McNair Craig: Taxation (Base Maintenance  and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
McNair Craig: Taxation (Base Maintenance  and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:626;Page:21459] 
CRAIG McNAIR (NZ First) 
: 
 In speaking again in the Committee stage I just want to raise a few points that some members have referred to concerning what my colleague Peter Brown and I have said on the issues raised in this bill. 
First of all I say to Mr Copeland who said that he had never heard New Zealand First advocate a tax reduction that for a long time even since before the last election New Zealand First has constantly talked about tax reductions. That has been in our policy for many years and we have talked about it in exactly the way Peter Brown talked about it in his speech. New Zealand First believes that once we prioritise our economic and social spending we should look at a reduction in tax. That is what Mr Brown said and we stand by that statement. Our policy even states: “following the achievement of intermediate growth goals and focused social expenditure aim to reduce personal income tax levels;”. That is pretty simple and clear and we stand by it. 
Marc Alexander 
: You are down to one finger now. 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: Well it is all right for “Mr 2 Percent” over there to be talking about a one-finger campaign but the fact is we are campaigning on the right issues and the people of New Zealand seem to be happy with the direction we are going in. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. The member cannot refer to somebody as “Mr 2 Percent”. The member must refer to other members by their full name but in his speech the member called the member from United Future “Mr 2 Percent”. I do not know of any member in the Chamber whose name is “Mr 2 Percent”. I think the member should stand withdraw that comment and apologise to the member. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Thank you for raising that. All members know that if they are referring to any other member in this Chamber they are to use the member’s full name and if a member is referring to a party the member is to refer to it correctly. But the member may not have been referring to anyone at all. 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: Our other policy concerning taxation is: “Upon achieving short term growth goals aim to reduce corporate taxation beginning with a 20% tax rate for ‘new exports’ net income;”. So the question that I come to as far as this taxation bill is concerned is where is the vision in this bill. I ask where the vision is for this Government to be taking our country down the track of high expenditure with the growing numbers of civil servants increasing the State sector by 38000—as was just commented on. Where is this Government’s vision as far as taxation is concerned? As Mr Tisch has just said it is 67c in 3 years. We in New Zealand First say that is a stick of gum in 3 years. 
Another issue that I want to speak about briefly is what the Associate Minister of Revenue was saying—rightly so—just a few moments ago about banks paying the appropriate amount of tax. He was very passionate on that issue. I am glad to see that he was passionate on that issue but New Zealand First is asking why the Government was not passionate on that issue 7 or 8 years ago when we started raising it. The fact is we are approaching an election and it just seems too coincidental that this Government is bringing this bill in under urgency in this way. We say it is incredibly ironic and the fact is New Zealand First has been passionate about this issue for the last 7 or 8 years. The Minister was very passionate on the issue and I was very impressed with how passionate he was but the fact is the Government has berated New Zealand First for many many years while we year in year out and month in month out have spoken against banks doing that. 
We have suggested different ways that we can stop those banks wriggling their way out of paying their taxes. I remember talking to an official when we were going through this bill. I asked him whether he thought that this bill would be it and that the banks would put their hands up in surrender and say: “OK we’ll just start paying the appropriate amount of tax.” He said they would try to find new ways to avoid paying tax.