Woods Megan: Taxation (Annual Rates Foreign Superannuation and Remedial Matters) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoods Megan: Taxation (Annual Rates Foreign Superannuation and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 18 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15996. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is my pleasure to take a call on the Taxation (Annual Rates Foreign Superannuation and Remedial Matters) Bill and discuss Part 1 of this legislation which does refer to the annual income tax rates. The contribution that we have just heard from the opposite member Paul Goldsmith the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee showed that there can be no greater evidence about how out of touch this Government is about the lived reality of everyday New Zealanders. We had that member herald the great tax contribution that this Government has made in terms of the great tax switch.Well actually for many New Zealand families this was the great tax swindle. What it meant was that New Zealand borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars in order to give some of the highest-earning New Zealanders tax cuts. Where did this leave everyday New Zealanders trying to make ends meet? Well it left them struggling and the fact that that member can stand up and give the speech that he gave shows the arrogance and how out of touch this Government has become. It does not know what it is like for families who cannot put food on the table who cannot afford to pay their rent and who certainly cannot afford to heat their houses. In my electorate there are houses that have been registered at 9 degrees Celsius overnight in winter with 90 percent humidity. Those people have not benefited from National’s borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to give tax cuts to some of the highest-earning New Zealanders. This has done nothing to benefit them.We have had from the member who just spoke a recitation of trickle-down economics. He told us that this was going to flow through to ordinary New Zealanders but it has not happened. Members on this side of the Chamber could give you case after case which are sitting on our desks in our offices where we are trying to find some way forward for families who simply cannot make ends meet. For members opposite to claim that this was an achievement of their Government just shows how badly wrong they have gone.As my colleague Dr Clark has talked about not only does this bill not do anything to address the great tax swindle that this Government has pulled on the people of New Zealand but also it completely misses the mark in not having any pro-growth tax policies. My colleague Dr Clark talked about how we actually could have had something that would see our economy be transformed through the introduction of a capital gains tax. But is this Government bold enough? Is this Government brave enough to actually do something that will transform our economy or does it just want to give income tax cuts to the highest-earning New Zealanders? There is a recipe for a growth economy!This bill does nothing to do anything innovative like putting in place research and development tax credits for companies that are there on the cutting edge which are creating the wealth creating the jobs and creating the higher-paying jobs that if the proper skills training is put with it actually could see some of the families in our electorates that we deal with have a better life. But there is nothing in this bill that does that. This is not a tax bill that has anything about sharing the fruits of any recovery that we are seeing fairly it does nothing to set aside the unfair tax structure that thisGovernment put in place and it certainly has nothing that speaks anywhere about having a fair kind of New Zealand where everybody can have opportunity.I look forward to further calls from members of the Government to tell us how their tax policies and the tax that is contained in this bill are going to make life for everyday New Zealanders better. I look forward to members of the Government telling my constituents in Wigram how they are going to pay their power bill this winter and how they are going to pay their rents which they simply cannot afford. I look forward to members of the Government telling my constituents and people all around New Zealand just how they are going to make ends meet because there certainly is not anything in this bill that tells us how to do that.My colleague Raymond Huo has talked about how this bill has lingered on the Order Paper for so long. It simply is another case of this Government not getting legislation before the House in a timely manner to such an extent that we actually have to have a ministerial Supplementary Order Paper revising the implementation date because it has been sitting around gathering dust for so long. Thank you.