Cosgrove Clayton: Taxation (Depreciation Payment Dates Alignment FBT and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — First Reading 
Cosgrove Clayton: Taxation (Depreciation Payment Dates Alignment FBT and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21217] 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 I have to say that from time to time I have praised that member in Parliament for his motivation for being here. But I have to say that after that display the rubber has now hit the road. I thank Mr Key for verifying the facts for us. He is the Opposition spokesperson on finance who gave a 10-minute speech talked about everything else but the bill and bleated on—as does his leader Dr Brash—about tax cuts. He then told every small business and the commercial sector that National will vote against $1.5 billion worth of tax cuts to small to medium sized businesses. 
It was very apt that that member went to a chicken factory given that we heard on the  
Sunday 
 programme that he had chopped 5000 or 6000 staff and then had the audacity to look down the barrel of a camera and say: “I never cried.” [ 
Interruption 
] He says again that he did not cry. He does not give a rat’s—I will not continue that sentence. It was very apt that the member went to a chicken factory because Opposition members do act like a lot of headless chooks most of the time. Today he has told the commercial sector that the fringe benefit tax reductions depreciation research and development payroll agents and the alignment of provisional tax with GST is all off under a National Government. Under a National Government the $1.5 billion worth of tax reductions for the commercial sector which in fairness the sector has called for for some time will be gone—not by lunchtime but gone today. 
That is a really interesting message especially when we look at the payroll agent issue. I have been around. I know that John Key is a big businessman. Well 85 to 90 percent of the jobs in this economy in this country are created by small to medium sized enterprises with five people or fewer. If we got out of the chicken factory and went around to the small to medium sized enterprises what would they tell us? I used to be a small-business owner many moons ago and I am thankful for that experience. It taught me that if we do not work we do not eat. If we do not get out of bed to run the business we do not get a pay check on Thursday. Unlike that member when he was with whoever he was with—PricewaterhouseCoopers or whichever foreign exchange dealer it was—he could drink his Moet champagne and still get a cheque for his dividend on Thursday. If guys in small businesses with five employees or fewer take their eye off the ball they lose. 
If we asked most people in this country why they thought businesses go broke they would say it is because they do not make any money. That is not true. Most businesses and I remember this go bust because they cannot manage their cash flow. So what does this bill intend to do? It intends to drop compliance costs. The payroll agent one is very very interesting. We say that a business with five employees can hire a payroll agent and the State will pay. The business just writes a cheque for child support for the student loan for all those bits and pieces and the payroll agent deals with the paperwork. This legislation says to the small-business person that he or she will get to spend more time behind the counter growing his or her business and less time behind the desk—or less time that his or her partner normally has to spend behind the desk—doing the paperwork the wage bill the compliance costs. But oh no the big fellow over there is the man who does not cry when he sacks people; the man who says that there will be no job losses under a National Government that he will not be cutting expenditure—that he will not be cutting expenditure on health or education. Yeah right! 
On the next Tui billboard will John Key have a heart? Yeah right! He is the man who does not cry! He has told every small business today that the rug is being pulled out from under them. He says that he wants tax cuts all right but he wants them for the ones who earn the most. If Mr Key visited small businesses he would find that a lot of them are not rich a lot of them are middle earners. A lot of small-business owners of engineering firms in my electorate are working their guts out every day to ensure that their cash flow is met to grow their businesses. They say that they want a break. But will John Key’s tax cut package do anything for the small to medium sized firms in my electorate or around the country? They will do zip; nothing. Let us refresh ourselves about that. 
John Key is offering to get rid of this bill which aligns provisional tax with GST. This is very important. Why? Most small businesses when they are trying to gather the money for their provisional tax of course have two strategies for the three times a year that it is due. One is that they squirrel it away in the bank every week and it just becomes dead money that they are too scared to use because they know that the big mountain of provisional tax is on the way. Most of them run around in desperation the week before provisional tax is due trying to scrape up the money to pay the bill. The big peak and the big trough of provisional tax hammers the cash flow of small to medium sized enterprises. So what do we say? We say very simply let us align provisional tax with GST payments and let us flatten out the peaks and troughs so that small-business owners can manage their cash flow better. 
What is wrong with that? I would have thought that Mr Key the commercial genius who got a damn good education from Burnside High School would say that that is not a bad idea and would support it. But oh no he has forgotten his roots. When was the last time he walked into a small business or ran a small business? I know that he is a corporate high-flyer and I respect that. He is a man of talent. But he should get out of his ivory tower and visit the odd engineering firm the odd small to medium sized enterprise and the small businesses that are the lifeblood of our economy. I do not mean the foreign exchange traders. Ninety-five percent of jobs are provided by small to medium sized enterprises. He should talk to them because I have. They like the idea that we will align provisional tax with GST. They like the idea that somebody else can take over the burden of paying their staff. They just write the cheque. Somebody else can do the accident compensation childcare student loan and PAYE so that they can get back behind the counter and grow their business. 
I think they are good moves. They like the fact that we are moving on fringe benefit tax that we are moving on research and development and that we are moving on depreciation. But what we know today is that small to medium sized business has been sold out by John Key to the tune of $1.5 billion but those on his salary or Dr Brash’s salary or my salary will get a nice Christmas present—so he says! For the likes of us it will be 300 or 400 bucks more a week. But what will people on $32000 or $38000 a year—like many small-business people and sole traders—get out of Mr Key? We will wait and see! They will get absolutely zero. 
As I go around my electorate I relish the debate over tax in respect of small to medium sized enterprises. I worked in that sector. I owned a small to medium sized enterprise a very small one but it taught me this: “You don’t work you don’t eat.”; and: “If you don’t manage your cash flow if you take your eye off the ball if you get buried in the paperwork then your business suffers.” So this bill attempts to provide some assistance to that commercial sector—indeed some of the ideas came out of the sector. I will relish seeing Mr Key stand up and reinforce that he will provide a tax cut for the wealthy. But what will he do for the job creators of 95 percent of our jobs? Will it be $1.5 billion worth of tax cuts? No those people are out the door; they are not going to be supported. 
I would like to hear him say why he will not support aligning provisional tax with GST. I would like to hear why he will not support the subsidising of payroll agents for small to medium sized enterprises. Because we have not heard a lot from Mr Key since the Budget. He said to the Governor of the Reserve Bank today at the Finance and Expenditure Committee that National would provide an alternative budget pre-election—he nods so they will—and a tax cut policy. I wait to see that! Will he put up his tax policy to Treasury’s independent consultants which he voted for originally when the select committee put the proposition up to cost the tax policies of all political parties? He voted for it because he was asleep but Don Brash kicked him and he came back and protested. The Greens have put up their policy and even ACT has put up its policy to be costed; New Zealand First did not and that should tell us something; United Future did and of course ours is out there as a Government. 
Why will a man who is so proud of his alternative budget and his tax policy not put it up to be costed? I tell the House: there is a secret in there! It is a ticking time bomb for every small business and every person who is not on the salary of John Key and does not have his dividend stream coming in the back door. They get absolutely nothing. So when he puts up his alternative budget and when we finally see the unveiling of this wonderful tax policy that he is going to come out with but we will all be holding our breath as most New Zealanders will I challenge him like the other parties of the Finance and Expenditure Committee to put it up to the independent financial consultants for a costing. They can tell us even if he will not—“Jack the Axe” the man who does not cry—which sectors of our community and our society are going to have the axe put into them. Because he will not tell us but the people of New Zealand will judge. I will join him on the stump any time to debate that one.