Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9411] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First agrees with the Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Ah ah! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: I note that Mr Auchinvole has an “ah” stuck in his throat. If he has spent so much time going to elocution lessons then he should have learnt to clear his throat silently I would suggest. 
New Zealand First members are in favour of this bill. We applaud the Labour Government and in particular Dr Cullen’s new-found pragmatism. We have long said that the Government should incentivise our economy through the tax system and should listen to the market signals which was a favourite call through the 1980s and 1990s. The market signals are telling us that something needs to be done to stimulate savings to help our exporters and to help our business people. Thank goodness that we see something actually happening here and we think that is great. 
I do not intend to talk about the National Party particularly but it is amazing to me how much the National members talk about Australia and about our wage relativity with Australia. The relativity between New Zealand wages and Australian wages fell more when National was in Government than at any other time. That was when wages fell and when the biggest wage gap opened up. It was all about markets it was all about signals it was all about being hands-off and it was all about the market taking care of things but basically it was all about ideology. 
It amazes me that in this debate we are hearing the good old university lectures coming out from both sides of the House. We are hearing the ideology and all of the stuff that was learnt in various universities. If I myself was more learned I could almost say this person learnt under a Keynesian model or this person learnt his or her stuff at Harvard or at Oxford. To me it is all bunkum because what matters is what works. 
I say thank heavens that this present Labour Government has seen that the path New Zealand has taken in the past has not worked and it is putting in place something that has been proven in other countries. It is not ideology. It does not fit the model of the university-trained people we are hearing from today but we in New Zealand First believe that it will work and that it provides practical solutions to the problems besetting this country. We can no longer sit back and watch our research and development going to other countries. We can no longer sit back and see our businesses leaving our shores. Sure we know that some businesses can never compete with the communist regime in China which has low wages and pours heaps of money into research and development. Inevitably we will lose some of those businesses and that is sad. But we do not need to be losing as many businesses as we are so New Zealand First supports what the Government is doing and we applaud it. 
We also applaud the lift in tax credits for charitable donations right up to the net wage of the person making the donation. So if people want to give away more than they earn to charities they will get a tax credit right up to their net income. I would make this suggestion to Bob Clarkson who we know is immensely wealthy and has done a marvellous job in the community: he can now go out there and give away more than he earns because he will get a tax credit right up to his net income. We look forward to his doing that. I know that he has been a good person in the community in which he lives so I would be sure that even if none of his other colleagues supported this measure he would support it. 
It is true that in this country we should not continually look to the Government. I applaud this Government for saying that there are other methods of having money move around and go to good causes. Some people who have done immensely well in this country are willing—and I applaud Bob Clarkson because he has done this—to give money to good causes in their community. They are prepared to give money to an organisation or a cause for no better reason than they believe in it. It is their money and if they want to give it to a worthy cause they should be able to get a tax deduction to the maximum effect out of that and this bill allows that to happen. New Zealand First applauds that because we think it is wonderful. We know that the country that has the biggest the brightest and the greatest in this area is America and it has a record of getting a huge benefit out of wealthy businessmen because it is in their interests to donate. 
I also think that if we can have our company tax rates and taxation laws aligned more with those of Australia—and this bill does that—that is a good thing. I would have to say that the thought of New Zealand and Australia having a common currency let alone our having an Australian currency would fill me with horror because I think that ultimately it would be one step too far as far as the sovereignty of this country’s economy is concerned. But if we can line up more and more of our taxation— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: How come it worked in Europe? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: The Euro? 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: But seriously—Italy France Germany. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Yeah yeah but that was a different deal. If we can line these things up more and more I think that is beneficial to both countries. 
I cannot end without saying that we in New Zealand First—and everybody knows this—view with great concern the way in which our industries have been bought by mainly Australians but also other countries. By and large they are buying them through savings funds from savings schemes. In the case of Australia they are compulsory savings schemes and in the case of America they are its huge university funds and other funds like that. Those countries are getting the benefit of any lift in commodity prices and the benefit of the hard work and initiative of our people and we think that is wrong. New Zealand First thinks it is long overdue for New Zealand to start looking after itself building up its own savings and starting to do unto other countries as they have done unto us. New Zealand First wants to see our people buying industries in other countries and repatriating those funds to our country for the benefit of all our citizens.