8. SHANE JONES (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
What are his priorities as Minister of Finance?
Madam SPEAKERI cannot hear the answer, and I am sitting reasonably close. Would members please desist from barracking; interjections are permitted.
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
If we cleared the House of the Opposition, we could have a quiet conversation. As I recently told this House, the most important thing a Government can do in the modern world is to do all it can to ensure its citizens can enjoy a good life, bring up their children in decency, enjoy a good job, have decent housing, and retire with dignity. My priority as Minister of Finance is to ensure that we have the prudent fiscal settings to allow this for now and into the future.
Has he received any reports of alternative priorities that could be pursued by a Minister of Finance?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
As I mentioned yesterday, an alternative priority I am aware of is the suggestion that the Minister of Finance’s first thoughts in the morning are to ask himself how his shares did overnight, as Mr Key yesterday admitted he does about his Merrill Lynch shares. This may explain his opposition, with unwonted vigour and enthusiasm, to any change in the offshore investment tax regime that would increase his tax in that regard.
John KeyIs the Minister aware that he is quite incorrect—my first thought when I wake up in the morning is to imagine which of the pretenders, from Trevor Mallard to David Cunliffe, will be the next Minister of Finance when the Minister finally gets the flick in a couple of weeks?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
Firstly, all I can say is that if the first thing the member thinks of when he wakes up is Trevor Mallard, that is called having a nightmare. And since the member dragged my wife into debate yesterday, I think it is a terrible insult to his own wife that he wakes in the morning and thinks of Trevor Mallard. Furthermore, why, in that case, did the member tell a dinner party the exact opposite—that he thought about what had happened to the price of his Merrill Lynch shares overnight—or was he just big-noting as usual?
Hon Trevor Mallard Link to this
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I just want to put it on the record that the feeling is not mutual. I never think of Mr Key first thing in the morning.