Carter David: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Carter David: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:16272] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 National will vote enthusiastically for this legislation because National like the rest of New Zealand has waited 9 long years for the chance to vote for personal tax cuts. If we listen to the contributions from the Labour members starting with Dr Cullen’s we realise Dr Cullen could hardly bring himself to support his own legislation. He spent 10 minutes in the House giving every reason possible why he should not be delivering tax cuts and acknowledged in his own contribution that we have moved into urgency tonight to pass the legislation before he wakes up tomorrow morning and changes his mind as he did in 2005. He said himself he could not be trusted to deliver these tax cuts unless they were enshrined in legislation immediately after the Budget that was read earlier. 
The Labour members fundamentally do not want to do this tonight; they do not believe in these tax cuts. They have spent 9 years being philosophically opposed to tax cuts and they are bringing them in for only one reason: it is a cynical arrogant attempt to buy the votes they will need at the next election in order to get back to the Treasury benches. Tim Barnett nods his head and agrees. It will not work because $16 is not enough; $16 is not enough to address the suffering that most New Zealand households are under. 
The pressure that households are under may not be recognised by the Labour members as they drive their BMWs around and as they hand over their credit cards supplied by the taxpayer to the fuel attendant when they fill up their cars—they probably do not even realise that petrol has reached $2 a litre tonight. Coupled with that sort of pressure is the fact that every time any mum goes into the supermarket to fill up the shopping basket the price of food goes up—it goes up every week. In addition to that interest rates have doubled because of the reckless inflationary spending we have had from the Labour Government. That is why people are under pressure and that is why tonight on TV every commentary I have seen is saying that the tax cuts are too little too late. 
The Government has had 9 years to do something about the tax rates and as Mr Mallard the Associate Minister of Finance knows it is with the greatest amount of reluctance that it has brought in a tax package today that has delivered on average $16 a week—the price of two blocks of cheese. But let us wait for it; people will get the tax cut 2 weeks before the election. And then Mr Cullen talks about a programme of tax cuts! When is the next one? There is nothing for another 18 months. That is not a credible tax reduction policy and it will not wash with the electors as we move towards the election. Media commentary has summed the situation up tonight. Commentators have consistently said that Mr Cullen has now delivered his last Budget; it has been called his “valedictory Budget” on TV tonight and that is a fact. He had every opportunity to address the tax package issue in this country and he has not taken the opportunity to do that. 
I want to conclude by saying I was pleased to see one very good thing in this Budget. It is the fact that superannuitants have been recognised as a group that is under extreme pressure; they will benefit from the tax cuts. But for Helen Clark to go on TV tonight and to say in the House today that the Government has increased superannuation in recognition of that pressure is a con. Superannuitants would do better simply because of tax cuts. If we had had a tax cut programme over the last 8 or 9 years which the surpluses would have allowed we would have been able to deliver substantial payments to superannuitants now. Superannuitants will not buy it I say to Mr Mallard. They will not buy it that they have been generously given a break tonight which they will receive 2 weeks before the election because they know that that opportunity was denied to them for years. Mr Mallard you had your chance to deliver tax cuts— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: You are philosophically opposed to them. You have had your chance. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Mr Mallard and the Government are doing it tonight for one thing and that is to try to get hold of the next election. It will not wash with New Zealanders; they are wide awake to what his Government is up to I say to Mr Mallard. It will not wash and it will not help him in the polls. 
Bill read a first time.