Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on this which will be I think a big part of this section because it's the only part we can discuss it. It's my amendment on the tabled amendment that I've presented to the House and I'll bring the Minister Simon Watts' attention to Part 2 clause 3A which inserts a new clause 3A into his Amendment Paper and that would seek to amend section MD 13 of the Income Tax Act 2007 which this part of his Amendment Paper amends. The reason that this is probably going to be quite a big part of this section is that it's to do with the abatement thresholds and its impact on the whole-Government tax plan is quite large.So let me start with: what was sort of trailered and outlined prior to the Budget by the National Party about this amendment that I have put is that the family tax credit would be one of the main drivers of the distributive benefits of their tax plan and it would help lower-income earners to receive a greater proportion of the benefits that were being distributed by it. So my amendment would seek—you know it's not something that I necessarily agree with but it is what was promised by National going into this Budget and this amendment is required to do that. So I'd like to engage with the Minister about what has changed in this bill what was promised prior to the introduction of this bill and why they are different and how my amendment would seek to close that gap.So under the family tax credit you get $25 more but it abates at the same rate and at the same level of income. Actually there were two changes that were signalled here. One was that $25 change which is good. It's good to see that people with children will be getting $25 extra; that's something we support. But actually the bigger cost to the Government that was canvassed prior to this bill which has not been done by this bill is that the change to the abatement threshold would be made in this kind of legislation and that's where you would do it. The change to the abatement threshold is actually a bigger change to the Government's books and it would make a bigger change for tens of thousands of families who would then become eligible for extra support and that hasn't happened here.So prior to this change coming in—I also want to hear from the Minister because it was said around the election campaign time that it would fit within the operating allowance to both do the $25 change and the change to the abatement threshold and that it would fit within the limits but we're seeing here that that decision has not been made. So why was it that that was intended to fit within the Budget operating allowance but now does not fit within the Budget operating allowance? What trade-offs have been made? Have they been made in this bill or are they elsewhere? This is something that we need to get into.I also would like the Minister to comment about whether the trade-off that's being made here with not being able to do the abatement threshold is because of the interest deductibility cost that has cost more than the Budget operating allowance that was canvassed prior to this bill being introduced into the House. So I want the Minister to engage with me a little bit about that before I ask him some more questions about the family tax abatement threshold.