6. Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
How much of the increased—
Hon Gerry Brownlee
Mr SPEAKERThe member does not need to take any notice of that kind of interjection when he is asking his question.
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
How much of the increased tobacco excise arising from the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Bill will be allocated to addiction prevention and treatment?
I have a slightly different wording of the question in front of me, but it is near enough, I think. Let me check with the Clerk for a moment to make sure that the question I have in front of me is the current question.
To make sure that the question is heard properly, I ask the Hon David Cunliffe to re-ask his question.
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
How much of the increased tobacco excise arising from the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products) Amendment Act 2010 will be allocated to tobacco addiction prevention and smoking cessation support and treatment?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
The Government will continue the practice of past Governments—that is, not to ring-fence the proceeds of the excise tax for any particular use. I note that the Government spent $57 million in this financial year on tobacco control and smoking cessation.
Hon David Cunliffe Link to this
In the absence of formal ring-fencing, as the Minister described, will all of the extra revenue be used for health spending; if not, what percentage will go to health spending?
In the absence of formal ring-fencing, it is a bit hard to say which bit of any tax collected is used for any particular purpose. For instance, we would not necessarily say that we are using some of that member’s PAYE to teach people how to read questions properly. We do not allocate taxation in that way.
Hon David Cunliffe Link to this
Following on from the Minister’s line of logic, can he at least guarantee that the revenue from tobacco excise will not be used to fund tax cuts for high-income earners?
The Opposition is alleging that all sorts of things are being used to reduce taxes for high-income earners. I can say to the member that the tobacco excise revenue is part of a Budget that has the broad intent of lifting the performance of this economy because we need to undo the damage done by the previous Government.
Hon David Cunliffe Link to this
Will the Minister follow Labour’s example and put some of the additional revenue into smoking cessation programmes like Quitline; if so, exactly what proportion will be provided to Quitline, if any?
I cannot think of too much in the way of policy examples from Labour that we would follow, although I notice that Labour is probably following the example of National in Opposition. That means that Labour is in for a pretty rough time.
Hon David Cunliffe Link to this
I seek leave to table a statement from the excellent former Minister of Health Annette King, dated 15 June 2000, in which she makes clear that revenue from tobacco excise will be sent towards—