General Debate

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The Pike River re-entry project is one of these Government projects that reflect the very important values that hold this Government together. They are values about treating people with respect—in this case, the families who were ignored for so long. It’s about treating people with compassion and with kindness. It’s about not being afraid to step up and deal with difficult issues, and this issue has been one of the trickiest that we’ve had to deal with, but the families had been shut out for so long in their pursuit of justice, and it was important to do it. It also reflects the fact that doing justice in this day and age, in our type of society, is more than about what happens in our courts. It is about the way that New Zealanders get to live their lives. It’s how citizens are treated by their Government. That’s what justice is about. The Pike River re-entry project is a classic example of all of that and all of those values coming together.

The Pike River re-entry project is an act of justice. For most of the families, they have yearned to have the promise that was made to them fulfilled, which is that everything that could be done would be done to better ascertain the reasons for that dreadful tragedy and, if possible, to recover any human remains. But the reality is there was something else that they wanted too. They wanted to stop being ignored. They wanted to be brought in and made part of the decision making about what has happened to their loved ones. And this Government, with the agreement of every party that makes it up, has extended to those families that simple act of respect.

We’ve seen incredible progress. I’ve outlined in the last day or so just what has been done to prepare for the real commencement of that project: the installation of a nitrogen plant, the fixing up of the bridges, laying lines in some of the most difficult terrain you will find across the country, getting a workforce on board that is totally skilled, deeply skilled, and has had more training in how to undertake this very difficult task. All along the way, another very important value that binds our three parties in this Government together is putting the safety of people doing the work first. That’s important too, and the families wanted that to be the absolute bottom line. It is the absolute bottom line. We have taken time to make progress with this project but we have done so safely, and we are now on the cusp of delivering the promise that was made to those families so long ago.

The point is this: every party that makes up this Government has signed up to this project. That, actually, reflects something else very important, and it is about what holds this Government together. It is what this Government does; the achievements that it is making. It is about the unified purpose that this Government has, which is about more justice, better justice for many, many New Zealanders who have missed out for so long: the people who couldn’t get a house; the people who couldn’t get a job; the people who couldn’t get a decent pay rise—all of those issues are right at the forefront of what this Government is doing. The people who have missed out for so long because they’ve been on a benefit—they’ve lived in poverty, they’ve lived in hardship—the people who have lived in families where domestic violence has been an issue now see a Government prepared to take that issue seriously.

This is a Government about providing for those who have missed out for so long, and that contrasts with what we’ve had before, because the reality is, opposite, we’ve had a party that has looked after the big end of town, that’s looked after the wide boys, the roosters, the boosters, the shysters, the zoot suit wearers, the tax dodgers. That’s who the National Party actually represents. No wonder they make a big deal about the people they speak for, doing more to avoid their tax responsibilities. That’s what they stand for. It’s not about including people; it’s about shutting people out, and it’s about looking after the wealthy and the privileged at the expense of everybody else.

Well, I’m pleased to be part of a Government that, in its acts of compassion, and kindness, and looking after people, is doing the right thing for families up and down the country—not just the Pike River families, and doing justice for them, but the many thousands and hundreds of thousands of others who have missed out for so long. This is a Government united by those good, standard Kiwi values of looking out for each other, of treating everybody fairly and equally, so everybody gets a chance—a country where people are proud of the Government they have, to live in the country they’ve got, to be part of the communities they’re part of. That’s what this Government is delivering on; that’s what this Government stands for.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, for the first 15 months of this Government, all we saw were platitudes and nice sounding words and virtue signalling, but apparently now it’s going to be the year of delivery. So now we’re going to see what it’s all about. I think, finally, to be fair, we’re starting to see the economic plan of this Government, and it’s pretty clear. The economic plan goes like this: tax every New Zealander more so that Shane Jones can go around with his increasingly dodgy Provincial Growth Fund, while Ron Mark can go out threatening people with funding for votes, and so that Phil Twyford can go around buying houses that developers can’t sell and that nobody else wants, and all on the taxpayer’s dollar. That’s the economic plan of this Government.

They’re slowly realising you’ve got to have a lot of money if you’re going to throw money around like that at dodgy unsold development properties, dodgy Provincial Growth Funds, and going around threatening people for votes. So we’ve got the Tax Working Group, who have come along and said, “Here’s how you can take a whole lot more money off those hard-working New Zealanders.” The Government’s trying to say “Oh well, we’re not really sure what we’re going to do about it.”, but we know that the Prime Minister desperately wants a capital gains tax. How do we know? Well, because in 2017, all through the election campaign—

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: Who brought the last capital gains tax in? You guys.

—she said she was going to bring one in. She was going to bring it in. Winston Peters, of course, great defender of principles that he is, insisted he’d never vote for one, and let’s see how that goes. But, no, the Prime Minister insisted she was going to bring in a capital gains tax. And we know Grant Robertson wants one. We know Grant Robertson wants one because Michael Cullen told him to want one, and Grant Robertson does whatever Michael Cullen tells him to do.

The funny thing is, 18 months in, they’ve only just started to figure out that New Zealand doesn’t want a capital gains tax. So, in the last week, Labour is going to their own members and saying “Oh, what do you guys think? We’re not quite sure.”, or “What do you guys reckon? Have we got that right or not?” It is 18 months on and it’s just dawning on them that maybe they don’t know everything. It is utterly laughable. Here they’ve got all the way through the Tax Working Group report, they’ve been briefed on what it would do—they told the Tax Working Group to go away and give them a capital gains tax. The Tax Working Group told them last year it would give them a capital gains tax. They had the report for about a month before the public saw it, but “We’re still not sure what we’re going to do about it.”, they say, “Let’s just put it out there and see where it goes.”

So while they figure it all out, they’ve got Michael Cullen getting paid a thousand dollars a day to get political on the taxpayer’s dime. Isn’t that just another example of this Government’s callous disregard for the taxpayers who fund the expenditure? They think nothing of spending taxpayers’ dollars to get their old mate out there defending this proposal because Government Ministers—

💬 Hon Gerry Brownlee: Three weeks’ pension in one day.

—still don’t know what they think.

Let’s go through it, because Mr Brownlee makes an excellent point. This is Michael Cullen, who’s on the gold-plated Government superannuation scheme, who qualifies for the New Zealand super as well, and he’s getting more than a thousand dollars a day for four months after the Tax Working Group has finished their work programme. No one else from the Tax Working Group, by the way; just Michael Cullen out there raking it in at a thousand dollars a day on top of his Government super, on top of that gold-plated scheme, because Ministers won’t engage in the debate. I think that is irresponsible; it is outrageous.

So the Prime Minister, recently, in a media story, told small businesses and farms that they’ve got nothing to worry about—nothing to worry about. Well, that’s interesting, isn’t it, because small businesses all have to be revalued at 1 April 2021. We’ve been told that’s a minimum of $10,000 a business—a $5 billion compliance cost—but apparently, according to the Prime Minister, they’ve got nothing to worry about. “Small business shouldn’t worry.”, the Prime Minister says, and yet Peter Beck, one of the best entrepreneurs in this country, says that this will be an absolute death knell for innovation and entrepreneurship. But the Prime Minister and David Parker and Grant Robertson all know far more than he does about business, and they say there’s nothing to worry about! Grant Robertson tells us the family home is exempt, but forgets to mention that is unless you happen to run your small business from home, and then it will get caught—more and more misleading.

And look at the farmers. We know that farmers face tens of thousands of dollars in compliance—

Order! Order! The member’s time has expired.

Wow, what a week of irony. You know, Shakespeare said, “Something is rotten in the State of Denmark.” On the other side, it’s rancid. On the other side, it’s fetid. On the other side, it’s festering while these false, spurious allegations are made about our Government and the modest role I played in the area of Hokianga. What do we find? Not only the police but the Serious Fraud Office is now possessed with information relating to people possibly on the other side of the House.

Now, the bar has been set for the provincial champion to declare a conflict of interest. Has the Leader of the Opposition yet been interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office? Was the Leader of the Opposition interviewed by the police? More to the point, will he declare to the New Zealand public that he has been and, if that is the case, will he stand down? No. Where is this self-styled crusader of civic responsibility from Fairfax pummelling and pounding the other side of the House? There’s conspicuous silence from the media.

This is a very dangerous development in the integrity of our electoral system. People who are investigated by the Serious Fraud Office often go to jail—go to jail. Now, I’ve already said earlier today that in the unlikely event it was the Leader of the Opposition, he’d go to the youth offenders’ wing. I won’t carry on, however, in that vein, because I know there are important conventions.

Look, out of a tiny, small issue—and if the champion of the regions has done anything that’s questionable, it’s to argue for the interests of the provinces. That’s why the provinces are continuing to act like an echo chamber for this far-sighted policy, the Provincial Growth Fund. So manea actually means “satisfied”. Our Government is satisfied that investments of that nature will bring growth, jobs, and overdue fiscal sunshine to the neglected parts of regional New Zealand.

Now, we’ve watched a pattern of this. We’ve watched a proud police officer be lampooned and suffer scurrilous allegations. He had done nothing wrong, yet he was pilloried, tainted, and stigmatised. May all of that wrongdoing rest upon the head of the Leader of the Opposition, because he says he’s the leader of the National Party but it’s not his responsibility in terms of what the Serious Fraud Office is looking at. I make a prediction: the Serious Fraud Office, once unwisely sicked by that side of the House on to our leader, knows we will study every single step that they take, to ensure—because it’s the National Party—it’s not whitewashed. We will ensure that happens. This is incredibly serious, and people may very well go to jail, because they won’t have offended the Cabinet Manual; they will have broken the law.

Now, there is another Simon that I want to spend a wee bit of time talking about, because that man over there is very much a political corpse. You don’t handle money and then suffer an investigation and expect to stand in front of the New Zealand public as clean as Caesar’s wife. He, unfortunately, is going to spend far too much money and far too much time diverted on these very serious, potentially criminal charges. So that’s what we’re going to hear about in terms of the National Party, going forward. There won’t be any talk about their prospects into the next election; rather, we’re going to focus on how many of them will still be fit to stand—a limited number.

Let me round up. There is another Simon who has let us down on this side of the House. This is a message to corporate New Zealand: do not arrogantly take upon yourselves the ability to influence foreign policy and make these unwise statements, as Mr Simon Moutter did to the sharemarket, thus providing an opportunity for anxiety and stress for all of our exporters. Show judiciousness. Do not go beyond your corporate writ. Wanderlust, you may be. Thank you very much.

Well, here I am, coming after Shane Jones, and I’m not quite sure what he actually said, but he seemed to say that they will ensure—presumably, “they” being the Government of the day—that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) does a thorough job on our leader. That would be an extraordinary statement to make. Is he now saying that he is going to guide the SFO, which is an independent statutory body on the police doing their work? He’s going to stand and guide the SFO as they do their work? What an extraordinary thing for a Cabinet Minister to say. I can’t believe he said they will ensure that the SFO does it well. Well, that’s a very interesting thing to be saying, for a Minister of the Crown, and I’d counsel Mr Jones to be a bit more careful with his language.

The last thing that this country needs is much higher taxation on savings, on investment, and on entrepreneurship, and those are the three things that are going to be taxed severely by this proposed capital gains tax that this Government is putting on. Savings, investment, and entrepreneurship—that’s what we need in this country. I’ve never met anybody who thinks New Zealanders save too much. We need to encourage saving. We certainly need to encourage investment. How on earth do we grow the economy if we don’t get investment—somebody somewhere taking their money and buying a new business, starting a new business, hiring a new person, buying a new plant, investing in equipment? That’s what we need to grow this economy, and entrepreneurship—people like the Peter Becks of this world starting up new businesses based on research and development. All those three things are what we need in this country, and this Government is proposing that we should tax that even more than we do today. What lunacy.

We heard Marama Davidson—and I’ll be interested to see what the Greens have to say today—saying that the wealthy elite need to pay more. Well, that’s not what’s being proposed here in this capital gains tax if the wealthy elite includes the 2.9 million New Zealanders in KiwiSaver, who would be hit by more tax on their KiwiSaver every year as a result of this tax. It includes the 500,000 business owners across this country—mainly small businesses—who get up every morning in their cafes, or the hairdresser’s, or the plumber’s, or the small businesses in local and regional New Zealand that the great bloated buffoon of a champion of the provinces says that he’s concerned about. Those people who get up every morning and grow their businesses over the next three decades in order to have something to save for their retirement—they are the ones who will pay the capital gains tax. The tens of thousands of farmers and horticulturalists, the tens of thousands of people with lifestyle blocks, the mum and dad investors who have bought an extra property in order to rent out and have an income in their old age—all those New Zealanders are not the wealthy elite; they are just New Zealanders trying to save and get ahead, and they are going to be punished by this vindictive act, which this Government is trying to put on New Zealanders.

The Prime Minister has said that they’re going to focus on simplicity. Well, as we saw the big stack of notes that came to explain the capital gains tax in South Africa that’s been introduced, there is no such thing as a simple capital gains tax. Where you draw the boundaries is amazingly complex and difficult. So your family home is exempted, but if you work from home, it’s not exempted. If you have a boarder or a renter staying with you, it’s not exempted. If you rent it out for Airbnb, it’s not exempted. All these complications massively make the tax bill longer, and it makes the accountants happy. Around about 40 percent of the work of the major accountancy firms in Australia is around capital gains, and that’s what we’ll be seeing here.

And then, finally, this Government is all around spreading wealth and not about making it. And, as a country, we need to generate some wealth in the first place in order to succeed and provide the opportunities for New Zealanders to do well. So here we have the proposal for a capital gains tax that increases tax on savings, on investment, and on entrepreneurship, and that’s the last thing we need in this country. And we certainly don’t need Michael Cullen getting a thousand dollars a day to tell us how we should take this bitter medicine and to have a spoonful of sugar for it to go well.

The other point I’d just like to make in passing, of course, is that the only reason they want this tax is that they want more money. They want more money because they blow it all in very ill-disciplined ways, such as Mr Jones and his Provincial Growth Fund. When you’re spending a billion dollars a year, flinging it out the door around the neighbourhoods, yep, you’re going to buy some useful things, but you’re also going to have some very poor quality spending. And if they were more disciplined, they wouldn’t need this new tax, full stop. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe. What another negative, carping speech from the National Party. Typical of National: exaggerating all of the issues around improving our tax system. We need a decent tax system so we can invest in better healthcare services, so we can clean up the housing mess—

💬 Hon Paul Goldsmith: Revenue-neutral, you said.

—that National left, so that we can invest in the environment, and that is what this Government is doing. It is delivering, Mr Goldsmith.

In the last Budget, there was $181 million extra investment in the Department of Conservation, so that we could invest in protecting our natural capital, so that we could grow well-being for New Zealanders. That’s an investment that counts. Not like National—not wanting a fair tax system, wanting to shred the Department of Conservation, and what are we getting for that extra investment? Well, I just recently announced the $76 million extra that was going into biodiversity. We are seeing increased investment in our marine reserves, more enforcement and monitoring, more research, more investment in tahr control to protect our fragile alpine lands, more work on pest control so that another six islands can be protected from pest incursions, and more work on our threatened species. And we see there that when we have the Department of Conservation working alongside communities, iwi, and hapū, investing in our threatened species, they can make a difference. They can turn around the status of rowi, takahē, mohua. That’s all improved, but we need that investment which National denied in its nine years of Government by its shredding of the Department of Conservation budget. This Government is delivering on the environment. It’s an area where National has no credibility.

This morning, I was delighted to announce that this Government is adding 64,400 hectares of land in the Mōkihinui catchment, north of Westport, to Kahurangi National Park. This is the largest addition to a national park in New Zealand’s history. It will increase the size of Kahurangi by 15 percent. It is a landmark day for conservation because it is the first time we’ve had a big addition to a national park in 17 years. This Government is delivering for the environment. I acknowledge Ngāi Tahu and Kāti Waewae for their generosity and their support. But I really acknowledge the thousands of New Zealanders who spoke out for the Mōkihinui River in 2007 when Meridian was proposing a huge dam that would have created a reservoir 14 kilometres long, flooded the Mōkihinui Gorge, flooded the beech forest, the rimu forest, and the habitat of threatened species like bats, giant land snails, the whio—the river duck. That was public activism—and the work that groups like Whitewater NZ, Forest and Bird, Fish and Game, iwi, standing alongside the Department of Conservation, did through the whole resource consent process to highlight why the Mōkihinui, the river and its catchment, is just so valuable. These stunning natural landscapes that are now part of the national park; this decision by the Government is responding to the desire of New Zealanders to protect our special places, to protect them for both present and future generations.

What does National do with national parks? Well, in 2010, under Minister Gerry Brownlee, it was proposing to mine in national parks. The first of National’s policy documents was about the environment. How can a party which wanted to mine in national parks have any credibility on the environment? This Government is investing in conservation. It’s increasing the size of Kahurangi National Park. This will be a major gain for the Buller and West Coast region, because we’ve got the cycle trail—the Mōkihinui-Lyell cycle trail—which is used increasingly by New Zealanders to experience those magic landscapes. Rafting, kayaking down the river; the opportunity for visitors to see the gorge, to walk up the river, experience the drama of its landscapes, the earthquake-shaped landscape, and to know that this river, the third largest on the West Coast, can now never be dammed, because this Government knows that New Zealanders love our precious wild places, want them protected—that’s why we’re adding 64,400 hectares to Kahurangi so that it is permanently protected. Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

As I listen to the Minister the Hon Eugenie Sage, I realise that from that side of the House they see things through slightly rose-tinted glasses. On this side of the House, having been here now for 18 months—and far too long—but having seen a number of Governments through the time that I’ve been an MP, I have never seen a Government get into such a mess, such disarray, within 18 months. I’ve seen them get into this state after two terms and heading towards three. But after 18 months—let me just take two of their flagship policies as an example—KiwiBuild; we’re now learning, day after day, as the Hon Judith Collins pulls poor Minister the Hon Phil Twyford to bits, that in actual fact KiwiBuild now is about buying houses that have already been built, that are on the open market and struggling to sell, putting a KiwiBuild label on them, and then finding they’re near impossible to sell.

Then you have the other flagship policy: the Provincial Growth Fund, which we, on this side of the House said at the time, and we’ve now been proved right, is nothing but a slush fund—a slush fund that’s particularly focused on Northland, where the Rt Hon Winston Peters and the Hon Shane Jones know their only way back into this House after the next election is with the safety of an electorate seat. They know they won’t make 5 percent. They now have to spend taxpayers’ money to make themselves popular in two electorates—the Northland electorate and the Whangarei electorate—in a desperate attempt to secure a seat. Well, I want to tell them that they stand no chance against our superb members Matt King and Dr Shane Reti. They will do it and do it with ease.

Then today, we have further examples of the mess those Ministers are in. The Hon Shane Jones was on his feet, having to excuse his extraordinary behaviour of attacking a journalist and saying he’ll use parliamentary privilege to further attack that person. No apology from the Hon Shane Jones. We have the Hon Ron Mark trying to excuse himself after giving an appalling speech, where he threatened to take funding off an organisation unless that organisation en masse voted for New Zealand First. Then we had the example of the Hon Damien O’Connor threatening to again reserve funding from an expert organisation involved in the evacuation of animals in a natural disaster on the basis that that organisation would dare criticise the Government.

I do want to talk about capital gains tax in my closing couple of minutes and the effect that will have on agriculture and on the farming community. That’s made the other side go quiet. What I found extraordinary is Damien O’Connor’s comment in the New Zealand Herald that as of this day he has not read the Tax Working Group’s report to know the effect it’ll have on agriculture. That is just extraordinary—that he can claim to represent New Zealand farmers and he hasn’t bothered to read the report that advocates for a capital gains tax, advocates for a nitrogen tax, advocates for a water tax, advocates for an emissions tax, and, finally, advocates for a fertiliser tax. What effect will all of those taxes have on New Zealand agriculture? He doesn’t know, and what’s worse is the Labour Party doesn’t know. It’s now gone out with a survey amongst its members and the public: “Have your say and tell us what we should think about the capital gains tax.”

I heard an extraordinary story about a particular stand at the Wānaka show over the last weekend. Mark Patterson, that little-known New Zealand First member from somewhere down that end of the world—he had a stand, and he put out a sign in front of his stand saying, “Come and tell us what New Zealand First should do about the capital gains tax.” It had a queue longer than the Ferris wheels. There was such a big queue of people in the Wānaka show wanting to tell Mark Patterson what to do with the capital gains tax. And I won’t be rude—I’m sure a number of the farmers were particularly rude. Do you know what his response was? He took the sign down and shut up the tent. That’s how embarrassed he was.

I’ve decided, listening to those speeches on the other side, it must be very, very hard to be so negative and so angry all the time. So just before I start, I’ll just give them a wee bit of advice. I just googled very quickly then “how do I stop being so negative all the time?”, and it does say here: live more in the moment, stop thinking about the past, believe in the power of positive thinking, focus on the now, and focus on the future. That’s exactly what we’re doing here on this side of the House: we’re focusing on the now, and we’re focusing on the future.

Now, I want to turn it around a wee bit and be a bit more positive here. Last week, we had a fantastic day that we celebrated on Friday: we celebrated International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is a day where we can get the chance to celebrate all the amazing achievements of women, not just the amazing, wonderful, well-known women but also those that are striving to make a difference in this world every single day, the women that toil away and go, often, without notice. I have to say that I had the great privilege to attend an event—actually, it was on Saturday, the day after International Women’s Day, but I’m sure it was that day somewhere in the world. I went to a Shakti event, and just the amazing achievements that those women achieve on behalf of all women—I take my hat off to them.

I also want to take this time to acknowledge that this Government is delivering better outcomes for women through more productive, sustainable, and inclusive growth. I’m really pleased to see the work that this Government is doing. We already have got children and families at the heart of our programme, and we have already—I’ve got my wee list here, so I am going to look at that, but things like the fact that we have put in place already the Families Package, including the Best Start payment. How great is that for women, that in that baby’s first year, they can rely on that payment no matter what? I think that’s a fantastic achievement for our new mothers. Extending paid parental leave: it will be 26 weeks from July 2020. A significant increase in funding for family violence services—in fact, we saw the first funding boost to our front-line services in 10 years. It is something that I heard a lot about before that announcement was made, of how desperate they were for that funding and the difference that it will make to those services and the work that they do. We celebrated the passing of Jan Logie’s victims’ protection bill, which allows victims of domestic violence up to 10 days’ paid leave to deal with the impact of domestic violence—again, a real difference in the lives of those women.

But this year what I am so excited about will be the passing of the Equal Pay Amendment Bill. This will address the historic inequalities that women have had for pay, and they have waited for so long. They have absolutely waited. Yesterday, I spoke to school support staff members. It just reminded me how important this bill really is in their lives. This group of women—who are actually mainly women; I think they are an over 95 percent female-dominated part of the workforce—are the backbone of any school. Most school principals will tell any of us that they cannot operate their schools without these essential, highly talented, highly wonderful, and highly skilled professionals, and yet I heard yesterday, when I was talking to some of these women, how they’re on little more than minimum wage, when they’re so essential in the workforce. They’re certainly a group that have been waiting a long, long, long time to have their claims addressed. That’s what’s exciting, when they were talking about their excitement at seeing this bill, not just for them but to address the inequalities for women everywhere.

It’s not only the bills that we are progressing, it’s not only the work that we’re progressing; we’re also progressing the work for women in the well-being Budget. The five priorities are there, but the one that I want to highlight, as I finish, is reducing child poverty and improving child well-being, including addressing family violence. Thank you.

Well, it got better in the end, that speech, on behalf of the member who’s just resumed her seat, Jan Tinetti. It did get better. Indeed, across the House, MPs are very much in support of women, so that was the good part, but for the rest of it—oh my goodness. Wouldn’t Toastmasters be proud of a speech like that? Well, well, well. We had a Google search—that was amazing. We had a list—that was pretty comprehensive. What other tricks? Oh, yes, that’s right; the speaker mentioned how grateful people were to them for all the nice things they were doing for them. Now, the sad thing about that is that’s about the standard of speeches that we have come to expect from the Labour members of Parliament as they lead the New Zealand First - Labour - Greens coalition Government. But it gets worse than that, even.

I spent a couple of days in the House this week asking questions of the Minister for Small Business around the capital gains tax. You would have thought—one would have thought, Mr Speaker, with apologies—that was such a significant piece of work being issued by the Tax Working Group on 20 February that this Government—the New Zealand First, Labour, and Green coalition Government—might have given that report some consideration, particularly those parts around a capital gains tax, and particularly, as far as I am concerned, those parts around the impacts of the capital gains tax on small business.

I am disappointed but not unsurprised at the level of answer that I got to my questions in the House this week to the Minister for Small Business and the Minister acting on his behalf—again, as the Minister for Small Business. I’m just going to run through a couple of the questions I did ask around the capital gains tax looming large in the political landscape just at the moment. I asked the Minister, “Is he concerned about the impact of a capital gains tax on small business?” His answer was, “Well, that’s a purely hypothetical question.” Excuse me? There is a Tax Working Group report on the Government’s table. They are considering their response to it, and the answer that I get from the responsible Minister for Small Business is “that’s a purely hypothetical question.”—not good enough, Minister.

I then went on to ask, “Will he guarantee that a small business with a home office will … be subject to a capital gains tax?” Now, listeners and viewers will recall that one of the Government’s bottom lines—ever like shifting sands, but one of their bottom lines—was that the primary home would be exempt. The Minister could give no answer. The Minister had not given it any consideration. Was he standing up to defend small businesses? No—no. He didn’t even have an answer, and on and on it goes. “Has he heard from any small businesses about their views on a capital gains tax?”—a fair question. It’s a fair question; he is the Minister. He does have an email address; he does get post delivered. His answer? “What I have heard is a lot of nonsense put forward [to] the Opposition which is simply not grounded in reality.” Excuse me? Is the Minister for Small Business in the New Zealand First - Labour - Greens coalition listening to people, or has he got his earphones on with his country music turned up loud? For the Minister to say that he had heard nothing from small businesses is patently—patently—unbelievable.

I asked him directly: “To the Minister, has he heard from any small businesses about their views on a capital gains tax?” The answer was, “No.” How can that be? Is this a Minister who is interested in hearing from small business in New Zealand, or does he just have his earphones on and is in denial? Well, I’ll tell him what they think, because small business have been talking to me ever since the Tax Working Group’s report came out: “I understand I can’t expect to pay myself much, but I hoped I would get what I earned back when one day I sell the business.”—[Interruption] You see, they don’t like this; they don’t like it—“But due to a capital gains tax, I might not only not be able to pay myself much but I won’t make any money selling the business. It makes me wonder why I should continue.” They don’t understand—[Time expired]

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini—my strength is not of one but one of numbers. I love that quote so much because it reminds me so much of why I’m part of this team and why the good work this Government is doing helps so many. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini.

I would just like to take a moment at the beginning here to give credit to the great Labour team that we have here, because I don’t get my strength alone; I get my strength from the experience, from the unity, and from the great talent that we have here of people that work so hard every day to deliver the good things. That good work and that strength and that unity and that pride in the power of a collective movement goes further than these four walls. It goes outside into all the people that work every day, strong in the belief that New Zealand is a better place when we help each other, and that we grow in strength when we support each other and we care for each other. I am so proud to be part of a Labour Government—part of a coalition Government with Labour—that has a leadership that has brought something new, a leadership that has brought not only just a strong, stable economy that goes ahead to pay down debt but also one that has kindness and empathy to people. That works so well.

Let’s just take a look for a moment at what this coalition Government is doing for New Zealand. Let’s look at how it looks at putting people first and how everyday New Zealanders’ lives are made better with some of the measures that have already been delivered. The Families Package: 350,000 New Zealanders now getting more money in their pockets each week. The Best Start payment: prioritising our children, putting them first to make sure they get those basics in the early years. The winter energy payment: to make sure people, particularly elderly, are warm over the winter—coming a month early this week. I know so many that are grateful to have that extra money to pay for heating bills. Investing in our regions outside of the main city centres: so needed for rural New Zealand, to make sure it goes further than just what we’ve been doing in the past, to grow those areas stronger. Mental health services: we know they are long overdue to put investment back into those people’s lives, to give people the services, the support, and the treatment readily when they need it, earlier rather than later. And rebuilding our hospitals and schools—also well overdue.

The other day, I was in Pak ’N Save Pētone—a great establishment; I go there quite often, a nice owner in there as well—and I was just about to choose some sweetcorn when a person standing next to me said, “Are you the MP for Hutt South?” I said, “No, I’m the list one, but I’m working on that.” And they said, “Look, I would just like to say thank you. I would like to thank you for the good work that your Government is doing in helping New Zealanders.” I was really taken aback. I said, “Thank you so much, and that means a lot to me.”—and it did. It made me smile for the rest of the day.

I went on that day to go to St John’s service awards, which is a great event—again, another event of celebrating the collective of people coming together to provide good community service. I heard an excellent speech at the St John’s service awards, and that speech spoke about the value of social capital. That speech spoke about how in the past we’ve been terrible at counting just the financial value of things, and that we needed to be better as a country at looking at how we can value and understand social capital. That excellent speech was by Chris Bishop, the current MP, and I was so heartened to see that Chris Bishop believes in the fundamental basis of the well-being Budget.

It’s so good to know that members on the other side of the House know the strength of investing in community spirit, know the strength of investing in people, and know that things go further than just counting money. We want to make sure that when this Budget comes around, we’ll be able to know that New Zealanders in their homes, in their communities, in their daily lives, in their schools, and in their voluntary organisations are doing well. That goes far further than the cheque-book; it goes into those areas of mental health that have been so neglected over the past decade, and we want to reinvest in there.

I want to say that I am so proud to be part of a Government that draws strength from numbers, because the strength in our communities, the strength in our people, is where New Zealand will always be proud to work together. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini.

Well, it’s an honour to follow that wonderful speech. Today, I want to pay tribute to a wonderful group of people who’ve done a fabulous job for this country and that’s the Tax Working Group. What a fantastic job they’ve done, and they haven’t got the credit that they deserve—well led by Michael Cullen. What I say to the group is they’ve put out issues that the Opposition were too scared to address over many, many years.

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order!

No good?

💬 SPEAKER: No. No, the “scared” word and lacking courage—not allowed to say it.

Oh, all right. My apologies, Mr Speaker. But the Opposition would not address it over a number of years, but the Tax Working Group has been courageous. Sir Michael Cullen has fronted up on this group despite the disgraceful campaign from the Opposition, who keep telling us that the world is going to collapse and the world is going to fall in. The Hon Simon Bridges, who should be worrying about more things than Māoris getting some kickback in terms of the tax cuts, should be worrying about what’s happening to him at the moment. His carry-on that Māori are going to get these huge benefits is a disgrace. You know, this fear-mongering campaign needs to stop, because this capital gains tax needs to be put firmly on the table and New Zealanders have to address it. It’s as simple as that. We as a Government are showing courage on this. That’s why I compliment Sir Michael Cullen. I’ve got no worries about his thousand dollars a day. It’s peanuts, actually, when you compare it to some of the lawyers and people who’ve worked in this Government in the past. He’s under-charged himself—there’s no doubt about that.

But why do we need a capital gains tax? Have the Opposition worked that out? We need a capital gains tax because we need a more fairer and more equitable society. We need everyone paying tax. The big boys are skipping out. We only have to read the newspapers. We only have to read the newspapers, and today we’re talking about people avoiding $51 million in taxes. We’re talking about the Panama Papers. We’re talking about corporates who’ve come to this country and are making vast sums of income from New Zealanders and paying very little in tax—very little in tax. So the capital gains tax is an attempt to share the tax burden right across the spectrum. Workers have to pay every cent. They need some relief. This is about relief for working people. What is the problem, in terms of the Opposition, with regards to the capital gains tax? Why is that so offensive to the Opposition? Why should clerical workers, labourers, factory workers, and, in fact, everyone who pays PAYE shoulder the full weight of taxation? It’s a question that yourself and others have talked about for many, many years, but no Government has addressed it the way this Government has.

This is about inequality and how do we counter that inequality. Why should working people pay tax but those who can afford accountants pay nothing, or close to nothing? So there are loopholes in terms of the tax system that we all know have been exploited by National Party’s friends for many, many years. That’s an indisputable fact. And that strategy is all about protecting their friends. They forgot about the average worker. They forget about people out on the street, who are paying their way. Now, capital gains tax is only paid when you realise the value once you sell the investment property, and will only be paid once the property or business has been sold. And again, that is a fair tax. That is a fair way to go.

Again, all the scaremongering comes out and all the questions come out, but the group have done their job. They’ve put it on the table. They’re showing courage. They’re showing courage that no other group has shown through the years, and we as a Government, rather than collapse and say “Yes, you’re right, Simon.”, rather than turn up and answer every single question, we’re saying let’s just wait. Let’s take our time. Let’s address this. Let’s understand that workers have been covering the burden and shouldering the burden in terms of paying tax, and the big boys have got off, and we want to address that. So as far as we’re concerned, it’s time to be courageous and for a Government to finally address the question. We’re allowing the Opposition to petrify New Zealanders, but New Zealanders are not listening at the moment. We can see that in the polls. We can see that in terms of the response that our Prime Minister’s getting, and we think we’re on track. This is a Government that will face and front the tough issues. Kia ora, Mr Speaker.

Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā. It’s an absolute privilege to stand here to contribute to the first general debate of 2019. It is the 44th anniversary of the biggest Māori and Pacific Polynesian cultural festival that kicked off today, and I just want to take a different stance from all the speakers today to remind us of the contribution of our young people. So, as I said, it is the 44th anniversary of the ASB Polyfest. I particularly love the theme of the Polyfest, and I want to acknowledge all the teachers and everybody who has toiled hard in the last 44 years. I too was a performer in the Polyfest—

💬 Hon Peeni Henare: Not that long ago.

Yeah, I’m not going to say when. But the theme is—and I need to read it, because it’s really important: the blood of the ocean it flows through me. My sustenance; my nest of higher learning; my navigator. I am the living essence of the ocean, which is in me. Wow! That is so powerful. Again, I want to congratulate all the students, but, particularly, because I am the Labour list member of Parliament, based in Papakura and Tāmaki, I want to wish everybody in those two areas to just enjoy it—just enjoy it. And, of course, to my school, Onehunga High School, I know that you guys are just going to give it heaps and enjoy the day.

I want to talk about seeing, listening, doing what you said you were going to do, and delivering. I want to take three examples, but if I run out of time, I’ll just stop at two. Number one is I want to talk about the Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau Scholarships. Last year at the National Field Days the honourable Minister Shane Jones and the then Minister Meka Whaitiri announced those scholarships, and they were about addressing the need where Māori and women were missing from the areas in terms of the New Zealand forestry industry. So what we’ve done this year is we have announced the winners of those scholarships. I want to go back to the point of the reasons why it is important for us to do that. I want to quote the Prime Minister, because it’s important that we are reminded of why we do things. The Prime Minister said, “Over the last five years less than a third of graduates of forestry degrees were women. While the industry is a significant employer of Māori, Māori are underrepresented in this professional and scientific areas of the industry. We hope this group of talented scholarship recipients will pave the way for the future and encourage other women and Māori to enter higher education within the forestry sector.”

So I want to acknowledge those people who we have acknowledged. I want to acknowledge Robyn Patient from Waikuku Beach, Jessica Stock from Tasman, Cole Grace from Gisborne, George Fanning-Ihaka from Dargaville, Nicholas Melvin from Winton, Thomas Brown from Matamata, Max Gomez from Dunedin, and Hannah Humphreys from Wānaka. We noticed that things weren’t right. We listened. Leadership is about just that. Leadership is about seeing, hearing, and doing something about it.

I am a pretty fair person—I might judge myself and say that I’m a pretty fair person. Last week, the honourable Minister Aupito William Sio announced the STEM, the Pasifika achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in terms of Pacific achievement, and the need to invest in those areas for Pacific achievement. I just want to say that this year’s award included 16 community awards and eight tertiary scholarships.

I’m running out of time, but I have recently returned from the Chatham Islands, and I want to say kia ora to Alfred Priest, the local mayor, and all the 600 or so people of the Chathams that we met. I want to voice their plight where a flight to New Zealand—they call this country New Zealand—was delayed on Monday and was delayed again on Tuesday, and to hear the stories from the people on how connectivity is an important factor in their lives. I just want to say to them thank you very much for sharing your stories, and along with the member for Rongotai, Paul Eagle, we will continue to voice those concerns, because we were there and we saw it. On that note, thank you, Chathams. Thank you for looking after us. Mr Speaker, malo.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I just want to return to that speech from Mr Willie Jackson, who implied and inferred—

💬 SPEAKER: No—he couldn’t.

—that many of the top taxpayers in New Zealand are not pulling their weight and that people on lower tax rates, indeed, needed to have respite. Personally, I found that speech, that implication, rather offensive, and I just thought the rhetoric that he spoke of is the type of thing that you would find on talkback radio. But in Parliament, where we have to deal in facts and actually deal with the issues at hand, the interesting thing is that the top 11 percent of all tax earners pay 48 percent, or half, of all the personal tax paid in New Zealand—half of all the personal tax raised—and people with families earning up to $70,000, basically, do not pay tax because whilst they’ve paid tax on their income, because of the reimbursement through Working for Families and other benefits, effectively, they pay no tax. So the assertion that top taxpayers in New Zealand were ripping off other people and, therefore, that’s the basis for bringing in a capital gains tax is, to my mind, a perverse argument.

The other thing I think Mr Jackson should acquaint himself with is he should actually look at the accounts of the Government. In the year just gone, your Government, basically, racked in about $85 billion of revenue from tax—$85 billion. Now, during the term of this Government, even though they campaigned on not introducing new taxes, they have since—over the last 16 months—implemented tax changes that will, in time, raise $2.6 billion a year. If you look at the forward projections, Mr Jackson, of the Government—you know, looking at Treasury numbers, and this is where I would ask you to go and devote some of your time—

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

—you will see—sorry, Mr Speaker. You will see that the Government’s intended expected revenue will grow to $100 billion over the next four years without any further changes to the tax system.

So the argument that the Government members continue to roll out is that we need more money. Well, actually, we don’t, as a country, need more money, and certainly as a Government, we don’t need more money. We’re going to get roughly $18 billion of more money, per annum, over the next four years, and that is a substantial amount of money by anyone’s store.

But the other side of the coin, which I haven’t heard from the Government members, is the thing called discipline—financial discipline. What we do know is that the New Zealand First Party was very successful in getting $3 billion to spend and splash around the economy on the pretence of growing the economy in regions. We had $1 billion allocated to the Deputy Prime Minister for his foreign affairs, a large portion of which is going towards new curtains and cushions in Sweden, but we’ve also seen some other very costly platforms and cost structures brought in by this Government of Labour, New Zealand First, and the Greens.

The issue around being clear about your spending and being robust and disciplined about it is perhaps more the issue, and it’s not the issue of continuously wanting to tax people and grab more money because you’re not being careful with it. We on this side think you should be more careful with it. At the same time, we’ve got a Government and a Minister of Finance saying “Look, the debt is fine, even though in monetary terms it continues to grow.”—in monetary terms, it continues to grow. The only issue with the debt is that they are going to allow the debt to grow in New Zealand because they’re growing the economy. So when you do it on a percentage basis, he is going to let the debt grow in this country.

Those two aspects are the most worrying thing about the capital gains tax, and this call to somehow say that people are not paying their fair share is rather offensive.

I think the other aspect of it is we have a tax system that is the envy of the world because it’s so simple in terms of collection. If the Government brings this in, we are going to turn that upside down and introduce one of the most complicated tax arrangements on top of what is now currently a very simple system, and that will be an absolute travesty. We will spend years spending time trying to fix up any legislation that may be brought to the House.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.