Barry Maggie: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Barry Maggie: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2438. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill which is part of a Budget that I absolutely believe is the correct and right Budget for these times. It is our second zero Budget and it is an effort to lift our economic performance increase the amount of jobs and grow this economy. This is something that we understand very well on this side of the House but is something that does not seem to be at all appreciated by our opponents. The job growth of course will be occurring in a place like Christchurch. We have 17000 alone that are needed quite soon. That is an excellent thing. Also what is excellent about this bill is that Peter Dunne as the Minister of Revenue has meticulously as is his wont gone through all the obsolete old legislation looked at our tax carefully and started to cull and prune to get rid of a whole lot of rubbish. We have heard a whole lot of rubbish from our opponents who seem to be preoccupied with pick-pocketing with the strange things—I seem to think that the man who burst into song from New Zealand First was actually admitting to petty larceny in his early days. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
:  
X Factor 
 failure. 
MAGGIE BARRY 
: Yes well indeed that too. They all seem to sing their way through life. But it is an unedifying spectacle to see this issue taken so lightly.  
Much has been made of paper delivery. I myself was a paper delivery person as was my colleague Mark Mitchell and many others including David Clark. Who amongst us ever filed a tax claim? Nobody—because it is not what kids do. So what the Government is doing is carefully looking at getting rid of the nonsense. We cannot get rid of all the nonsense but what we can do is get rid of the obsolete outrageous and silly things so that our tax system becomes modernised and ensures that tax deductions and tax credits for that matter are being targeted at the areas where they are needed and intended. So that is something we are approaching with rigour.  
Unlike the Opposition we acknowledge that times have changed and with those changes wider Government policies have also changed. So when we look at things like paper delivery boys we look at the fact that the children will certainly not be able to claim that refund of tax that is already being correctly deducted and paid by an employer. So the claim is not needed. These tax credit changes will also be helping to make the Inland Revenue Department much more efficient. I think a lot of people are filing tax returns simply to get these outdated tax credits. This is not needed and is not necessary. Unlike the Opposition we want to get rid of a lot of this chaff and nonsense and concentrate on getting the economy back on track where it belongs.  
The student loan scheme is something that has been talked about quite a bit. By repealing the voluntary repayment bonus we will be saving about $12 million a year. It is well known that we have one of the most generous student loan support systems in the world and we are committed to interest-free student loans but we are determined to reduce that write-off. Since we came into Government we have reduced it from 49c in each dollar down to 45c and we do intend to get it down over time to 40c in the dollar. This Budget the 2012 Budget the right Budget for the times will help in that goal.  
We are going to require graduates and ex-students to pay off their student loans a little earlier. We are doing them a favour—“Get the monkey off your back early before you get into mortgages and kids and all the rest of it.” We are encouraging them to do the right thing. That is what this Government does all the time and that is what previous Governments have failed to do—absolutely woefully.  
So I commend Peter Dunne for his meticulous work. There were a lot of obsolete elements. We are closing the loopholes regarding livestock. Even the farmers admit that they have been getting away with that one for a long time. So unlike the Opposition we do understand that we need moderate growth in this economy and that we do need to reform the tax system and this is an important part of it. Thank you.