Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on the backlash surrounding the Government's new LNG facility

Parliament's wading into debate whether a levy the Government announced yesterday is indeed a levy, or in fact a tax.

The so-called 'levy on electricity' will fund building an LNG import terminal. 

Labour was quick to label this a 'gas tax', but Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Energy Minister Simon Watts maintained this project would bring down people's power bills.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper unpacked today's discussions in Parliament.

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Sooper, Senior Political correspondence with us Alla Barry Afternoon. Heather, So,
the tax is a problem.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Is it a tax or a levy? Look, you know,
for time memorial in politics, politicians have always denied that
levees are in fact taxes, and if you look at
the definition of the levy, it is a tax. So
we had this discussion a bit yesterday when we talked
about the LNG set up they're going to do in Taranaki.

(00:28):
But the last prime minister, you remember who tried the
song was Jainda dun. She wanted the clean car emissions levee,
you remember, the ute tax as it was called by
the National Party at the time. She hated that. Now
Chris Luxen is hating the idea that this could possibly

(00:48):
be seen as the levy but a tax. Now, it
was an issue that Labour and the Greens took great
glee in the House today accusing the Government of introducing
a new tax. They must have expected it, surely, but
the Prime Minister was having none of it. Here is
Labour's Crusipkins taking him to task.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Does he agree with Nikola Willis if it looks like
a tax, if it quacks like a tax. It's a tax.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Well, it's a charge that electricity companies will pay so
that consumers pay lower power bills.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's that simple. How does introducing a new guess tax
that every New Zealand household will pay every time they
flick on a light switch help them with the cost
of living?

Speaker 4 (01:32):
What a load of rubbish? And the member clearly is
not understanding what this proposal is actually about. LNG facility
will lead to lower tax bills? Are lower power bills?
Smetric questions?

Speaker 3 (01:43):
The speaker does he agree then with the Cambridge English
Dictionary when it says that the definition of a levy
is quote an amount of money such as a tax.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
It's somewhat semantic. And I just say to the member
that what we're doing is lwering power bills.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yes, it's the old pot calling the kettle playing right,
But then speaking of that, the Greens Chloe Swarbrick. She
was also in the frame later on on the debate
until Winston Peters put her in her place.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Why does the Prime Minister conceive of the fact that
he could hook up a wind farm for the Green
caucus room and maybe that's a solution.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Put your pot here.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Out of that, I would have thought, right, now, what
do you make of Willie Jackson in his business?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, of course Willie Jackson was probably speaking from a
bit more knowledge than what Chris Hipkins gave him credit
for that. You know, he will have been talking to
his old mate John Tammy Herry and they would have
been talking about in the future later this year that
the Labor Party will go with the Maldi Party if

(02:50):
it needs to. And that's the key that if Labor
can't collar the vote then they'll need two parties. One
will be the Greens and they made that quite clear
at WHITANGI that the Greens are right on board regardless
of silly policies that they'll be advocating, hopefully not bottom
lines and coalition negotiations. But Willie Jackson, of course, he's

(03:13):
right in the middle of it. Even though Chris Hopkins
is writing him off as maybe not speaking with the
authority of the Labor Party. Well he's doing exactly that.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
But did you see another one of the Labor Party
MP's repeated the same line, Yes they did, so do
you think what it is a nim mine who cares
don't even know the person?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
But none of those.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
But do you think the veil has slipped here? We've
got an insight into what is most likely going to
be the case.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, of course, and we always knew that. I mean,
if labor does need the numbers, you know Chris Hopkins
will no doubt try and give Vold Winston a bit
of a nudge and a wink. But that's not going
to happen because Peter's is quite clear. But certainly the
MALDI part, if they make up the numbers for the
majority that's needed to get into government, you can bet

(04:06):
your bottom dollar I'll take it.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Did you see the Retail Advisory Crime Crime Advisory Group
has been disbanded?

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yes? So well, I don't know really what poor old
Sunny Kershel is going to do at the end of
all this.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Time. He has so much times.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Work day and night, night and day, day and nightlic holidays.
The one point eight million dollars though were given in
July twenty four has been spent, just overspent, and Sunny's
made quite a handsome living out of it. But Paul
Goldsmith and I know you're going to be talking to

(04:44):
him Stead. If the resignations hadn't occurred, then it was
likely they would have retained the group until the end
of September when it was scheduled to break up then.
But look, Paul Goldsmith, I think has seen the writing
on wall. It's seen that Sunny Kershel is not the
easiest of men to deal with, and that was certainly

(05:05):
made clear when some of the resignations came. And look,
he'll be out of a job in a coup a
couple of months.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, Barry, thanks ver much, appreciate it very so for
senior political corresponding.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.