Cunliffe David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cunliffe David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8719. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 Being lectured to by that member Paul Hutchison is like being savaged by a poodle. Here is what the public knows about: Skycity Warner Bros MediaWorks Banksie and Dotcom the Government Communications Security Bureau and the FBI Solid Energy ultra-fast broadband car-park taxes and iPad taxes. What a nightmare. What a nightmare. And what does it add up to? Hands-on? No way. It is the worst economic record in 51 years—51 years. There is 6.9 percent unemployment 270000 New Zealanders out of jobs and the biggest international debt in the Western World—worse than Greece. And we had the singular pleasure of being lectured to on financial probity and truth-telling by John Banks. That is like being lectured to on social graces by Jack the Ripper as my colleague Mr Hipkins has said. Who broke the law Mr Banks? Who forgot about the helicopter ride and the reported free iPad? What about the birthday party for Kim Dotcom that John Banks attended? What about the money in the brown paper bag? Let us talk about that Mr Banks if you can be bothered coming back to face the music. 
Credit where credit is due. Let us be fair. I want to give some credit today to the National Party backbench. Look at them. It is tough work. They are the “back-down benchers”. They have had to back down twice this week already to cover for the back-down Minister of Revenue “Peter Dunne-like-a-Dinner”. Two strikes and he is nearly out; one more and he is “Done Dunne”. On the car-park tax the back-down was inevitable because the tax made no financial sense. It cost $2 in compliance costs for every $1 worth of revenue it collected. How did that one get across the Cabinet table? That is what the “back-down benchers” want to know. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: They were hands-off. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: They were hands-off. They had no hands on the wheel on that one. It was a red tape nightmare. 
What about the iPad tax? The Government did not even cost that one. Or the cellphone tax where it would have to account to the Inland Revenue Department for all its phone calls? These are 1980s ideas being foisted on a 21st century generation. What are the mums and dads who are ferrying their kids around while answering emails from the office going to say to the “back-down benchers”? Thank God they say that John Key killed it. Well he damned near killed his own Minister of Revenue because he announced that the taxes were dead as he walked into the House yesterday. But he had not told the Minister so he blindsided Peter Dunne right before question time. The “back-down benchers” have got their eyes on that National - United Future coalition agreement. It is supposed to have things like confidentiality and collective responsibility in it. But there was Mr Dunne defending the car-park tax in the  
New Zealand Herald  
while the Prime Minister was on the radio at the same time rubbishing his own Minister’s policy. 
I would not want to be a United Future member because I am a proud member of the New Zealand Labour Party—a party that stands for step change not small change. It is the party that is going to bring New Zealand a modern tax system with a capital gains tax and research and development tax incentives. It is going to close some major avoidance loopholes and it is going to get the country moving. We are going to be a hands-on Government. We are going to stand for step change not small change and those “back-down benchers” are going to enjoy their comfy cosy little seats for about another 18 months before they are off to the wilds of Opposition. They see the glimmer of ministerial office fading away—fading away from the “back-down benchers”. Look at them. There are the Ministers off in their LTDs and there are the “back-down benchers” eating gruel on the back rows over there having to be beaten to a pulp by the Labour Party yet again while the public counts the score. And what the public knows is that it is like a rotting carcass on the body politic. 
This Government is on its way out. When we do the rounds of corporate New Zealand we are getting the same message all the time which is: “It’s time we got to know you guys because we know that you are going to be the Government in 18 months’ time.” This Government is at best a two-term Government—if it lasts that long—and New Zealanders know that it is going to be a Labour-led Government that takes New Zealand into the future.