Bridges Simon: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Bridges Simon: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:663;Page:11118] 
SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) 
: 
 This Budget and this bill are about tax cuts for the many. This is the people’s Budget and I think that is why Labour members do not like it. That is why they are angry. Actually I think they were a bit embarrassed when their leader was speaking this afternoon. Labour members had come to the Chamber prepared for a Budget that was about tax cuts for the rich; that is what they thought they were getting. They had done all their sums and Phil Goff had a pre-prepared speech that he was to give on all of that. But what we have found is that this Budget has tax cuts for the many. Whether one is an employee at any level he or she is getting a tax cut. In fact the bulk of the tax cuts are going to those on lower incomes. 
Let me give a few I think remarkable facts that show very clearly why this is tax cuts for the many. This is not about doctors lawyers and people in those kinds of professions. It is also about cleaners and the people whom the Labour Party says it thinks it is about. Two-thirds of the tax cuts apply to people on incomes below $48000 and 73 percent of income earners will now face a statutory income tax rate of 17.5 percent or less. The tax changes that we are seeing in Part 1 are not about the rich. The effect will be felt by those people on low and middle incomes. 
It is remarkable as well when we look at these tax changes and tax cuts. Of course we know that and I will not go through the various rates. The tax rate of 12.5 percent for people in the bottom income bracket zero to $14000 has gone down to 10.5 percent. We know all that. But what is also very interesting is that when we go through the various average tax rates we find that the rates are even lower than that. The average tax rate—I suppose we could say the actual tax rate—on an income of $48000 is 15.46 percent. It is not 17.5 percent but 15.46 percent. For someone on an income of $40000 the tax rate is 15.05 percent. People earning $35000 have a 14.7 percent tax rate people earning $30000 have a 14.23 percent tax rate and those on twenty-five grand have a 13.58 percent tax rate. We have not brought a bill to this Parliament—Bill English has not given a Budget today—that is about the rich. The Budget has been about the many. It has been the people’s Budget. We have the people’s princess over there the people’s daffodil but this is the people’s Budget. It has not been about just doctors lawyers engineers and consultants. It has been about ordinary Kiwi jokers such as cleaners and house workers. 
I can understand why Labour members are quite angry tonight. They thought they were getting something else. They had a caricature of the Budget ready to present and to hoe into. But they have had the rug pulled out from underneath them. We are giving these people—the cleaners the street workers—an incentive to get ahead. But we are giving them more than incentive to get ahead; we are not doing just that. We are giving them future options and a desire to get ahead to make more money and yes to get into the top tax bracket. I am not one of those members who think that earning $100000 is evil. 
Debate interrupted.