Cosgrove Clayton: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 20 May 2010. Volume:663;Page:11171. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 I probably cannot do any better than my colleague Mr Nash in his summation of the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill as the “Broken Promises Bill”. 
H V Ross Robertson 
: Give it a go! 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I will give it a go anyway. We could also call this bill the “Mark Bryers (I Am Getting a Thousands Bucks a Week After I Finish My 75 Hours’ Community Service) Bill” because as I said last night to “The Maestro” who is sitting in the back row over there after Mark Bryers the biggest crook in the Blue Chip scandal has finished his 75 hours’ community service he will get a lovely little letter from John Key—because Mark Bryers earns over a million bucks a year—saying “Thanks do not pass go and do not go to jail. You will get $1000 a week in tax cuts from the Government.” 
David Shearer 
: As a reward. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: As a reward. So we could call the bill the “Mark Bryers (Thanks for Coming) Bill”. We could call it that. We could also reflect on the fact that as Mark Bryers gets his extra thousand dollars a week—because he earns a million dollars a year—all the people on the average wage will be worse off after taking their meagre tax cut flicking on the increase in GST and then being exposed to 5.9 percent inflation. 
Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: What about the “Goodbye Labour 2011 Bill”? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Oh no. You see that member over there the great “Maestro”—the man who did such a wonderful job in the Mt Albert by-election that his name as a tactician is mud—thinks he is so good; I wish I were half as good as he thinks he is. Even in his electorate—what is that member’s electorate; I cannot remember— 
Grant Robertson 
: Northcote. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: —Northcote—about 60 or 70 percent of the people earn below $40000 a year. Therefore with the increase in GST and with 9.5 inflation they will be worse off. The great “Maestro” I am sure will organise one of those wonderful public meetings that he tried to organise in Mt Albert—in a telephone box or a Portaloo. He should collect together the 60 to 70 percent of his electorate who are worse off hold up the bill say it is the “I Broke My Promises Bill” and explain to those of his constituents who remember his name why he broke the promise not to increase GST why he broke the promise on the Superannuation Fund why he comes into the Chamber and says that National members are here to encourage savings when he kicked the living daylights out of KiwiSaver and never told his constituents about it and why he said before the election that National would not borrow for tax cuts yet under the scenario in the Budget documents $240 million per week is being borrowed for 3 years and the financing costs of that will not even start to track down till 2021. I say to the great “Maestro” that those are a couple of political problems that he might want to exercise his mind round given the hopeless job that he did in Mt Albert. 
This bill could be called the “Broken Promises Bill” as my colleague Mr Nash said. People will be reflecting on that tonight. We know that Government members held a big breakfast meeting this morning and we know that they puffed out their chests when they read a few of the headlines. We know that they are going around gloating that a poll on  
Close Up 
 said that 80 percent of the public is positive about the Budget. But I can tell those members that we have all been there after Budgets—we have all been there. We have seen those wonderful polls. The people in our communities will take a little bit of time to work through some of the malarkey that the media put out and some of the spin from the National Government but then they will get out their calculators and they will work out that although the Government has given them a few dollars here the pile of GST receipts on a Friday from the grocery store has gone up a bit. Then they will work out that the price of vegetables the price of meat school fees car insurance—everything—have gone up. The electricity bill has gone up. Education costs have gone up by 5.9 percent. Then they will work out of course—it is called inflation I say to “The Maestro”—that the National Government giveth with one hand and grabbeth all of it back and then some with the other hand. If the great “Maestro” thinks that his constituents are silly and cannot work their calculators— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Open their eyes. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: —if he wants to pull the smokescreen down over their eyes as he has been wont to do from time to time with the odd cigar as we know he is treating those people with disrespect. 
This bill is quite rightly more appropriately called the “Broken Promises Bill”. I will go on to say that if— 
Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: What about the “Clayton Could Be Leader Soon Bill”? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: No no. There is no danger of that—no danger at all I say to the member. But you see— 
Dr Rajen Prasad 
: Take a call. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Well that is a good point actually. Rather than sitting there barracking from the sidelines that member should stand on a street corner in his electorate and hold up a sign that says “I ripped off and sold out 60 to 70 percent of my electorate; what do you reckon?”. He should do that. 
Dr Rajen Prasad 
: Sorry! 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Maybe he could say sorry but he just giggles and laughs. He has Judith Collins-itis. He is grinning away like the Cheshire Cat. But as the weeks and days go by the men and women in this country—the battling families—will examine this bill and see it for what it is. They will examine the fact that it will cost them an extra $25 a week because of the $400 million cut to the funding of early childhood education. The Government has piled that cut on top of the GST increase then it has piled inflation on top of that. And we will not talk about—because it would not be appropriate—the accident compensation scheme levy increases the increase in the cost of car registration and all the other taxes that have been piled up. 
David Shearer 
: Interest rates. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Then as my colleague Mr Shearer says—I say to Jonathan Coleman the great “Maestro” that he is the one who thrashed the living daylights out of his candidate in Mt Albert whom he managed so well—there is that thing called interest rates. Dr Bollard will look through the 2.5 percent increase in GST but he will not be able to look through the added 4 percent that when one makes the calculations makes up the 5.9 percent increase in inflation. What does that mean? Mr Foss said that some members on this side of the Chamber will pay off their mortgages with their tax cut. Well I say to Mr Foss who is an economic genius that I suspect that most New Zealanders—and I am talking about the 20 or 30 percent who are on the top rate or even less who will actually get something—might try to pay down their debts and their mortgages but the vast majority of people will be exposed to an increase in interest rates. 
Craig Foss 
: Phil Goff stated he would use it to pay his mortgage. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I ask the member whether he will go to his constituents and explain that because of the 5.9 percent inflation rate— 
Craig Foss 
: What interest rates—which ones? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Well maybe we should explain the policy targets agreement to that member. Maybe we should explain that the Governor of the Reserve Bank given a 5.9 percent inflation forecast will have to lift interest rates in order to get inflation back within the target range. But Mr Foss says that Dr Bollard is wrong. Everybody is wrong except for Mr Foss. [ 
Interruption 
] The Chairman is not wrong. I would never say that the Chairman is wrong; he is the Chairman. If we add up the mortgage interest the increase in inflation the adjustment to the cost of living and the increase in GST— 
Craig Foss 
: Why are you reviewing monetary policy if Dr Bollard is wrong? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Oh those members are very vocal now but I say to Mr Foss that if he is so vocal he should hold a public meeting. He should hold a public meeting. But oh no he laughs; he will not front up to his constituents. If he is so good and has such a gift of the gab then he should take this bill which we are calling the “Broken Promises Bill” and have a public meeting on it in his patch. He should fill the hall with people who fall in the various tax brackets that he has put in place in the legislation and let them hear an explanation. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: And in Nelson. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Oh yes goodness gracious I forgot about the Minister for ACC whose electorate is Nelson. Let us look at Nelson because Nelson is interesting. In Nelson which is Nick Smith’s electorate 76 percent of people earn under $40000 a year—76 percent. After he parks his little car at Nelson Airport and rolls into Nelson Airport I wager that one or two people on the aircraft might ask him: “Dr Smith you are our MP. Why am I worse off?” because they will be one or two of the 76 percent of his electorate who are worse off thanks to that member and his Government. But oh no Nick will not front up to his constituents. This bill is the “Broken Promises Bill” so I challenge that member to hold a public meeting. He should ring up people get some of the 76 percent of his electorate who earn under $40000— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: They’re better off. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: No they are not. Just as Mr Nick Smith cannot do the calculations on accident compensation he cannot do a decent tax calculation. I say to him that he should hold public meetings. We will be there. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: It’s his last term. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: It is his last term all right. We will be there. If National members do not give explanations then we are quite happy to do that on their behalf. As we speak 76 percent of Nelsonians will be worse off when this legislation commences thanks to that member. The Government’s tax calculator does not factor in inflation.