Mackey Moana: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Mackey Moana: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
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MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 What you will get Mr Chair is a speech that is about the bill for a start. I say to “Lady Parata” that we are very very sorry if we have offended “your royal highness” in any way. 
Hekia Parata 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I do not have a title other than Ms Parata or Hekia Parata. I would prefer that I was addressed respectfully in those terms. Thank you. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I ask the member to respect that request. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I withdraw and apologise if that is what happened. But I say to Mr Paul Quinn that he does not need to patronise Hekia Parata— 
Craig Foss 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. That was not a withdrawal and an apology. The member said “if that is what happened”. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: She withdrew and apologised. [ 
Interruption 
] The member took exception; I will ask her to clarify. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I ask the member to please continue. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Paul Quinn does not need to jump up and protect Hekia Parata. She is perfectly capable of defending herself in the Chamber. 
What an extraordinary contribution from Mr Paul Quinn. He did not speak at all about Part 1 because he is ashamed of what National has done here—if indeed he understands what it has done. What has struck me about National members’ speeches is that those members have all jumped up to say how proud they are of the fact that they are now reneging on their election promises how brave they are that they have broken the promises that they made during the election campaign and how much courage it takes to deceive the people of New Zealand and then stand up and cancel the tax cuts that won National the election. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: It’s so tiring! 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Democracy is very tiring as we found out during the last sitting week with the super-city legislation. 
Part 1 cancels the personal tax cuts that National promised during the election campaign—it was National’s No. 1 promise. John Key said there would be tax cuts on 1 April 2009 1 April 2010 and 1 April 2011. He said unlike Labour National would not cancel its tax cuts. That deceit has been shown up for what it is in today’s Budget. It is galling in the extreme that Government members have been getting up and acting as though they are really proud of what they are doing here having deceived the people of New Zealand during the election campaign and as though they are proud of the fact that they bought an election with promises that they knew they could not afford. It is galling in the extreme. Apparently they expect us to believe that John Key and Bill English were the only people in the world who did not see the financial crisis coming. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: And Paul Quinn. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I can believe that Paul Quinn did not see it coming. He probably thought Lehman Brothers just had a little run of bad luck. He probably thought that Enron just did not dot the i’s and cross the t’s. I can understand that Mr Quinn might not have seen the financial crisis coming but for John Key to seriously expect the people of New Zealand to believe he did not know he could not afford to keep the promises he was making when everyone was telling him that things were getting worse and when Labour members stopped making campaign pledges because we knew we would not be able to afford them is utterly ridiculous. John Key did know. 
Paul Quinn 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I was interrupted at least three times I think in respect of staying within the ambit of the part— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: That is not a point of order. I will decide. It is not a point of order. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Now I understand Paul Quinn’s speech. He does not realise that Part 1 cancels the tax cuts. He thought it did something completely different from that. Now I understand why he did not refer to the bill at all in his speech; it is because he does not know what it does. I will tell Mr Quinn what Part 1 does. Part 1 cancels the tax cuts and breaks the election promise—the No. 1 election promise—that National made during the election campaign. Part 1 shows up the con of the National Party at the last election. 
I said in my second reading speech that maybe instead of calling John Key the Prime Minister from now on we should call him the “Prime Misleader” because that is what he is. He is the “Prime Misleader” because he knew during the election campaign that the tax cuts could not be afforded. We said they could not be afforded and National said we were scaremongering. Six weeks after the election—after National had had all the Government books and had seen the state of the finances—the House took urgency to ram through these tax cuts. Labour in that debate said the tax cuts could not be afforded and National said we were scaremongering. Less than 5 months later we are repealing under urgency the tax cuts we passed under urgency. Why? Because we cannot afford them. 
The only thing that is consistent about the National Government is its inconsistency. Labour said before Christmas that the tax cuts could not be afforded. We voted against the tax cuts. But we are voting for this bill because it repeals the tax cuts that we said could not be afforded—and we were right. National would have us believe that no one could possibly have foreseen the economic conditions worsening.