and a child and a second child on the way. He earns $15 an hour. He is doing well and getting himself established but man he sure ain’t got any surplus cash to pick up his share of what Michael Cullen says he should have. That is the shame of it. This young lad wants to buy his own home. This young lad is having a go. This young lad is actually trying to make a go of a life for himself here in New Zealand and this Government has done absolutely nothing for him in this Budget.