Is a charge that comes out of the pocket of the taxpayer a tax, a levy or a secret third option?
When members of parliament returned to the House this week, some were filled with hot air while others seemed dazed. Monday’s post-cabinet press conference saw prime minister Christopher Luxon and energy minister Simon Watts announce plans to develop an import facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG) – as snooze-worthy as it sounds, MPs spent the whole week trying to figure out who will foot the bill. If something walks and talks like a tax, is it really a levy? Or a charge? Or a fee? Or an insurance policy? Or …
If you ask the opposition side, a levy on electricity users (of roughly $15-$30 for the average household per year) is pretty obviously a tax, right? Ask the government, and it’s just a new LNG facility – a crucial piece of infrastructure to be funded by a, well, levy (not a tax). At the end of the day, they’re the same thing – a levy is a targeted tax and a tax is a targeted levy. But if you’re a prime minister who has previously framed the 2024 budget as promising “no new taxes”, it may be in your best interest to Google “tax synonyms” before sending out a press release about a new levy.
Every question time session this week probed the tax-levy problem, with little success. Labour MP Duncan Webb’s quack quack-ing at finance minister Nicola Willis during Tuesday’s question time failed to inspire her to give in to the “if it walks and talks like a tax…” line. But Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ petty needling of Luxon was a good reminder of why he’s still at the party’s top seat, as the House echoed with guffaws from the opposition side and groans from the government.
When it was Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s turn to press Luxon over imposing “a guaranteed extra cost on New Zealanders’ power bills to increase our fossil fuel dependence”, Winston Peters bristled. The New Zealand First leader was ignored by speaker Gerry Brownlee when he tried to rise for a supplementary, and demanded the speaker let him know why.
“Because that’s the way it’s always been done,” Brownlee retorted. “She’s already had three questions,” Peters grumbled. Smugly, Swarbrick declared: “We’re the real New Zealand First.”
Next, Labour MP and finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds decided she also wanted to go for the jugular. To Willis, Edmonds asked: “Does she take responsibility for the loss of 10,000 jobs in Wellington alone, and is that the real reason why she won’t stand in a Wellington seat?”
It was such an oh-so-shocking claim to make that the leader of the House, Chris Bishop, jumped the gun on the speaker in scolding Edmonds, telling her she was “better than that, Barb”, before adding, “or maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re just as nasty as your mate [Chippy] next to you.” So Brownlee reigned him in. “Bishop, if you want to chair, come and take it – I’ll swap jobs with you any day.”
In a 180 on vibes, Wednesday was one of those good days in Wellington that can’t be beaten. On parliament’s forecourt, the Pacific Justice group held a two-hour-long shindig of speeches and performances – including fire dancers – before delivering a petition for visas on arrival for Pasifika travellers to foreign affairs minister Winston Peters. The minister’s impassioned speech about being a good neighbour and looking after your cousins would have left no one guessing that the next day, NZ First would announce its plans to campaign for a referendum on Māori seats.
And around the corner, on the speaker’s lawn, MPs celebrated national lamb day by dishing out salads and shanks for free. As one would expect, The Country’s Jamie Mackay was there to interview politicians, which was a good chance for party leaders to pledge allegiance to the farmer vote. Peters managed to bump ahead of Luxon’s slot and used his time to trash the National Party’s controversial free trade agreement with India – all while Luxon was in the background. It was another comms battle lost that week by the National Party.
Later, Peters had a crack at 1News during question time over a “completely unhinged, unbalanced and disgraceful story” that saw his press secretary send a dossier dump out to competing media. Annoyed that 1News would dare broadcast a beat-up about him sitting ringside for a Joseph Parker fight in Saudi Arabia, Peters looked straight to the press gallery benches to political editor Maiki Sherman. “If they’d had the decency to ask me, I would have showed them receipts of me paying personally for me and my staff member, not the taxpayer, unlike you, you bludger,” Peters cried.
During Thursday’s question time, the big questions involved patsies like “what does Investment Boost do?” and “what does the Employment Relations Amendment Bill do?” But Peters was still itching for a fight (in the ring, not ringside, as he prefers), and he got a microdose of that with Greens MP Francisco Hernandez. During questions from Labour MP Deborah Russell to energy minister Simon Watts, Hernandez and Peters rose at the same time.
“No, sit down,” Peters warned the Greenie, before Brownlee had to remind the minister that a point of order (which Hernandez rose for) carries more weight than Peters’ supplementary question. “You’ve been trumped,” Hernandez told him, before asking to table a document to the House.
When Peters realised Hernandez didn’t have said document on his person, Peters sprung up again. You forget to tell him that he has until 4pm to present the document to the House, Peters reminded the speaker. Which was obviously important to mention, as Hernandez “only arrived here yesterday”.
“Learn the rules,” Hernandez encouraged him, and their tiff ended in smiles. At least the back-and-forths had moved on from the LNG tax-levy debate, which is a good thing, because there’s no use trying to find a rhyme or reason to that at all. It’s a tax on top of a charge on top of a fee on top of an insurance policy. It’s taxes and turtles all the way down.
