Carter David: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Carter David: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9449] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 This morning the body language of the Labour members in this Chamber says it all. They came into the House yesterday for the reading of the Budget and Dr Cullen had obviously conned them and told them that it was all good news and that it would correct the 10 percent poll differentiation between National and Labour. Darren Hughes nods his head and agrees. Then when those members actually heard the Budget and a few people who are a lot sharper than Darren Hughes analysed the Budget particularly the KiwiSaver bit it became clear that Dr Cullen has been too clever by half. We now know that he has presented a very complicated savings system that simply will not be accepted by most wage earners in this country. 
The interesting thing was that Helen Clark knew it by the time Dr Cullen had delivered the Budget. In her opening address she stood up and said: “Is that it? Is that it?”. Helen Clark knows that Michael Cullen has now delivered his final Budget in this House. He has had eight chances to deliver a Budget that ensured growth for this country and he has had eight failures one after another. He is gone Darren Hughes is about to go and the guy sitting next to him Mark Burton is definitely about to go because KiwiSaver will not work. 
What I find sad is that a week earlier the Australian Budget was read. There for the fifth Budget in a row the Government has delivered tax cuts real meaningful tax cuts to the wage earners of Australia to the extent now that anybody living in Australia—and 1 million New Zealanders are living in Australia—can earn 50 percent more in take-home pay. The two reasons I tell Darren Hughes are that wage rates are higher and now tax rates are significantly lower in Australia. 
What we see now is the KiwiSaver scheme presented to this country and even Treasury says that 50 percent of New Zealanders will not take it up. I want Labour members to acknowledge today in this Committee which 50 percent that is. Low-income New Zealanders cannot afford to take it up and they will reject this scheme. So the ones who will take it up are the higher-income New Zealanders—and by the way they are pretty sensible people who are saving anyway. 
I feel for the people Tony Ryall just spoke about. Those are the people in Otara who are battling away with no support from this Labour Government. The people who went to the polls at the last election were dragged out of their State house probably by the union delegate and made to go and vote. They voted in good faith thinking that Labour would look after them. 
Darren Hughes 
: What did they get in the Working for Families package then? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: And here Darren Hughes refuses to think about them. He is interested only in keeping his seat on the Government side of the Chamber and he has less than 18 months to go before he is out of there and Nathan Guy is sitting in it. That is what will happen to Darren Hughes. 
We see that KiwiSaver is delivering nothing to the people in Otara and Dr Cullen true to form wants to hit them again. He has put in a Budget that gave them nothing in KiwiSaver but gave them a tax increase of 10c on their petrol. I remember sitting in the House in I think February 2002 under extraordinary urgency when that Government drove through a petrol tax of 5c a litre and said then that it was to fix Auckland’s roads. There is already a tax of 5c a litre on petrol and it was put on 5 years ago to fix Auckland’s roads. Dr Cullen put that into his surpluses—massive surpluses. He has not fixed Auckland’s roads he comes to the House with this go and he says he will slam people with another 10c a litre. People will remember that I say to Darren Hughes even if he has forgotten it. 
The real issue in the KiwiSaver scheme is that it encourages people to leave this country. I remember when Don Brash used to say that 500 people a week get on a plane and leave New Zealand to go and live in Australia because it is so much more attractive. I thought that that was a huge figure and I wondered whether it was right. John Key told me the other day it was not right—it is now 700 people. Every week 700 New Zealanders leave because of the Labour Government.