Genter Julie Anne: Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGenter Julie Anne: Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 31 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11538. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Far from condemning the bill as Mr Bishop was concerned that members opposite might be doing I rise of course to speak in favour of the bill on behalf of the Green Party. It does make a number of very minor amendments that will make the tax system easier for ordinary New Zealanders to deal with every day. It will bring it back into the 21st century—I think Stuart Nash mentioned that earlier tonight. That is the sort of riveting stuff this bill does. It means that we can now use electronic signatures get those automatic refunds a little bit earlier and the Commissioner of Inland Revenue can now receive emails. All of that has to be done; there is no question. The Green Party is very happy to support that work in the House.I will of course join with my Labour Party colleagues and no doubt New Zealand First colleagues in saying that this bill could be doing a lot more to make a substantial difference to New Zealanders. These sorts of below-the-radar amendments are necessary but they are fundamentally not going to do anything to create a fairer New Zealand or a simpler more transparent tax system. All of that could be done. The National Government has made a lot of excuses for why we cannot make those sorts of improvements to have a fairer tax system. It just says it cannot be done. For example we cannot have a proper capital gains tax on investment properties even though it is really clearly unfair that people who go and work hard from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for a pay cheque have to pay tax on their income and those who are well off enough to own a couple of investment properties in Auckland can make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and not pay any tax on that income. It is unfair it is inefficient it is bad for our economy and it is bad for financial stability.The Reserve Bank has been talking about this for years now. Treasury has been talking about it for years. All the National Government has managed to bring in during its term is this brightline test which applies only to residential land and applies only to properties bought and sold within 2 years. That was a very flawed piece of legislation which really should have—well I think we are going to see that the truth is that legislation will not have the impact it needed to have to cool the housing crisis in Auckland. It certainly does not make the tax system fairer or simpler. It makes it much more complicated because it applies only to residential land and it does not apply for a long period of time to make a substantial difference.Of course this legislation because we were working on it for such a long period of time tidies up all sorts of laws that exist. It makes a whole lot of amendments and tidies up the tax law and takes the language seriously. If only that level of detail and work had been applied to the brightline test which was clearly a half-measure that National was forced to bring in at the last minute. It is that kind of very last-minute and you know just superficial approach to law-making I guess that really typically represents this National Government. It is more interested in doing things around the edges tinkering here and there doing things for public relations reasons to get the bump in the polls it needs but not actually in addressing the substantive issues in our tax system that are long overdue for being addressed.Of course this bill does not do anything to make our tax system more transparent which is something the Green Party and I am sure other Opposition parties and most New Zealanders would like to see. I attempted to move an amendment in the Committee stage of this bill that would have cleaned up and increased the transparency around foreign trusts—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): No. The member cannot refer to that because it was ruled out of order. So the member cannot refer to it in the third reading.JULIE ANNE GENTER: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. So this bill of course does nothing to improve the transparency around our foreign trusts which is something that it could well have done. I think the National Government is going to find it is really not on the side of public opinion when it comes to New Zealand being used as a tax haven. It is because of this core value of fairness that New Zealanders have—and they would like to have a fair tax system. They would like to have legislation that ensures fairness whether that is in New Zealand or overseas and they probably do not think it is right that New Zealand is being used by wealthy foreigners to hide assets without having to declare any—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I have brought to the member’s attention that you cannot refer to anything that is not in the third reading. This is a report back from the Committee. What the Committee has reported back that is what we are debating now. The other information is out of order and I ask the member to come back.JULIE ANNE GENTER: You know it is quite difficult for the National Government members that people should hold them to account for what they are not doing in their legislation and so they try to shut down Opposition parties that would like to be able to speak about this. It is amazing—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! The member will sit. That is an attack on the Speaker and I would ask the member to be very careful. It is not the Government that is making these decisions. I was the one who ruled your Supplementary Order Paper out of order in the Committee stage not the Government. I was the one who ruled it out because I was the presiding officer at the time. That was a decision I made and to bring that up now and to say that the Government was involved in trying to do something underhand is not acceptable. I would just ask the member to come back to the bill otherwise I will have to terminate her speech.JULIE ANNE GENTER: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just raise the point that we have heard about a wide range of topics related to tax in the previous speeches on this bill.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): No. I have ruled and you were here when I brought other members to account for what they were doing and what they were saying. I have mentioned the Speakers’ rulings that are appropriate in this case. In your case you have been referring to matters that are completely outside scope. I am the presiding officer; the judgment is mine. I have mentioned it to you on two occasions and I will ask the member in her final few minutes to actually concentrate. The third reading speech is on what is reported back from the Committee to the House.JULIE ANNE GENTER: One of the issues that have not been mentioned in this bill is the changes to KiwiSaver membership. The bill extends the provision for information sharing between the Inland Revenue Department and KiwiSaver fund providers in relation to email addresses and address contact details. It extends that to phone numbers and also may provide a scheme provider with certain information including the names of scheme members who have transferred out of their scheme and the name of the members’ new provider and the names of the scheme provider’s new members. I am sure that people watching at home tonight would be riveted by this information in this bill and they will think it is quite important.Another incredibly important change that this bill makes is that it allows members who have been incorrectly enrolled in KiwiSaver when they were minors to now opt out of KiwiSaver up until their 19th birthday. If they are under the age of 16 they must have the consent of one of their guardians and if they are 17 or 18 they may withdraw without guardian consent. Those are the types of monumental changes that are in this Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Bill. But I would say that New Zealanders are facing much bigger issues today such as inequality in climate change and the tax system could go a long way towards addressing those issues while having broader economic benefits and making lives better for all New Zealanders. But we will not see that kind of change from this National Government because it is protecting the status quo.