Jones Shane: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
Jones Shane: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9423] 
SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 It is an absolute pleasure to stand again and applaud the work that Dr Cullen has done. I look forward to the Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill being referred to the committee that I chair the Finance and Expenditure Committee. I have no doubt that after the hyperbole and after irrelevant flights into economic fantasy have faded away from the walls of this House my friends on the other side of the Chamber will see there is much of great worth in this bill and they will ensure that the select committee delivers the finest product it is capable of delivering for the benefit of Aotearoa. 
We have just heard from that person Mr Foss who is colloquially known as “Granny Smith”. He makes the point that workers are not getting a decent or reasonable level of recompense yet when he had the chance to vote to support an increase in their wages the hand above his slightly balding head was the first one we saw opposing it. So one cannot have it both ways—no. But I am prepared to make allowances because that speech reminded me of a third-former in the biology lab pulling off the legs of a great big taniwha. The taniwha is the public and the more he pulls the legs the more the public will demand to know what the newish guys on the other side of the House stand for. What are their remedies? 
We do not want to hear stories about flash levels of incomes from money-changing rooms. We do not want any more tedious renditions of trade discussions which have long since put listeners out there in Aotearoa to sleep. We want a clear distillation of what it is that they propose to do to address the three things that this Budget takes care of. 
No. 1 is the savings deficit. No. 2 is the ongoing investment in physical and human capital. When people do not possess either a vision or a coherent set of ideas that might comprise something of a narrative they are reduced to looking through the ever-diminishing eye of an needle—which is actually like a scratched record in terms of how National members speak. They see nothing. They see only these tiny little parts of the story. That is not what the public is looking for which is why I took a phone call before I came back to the House. Someone asked me: “Shane Jones is it true at long last that the tax system is going to actually improve the savings of our mokopuna and our kids?”. I said: “Absolutely.” He asked: “And do you mean to say the firms of Kaitaia Whangarei Auckland Hamilton—[ 
Interruption 
]—and even of Epsom—are going to wake up tomorrow with lower tax rates and are going to receive a host of incentives? Is this what we are going to receive Shane?”. I said to him: “At least. And the next time you go to catch a cab and you find National guys elbowing you out of the way as they race to the cab in front of you ask them what it is they are proposing to do.” 
I said a rather charitable thing about John Key before but there is an additional thing I will say about him. We have watched the Opposition—like a team that loses to NgatiPorou East Coast—try to come on to the field and play against a far more match-fit superior and stronger team. At least this time the Opposition has put someone on the field who in order to win is prepared to completely disrobe and to grab his opposition’s clothes: he is trying to avoid being hit by us through pinching our ideas. So now we know that strategy. 
But the reality is that we will fight anyone who wants to stand in our way because without a sliver of ambiguity this bill is what we stand for. This bill is what we will take to every firm community and household. We will say to them that stand or fall ebb or flow this is where they will find the Labour-led Government standing for the next 12 months. We will be able to say: “OK adversarialism is very strong but why would you want to deny the firms investors and entrepreneurs the opportunity to grow businesses through some very sensible and progressive tax changes?”. I accept—as Bill English said—that there is a certain amount of adversarialism but this actually shows that the Maori proverb is correct—kei runga te korero kei raro te rahurahu; the lips are saying something but the rest of the anatomy is doing the opposite. That is what this rhetoric shows—make no mistake about that. 
Of course with this bill not only have we gone on with our social investment and been committed to raising and enriching our sense of identity but we have very much focused on an issue that will stand as the legacy of our treasurer—the day that we boldly agreed to put aside the gains that are currently available and inject them into a future focus strategy. That takes a lot of courage and boldness. I will tell members something else. We did not succumb to the flirtatiousness which we see on the other side of the House in promising people that they will spread goods like confetti as at a false wedding. What will that confetti give them? A momentary fix. Yet what people are really telling us is: “OK you’ve invested in social capital; the health services housing and other key elements of the socially progressive State are intact. Now you are coming back to address those issues that lie in private enterprise.” In fact I can see us possibly having to sell tickets as firms race to address our select committee. I look forward to what will be in the Budget next year because ours is a step-by-step approach. 
I omitted something in my earlier speech and it relates to what we are doing in Maori matters. I heard Dr Pita Sharples make yet another foolish statement—as he sought to do last week over Treaty matters. I say to Mr Parekura Horomia that if there was ever a reason why we need to invest more in numeracy and literacy then Dr Sharples evidenced it this evening on television. He said that no there was nothing distinctive for Maori in the Budget. Well Maori will be big winners in the KiwiSaver scheme. At the moment far too many of our people die before they actually gain access to superannuation. I remember Sir Graham Latimer saying that it is actually a case of equity. So many of our people do not live long enough to enjoy the pension in their latter years. The KiwiSaver scheme will enable them to address that problem. Secondly the KiwiSaver scheme will allow them to improve homeownership stakes. You see not everything needs to wear either a moko or a korowai in order for the scheme to be useful to Maori. Maori are an integral part of the rank and file and within the full meaning and breadth of the term “Aotearoa”. 
We are going to expedite the settlement of claims despite the best efforts of the Maori Party to spread misinformation and confuse people. Fortunately for people that confusion will last only 18 more months; then it will be all over. That party will go the way of Tuku Morgan Tau Henare—and just wander around. Of course that party is losing enormous amounts of support at the moment. Its members are holding emergency meetings up and down the country on marae where they meet with the caretaker and a couple of stray animals but those days will soon be disappearing. 
Just to show how wide and how insightful our investment in education is we are going to invest in kura kaupapa wharekura and wananga. Of course National does not believe in wananga—no. Bill English tried to have his mock press interview with Don Brash ambushed by National Party members from the Te Wananga o Aotearoa. They had to go in and participate in a mihi but they were actually there to pour scorn on the wananga. They went to a mihi but they had to ring up the Maori Language Commission to get a translation over the phone. No we are not having any more of that. We are investing in wananga kura kaupapa and wharekura and despite the politics of discord that unfortunately for Aotearoa have been poured out throughout the country over the last few years we have moved on beyond that. 
Of course the great puzzle for Maori voters is why our friends from the Maori Party are busily conjuring up policy with National wandering around trying to meet with NgaiTahu and Tainui to buy out relativity clauses and at the same time saying that the State is spending too much money. Therein lies the tragedy of what these two groups put out together—one is locked in victimhood; the other is locked in falsehood. Goodnight Irene; kia ora tatou.