David Cunliffe: 80% of taxpayers in Mangere worse off

Hon David Cunliffe: Can the Minister confirm that Pasifika people will be overwhelmingly represented amongst those who are net losers from yesterday's tax changes, and can he further confirm that over 80 percent of all workers and taxpayers in the electorate of Māngere, a heavily Pacific Island electorate, will be worse off, and that some 75 percent in Mr Lotu-Iiga's electorate will be worse off? Hon BILL ENGLISH: No, I cannot confirm that. The member has taken to using all sorts of dodgy numbers to come up with these figures. The fact is that 1.5 million taxpayers are getting a tax cut, and almost 1 million other people on income support are getting rises on 1 April. That is a major achievement in the face of a deepening recession, with dropping revenue and coordinated global recession. Hon David Cunliffe: Can the Minister confirm that a company that invests, say, $200,000 in research and development activity to improve its products, make itself more competitive, and help position New Zealand for an export-led rebound will now lose $30,000 because of National scrapping the research and development tax credit? Hon BILL ENGLISH: If those numbers were right, that would be the case. However, a number of companies I have spoken to found that the amount they spent on consultants to work out the deduction they would get was more than the deduction. It is time the Labour Party got real. Times have changed. We cannot have everything that was nice to have. That party's record of reckless spending is one of the biggest problems that this Government has to deal with.