te Heuheu Georgina: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Taxation (Personal Tax Cuts Annual Rates and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:16327] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 In speaking to the title of this bill I ask whether the title should be the “Last Chance Saloon (Tax Reduction) Bill”?. That title would suit the bill better particularly given the cartoon on the front of the  
Dominon 
 Post  
this morning entitled “Last Chance Saloon” 
  
because that is about all it is. This is the last chance saloon and the New Zealand public have closed the door on that Government and do members wonder that they have done that? No absolutely not. 
For 9 years Dr Cullen has sat on that side of the Chamber and enjoyed all the perks of Government and he has actually treated his fellow citizens with absolute disdain. I say shame on him shame on Helen Clark and shame on the Labour Government. Arguably the people he is trying to help now are the people who for years and years have given that Government their support and that includes Maori. It would not be so bad if Parekura Horomia had come forward with something directly for Maori but the most he had in his announcement yesterday was $40.5 million for the Earth Building Association of New Zealand a new Maori incorporation—but with no money voted for it and no appropriation and Shane Jones might like to answer that but he will not. There was no money appropriated to it just money to be set aside. So if one takes that out there is absolutely nothing in the Budget for Maori. 
If one thinks about the $12 a week that most of the working Maori families are going to get I ask Dr Cullen where that is going to go. Why does he not take a call and tell us how that helps our struggling families—all New Zealanders who are struggling but particularly Maori families on low wages. After 9 years he is basically giving them $12 which will not buy even a block of cheese. Again it is a shameful tenure and a shameful stewardship by a Government that has enjoyed the support of those very people for 9 years and previously but who will not have it this time. The number of people who say to me and I am sure they say it to all my colleagues: “I’ve voted Labour for years and years but I won’t be doing that again.” is why this bill should be called the “Last Chance Saloon Tax Bill” because actually the chances have gone. They have absolutely run out. 
When one thinks about the Minister of Foreign Affairs saying he is going to “flashen up” all the overseas posts and stuff it sounds good but what about his people up north? What is in this Budget for them? There is absolutely nothing because a lot of them are not working they are unemployed they are on benefits and they are struggling. There is nothing in this Budget for them. Working for Families does not even impact on them— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: What about the old people? 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: OK there is help for a few of our old people which is good and I do not for a minute begrudge help for our elderly. They deserve it. It was on their backs that this country was built and it is on the backs of members of the Labour Government that this country is now broken. Labour members have the gall after 9 years on those benches to bring tax cuts which we know that Dr Cullen hates. If he had believed in tax cuts he would have brought them in long ago in 2003-04. We had good economic conditions then. Now when the economy is in a slump in a downturn he brings the tax cuts forward. So what will that do? It will leave a mess for National because that is what Labour always does. That is what it absolutely does it leaves a mess for National and we always have to spend the first few years of our stewardship fixing up the mess. That is what we will be doing shortly. 
I suppose if there is a party that is capable of fixing up the mess it has to be the National Party. It is only the National Party that can fix and manage the mess that Labour Governments always leave the country in when they go out of power. That group of MPs over there is gone.