Bob Edlin: What Carl Bates says about expertise in tax policy....

....and (good grief!) the Finance Minister lacks those credentials

As one measure of the politicians’ preoccupation with tax policy in the runup to the general election, Hansard recorded the word “tax” 371 times in its record of proceedings in the House of Representatives yesterday.

But if we listen to Carl Bates, National MP for Whanganui, only some were qualified to discuss it.

He did not say how many, but it seems reasonable to suppose he regards himself as one of them.

Born and raised in Whanganui, Bates can boast a bachelor of business studies degree in accountancy from Massey University.

During debate in the House yesterday, he argued:

To have a good tax policy, it helps to have people who actually understand tax. The Labour Party doesn’t have a single chartered accountant in Parliament, nor does Te Pāti Māori or the Greens. It’s a bit like a hospital without doctors, a school without teachers, or the Labour Party without unionists.

That’s an interesting way of evaluating politicians’ fitness to formulate policy.

We can be grateful that Finance Minister Nicola Willis can turn to Bates for guidance when she sorts out tax stuff.

Wikipedia says of her that after a secondary education as a boarder at Auckland private school King’s College, she

… went on to seek a first-class honours degree in English literature from Victoria University of Wellington and a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the University of Canterbury.

Hmm. No mention of accountancy – but in her Finance portfolio, she is responsible for a Budget which requires IRD to collect $153.119 billion in taxes this financial year.

PoO didn’t look into Paul Goldsmith’s qualifications, but we did wonder to whom he might turn for advice on the issues he must tackle in his portfolios as Minister of …

Pacific Peoples

Public Service and Digitising Government

Space

Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations

Veterans

Arts, Culture and Heritage

Defence

GCSB and NZSIS

Justice

Media and Communications

With her journalism credential, maybe Willis would be a better fit for that last portfolio.

More worthy of note for this article, we learned later in House proceedings yesterday, what she thinks about the qualifications needed to understand taxes and tax policy.

Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance) (16:11): Well, Madam Chair, it’s very early in the Estimates debate for the Opposition member to have taken a cup of Mr Hipkins’ nasty juice. However, what I can clarify is that you don’t need a PhD in tax, like Deborah Russell has, you don’t need years of experience at IRD, like Barbara Edmonds has, to know this: if you impose more taxes on businesses, they will have less revenue available to them to invest in new job creation and higher wages for their people. That is why our Government is proud to support Investment Boost—the first effective tax reduction for businesses in far, far too long. That sits nicely alongside the policy that we continue to deliver on, which was the first adjustment to personal income tax rates for workers in more than 14 years—a policy change that that member opposed. So I can only take it that she would rather New Zealanders were paying more tax right now.

Just one thing: Russell hastened to correct the Minister.

My PhD is not in taxation; I’d like the Minister to withdraw that allegation!

No, not really an allegation. Rather, it was a mistake.

And a bit later:

Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour) (16:32): Just reverting to an earlier discussion: for the benefit of the Minister of Finance, my PhD is actually in philosophy—the study of argumentation and logic—and it’s very helpful for noticing when people are obfuscating and not answering questions. I’d just like to point out that the Minister has not yet answered my colleague Chlöe Swarbrick’s question about the liquefied natural gas terminal, the Minister has not yet answered my colleague the Hon Dr Megan Woods’ question about the drawdown on the contingency, and she has not yet answered my question on why 1 percent is considered to be the appropriate size for the Public Service.

The chairperson – infuriatingly – got in the way of Willis’ response by calling Chloe Swarbrick to speak.

CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): Chlöe—

Hon Nicola Willis: Madam Chair, you don’t need a philosophy degree to look at—

CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): I’m sorry, but I had started to call Chlöe Swarbrick.

And so we did not get to hear what Willis would argue we don’t need a philosophy degree to look at.

But it has something to do with thinking – doesn’t it? – which means it should have a place in pretty well everything that policy-makers do.

Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.