Newman Muriel: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill Immigration Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third Readings 
Newman Muriel: Customs and Excise Amendment Bill Immigration Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third Readings 
[Volume:618;Page:13834] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise to speak on behalf of the ACT party in these third readings of the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill and the Immigration Amendment Bill (No 3). This debate is actually about the proper role of Government: what sorts of things Governments should do and what they should not do. I think every member certainly of the Opposition would see that a core role of Government is its responsibility in national and international security—that New Zealanders have a right to feel safe in their homes and on their streets and that they have a right to feel safe from any form of international threat. So when we have legislation such as these bills before us common sense tells us that it is yet another strategy of a Government trying to keep New Zealanders safe. 
As we have heard in this debate people saw the events of September 11 and were very worried about them. They have seen the developments in international terrorism since then. Here in New Zealand we have seen the increase in illegal drugs coming across our borders. We have seen the problems we have with people-smuggling and so on so we are aware of the fact that we need to have good border security. But what we do not expect is for this Government to try to pretend that border security is not its responsibility. 
That is the outrageous thing about the way this Labour Government is governing New Zealand. It seems to think that national and international security is not its responsibility as a public good. Well I have to say to the members sitting opposite that in fact it is their core responsibility and that it should be paid for out of the taxes they take from hard-working New Zealanders. The reality is that right now we all know that Labour has taken way too much tax from those hard-working New Zealanders because the Government is sitting on a surplus of some $6 billion—one of the largest surpluses that we have seen. Yet here is the Government quibbling over whether or not it expects exporters importers and other people associated with trade and travel to pick up the cost of improved border security. I think it is an absolute outrage that we have to be worrying about that particular issue as we talk about this legislation. 
Labour has managed to alienate so many parties in the Opposition that parties believing in good border security and the need to increase and ramp up the security we offer—parties like ours—have to vote against this bill because it is such poor legislation and reflects such an ill-advised way that the Government is trying to run this country. 
If we think about it national security is all about our police our defence forces and our border security. I suppose that in the next minute we will have the Minister of Police putting in legislation so that if the police come to help or rescue us we will get a bill. Is that what Labour is planning? What about the defence forces? Will we have to pay more taxes on top of our normal taxes for anything to do with what our defence forces do? We all know that that is absolutely ridiculous. I am not so sure with this Government but we do give it the benefit of the doubt. We do not think it is plotting or planning anything like that at all so why on earth is it trying to do that with this border security issue? Why on earth is it even thinking about trying to tax people more to pay for border security that is in the best interest of every single New Zealander? It simply does not make sense. 
The problems are clauses 7B and 8C the cost recovery clauses in the Customs and Excise Amendment Bill. Because it is a cost recovery issue I would like to ask the Government and the Minister in particular the total cost of all those border security measures. I understand that the Government Administration Committee asked that question and the Minister could not answer. Here we have an even more stupid situation where a Government is passing laws when it does not even know how much the legislation will cost. One has to ask: how dumb is that? Normally if we are going to do something we know how much it will cost so that we know if it is affordable and whether we put the Rolls Royce version in or something a little more modest. But here we have a Government charging on and it does not care. No. 1: it is taxpayers’ money. OK but No. 2 is that the Government is going to try to put another tax on a whole bunch of New Zealanders in order to pay that cost which is apparently unlimited because the Government does not even know how much it is. 
The measure has been labelled a “terrorist tax” by some of the sectors that will be involved. I understand that exporters are expected to pay some $4 million importers some $4 million and those involved in trans-shipping of goods will have to pay some $8 million. That is all very well but we all know that it is not just those people who have to pay; it is every New Zealander. It is consumers who will have to pay because some of those industries are so stretched right now by all the other regulations and taxes this Government has imposed on the small business sector that they will have no other way of dealing with the cost except to pass it on. 
I saw the Minister of Tourism come out on Monday with some half-baked press release based on how he was accusing restaurants and other industries that had tried to open on Easter Sunday of putting a 15 percent surcharge on their prices. He said that that was outrageous. Well how—gosh words almost fail me—irresponsible is it for a Minister to say: “It’s their fault.” when it was his Government that imposed those extra costs on small businesses in the first place? The whole point about Governments imposing costs on small businesses is that they will try to absorb certain of those costs because obviously it is not good for their businesses if they have to put costs up. If they cannot afford extra charges then they simply have to put up costs and pass those charges on. 
So while the Minister of Customs responsible for border security may think it is simply exporters importers and trans-shippers who will pay the bulk of the extra charges it is not. It will be the people shopping at The Warehouse. It will be the Labour Party’s own voters who will say: “Goodness me! These prices have gone up. We’re finding it even harder to struggle by on our limited incomes.” And they can blame this Labour Government because it has imposed yet another tax on top of the 23 taxes it has already imposed since it has been in Government—stealth taxes that are being passed on to consumers. Petrol taxes sherry taxes and cigarette taxes—we can name them. Labour has put those taxes on to consumers since it has been in power. 
What is even worse is the $16 million which this Government claims is a lot of money it has to get from somewhere because it cannot fund it out of its Budget surplus. Well I can tell the Government where it can be funded from. All the Government has to do is take the $21 million the Government intends to spend on its propaganda campaign to try to sell its Budget. That campaign is all wrapped up with Labour Party logos and advertising which I believe the Auditor-General will find is illegal. I believe that that issue is being brought back in front of him and if he does not find illegal aspects he should do. No Government in our history as I understand it has spent so much money. It is an absolute disgrace and the Labour Government should be ashamed of itself.