Dalziel Lianne: General Debate 
Dalziel Lianne: General Debate 
[Volume:646;Page:15278] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Minister of Commerce) 
: 
 I think it is a bit rich for National to mention climate change in a climate where its own individual party members are not willing to say where they stand on the issue. When asked about climate change at the Automobile Association’s annual meeting last week Maurice Williamson refused to answer saying he wanted to stay a member of the National Party. I think that Guyon Espiner got it absolutely right on television when he stated “Politically the problem for National is that this is another case of its MPs struggling to say where they actually stand. We have seen it on things like retaining state assets and on retaining the nuclear-free policy. We know there are quite a few of their MPs who don’t like those policies but they fear if they don’t sign up to them then they are not actually ever going to be elected.” I totally agree with that statement. There is no principle standing behind National when its members make statements like that. 
I am very proud to be able to stand in this Parliament the day after so many more of this Labour-led Government’s great policies came into effect. As Minister of Commerce I am very pleased to see the headline corporate tax rate fall from 33c to 30c in the dollar. This brings the headline rate in line with other jurisdictions. I know that those jurisdictions have other imposts on business that we do not have but saying that the tax cut is now matched across the Tasman at the headline rate has been very well received by the corporate sector. I am surprised that the National Party does not support the reduction of the corporate rate. But never mind—we are not looking for consistency across the House any more. 
Probably more significant though is the research and development tax credit of 15 percent. It was a Labour-led Government I remind the House that resolved the barriers to deductibility for research and development in the first place. I think it was in 2002 that the new rules took effect. That was certainly very warmly welcomed by industry. But as Dr Cullen pointed out at question time today—and it was something that I saw Simon Power finally cotton on to—in order to enjoy the benefit of tax cuts people actually have to be paying tax. Therefore fixing the barriers to deductibility is not enough to actually get the sea change that we need in investment and innovation in this country. That is what the tax credits are designed to do and they have been welcomed from one end of the country to the other. Again that is why it is absolutely beyond my comprehension that National voted against the tax credits for research and development. 
With a projected cost of $630 million over the next 4 years this tax credit will bring about that sea change in investment and innovation and I welcome it as Minister of Commerce. We are anticipating that 2500 firms will benefit from this. When we add to this the Fast Forward package that was announced as well it means some real advances will be made in our primary production sector in respect of research and development. I was surprised that the National Party put its line in the sand over that issue. Its members said that National would not invest in Fast Forward or in research and development in the primary production sector. Poor old Eric Roy had to go down and explain that to the farmers in his area. But that is fine—we are not looking for consistency across the House as I said before. 
What about the workers? The minimum wage went up to $12 an hour yesterday. That is a $5 per hour increase since we came into Government. Every year the rate has increased under Labour. How much did it go up under National? It went up 87c in 9 long years. The minimum wage went up 87c. The other thing is that 18 and 19-year-olds were paid a youth rate under the former National Government but not under a Labour-led Government—we dropped the youth rate provision and in fact just recently dropped the youth rate provision altogether. The freezing of the minimum wage and the introduction of the Employment Contracts Act were deliberately designed to lower wages in this country and they worked. When did the huge differential occur between New Zealand and Australian rates of pay which the leader of the National Party uses as the justification for his concerns about people leaving New Zealand? It happened in the 1990s. It was a deliberate policy of the National Party—and we are still not looking for consistency across the House.