Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13432] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 When I finished speaking for 2 minutes about a week and a half ago now I was saying that New Zealand First unlike the National Party supports tax cuts wherever they may occur. Again New Zealand First unlike the National Party supports superannuation savings wherever they may occur be they small or great or of a design we completely agree with. 
In this case the Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill in its content includes KiwiSaver which by and large financial commentators around the country are starting to become enthusiastic about. In the first instances they rubbished it completely and in some cases said there was no need for the Government to introduce such a scheme. New Zealand First is pleased to see that KiwiSaver is encompassed within this bill. 
Along with that we are pleased to see tax credits for research but we understand that that is something that has pitfalls in it. It is an area that has been open to rorting in overseas countries. We are very very pleased that our taxation people have spent a lot of time studying the Australian example because in this country if we are to be competitive in the areas we wish to excel in—namely biotech and high technology areas of all sorts—we no longer want to aim our workforce at unskilled jobs and be the source of cheap exports. We want excellence in this country and to have that we simply must have research and development of the highest order. If the Government wants that to happen it must say so and it must say so in the only sensible manner that business understands—which is to give business a tax credit. 
There have been some issues from our State-owned enterprises. They have had concerns that where they have been in partnership with private entities they are not eligible for tax breaks. New Zealand First says that they should be because they are funded by the Government. In those cases their partners in being private enterprises will have tax breaks available to them and we think that that is right. 
We implore businesses to play the game; we implore them to do what is right in this area. It would be a pity if our renewed experiences in taxation credits and in research and development were ones where we had businesses trying to rort the system. I have enough faith in our businesses to think that that will not happen but we will just have to trust and see. 
This bill also addresses the area of research and development in software. Overseas—again in Australia—there has been a little bit of a problem whereby banks in particular have developed new software and attempted to gain a tax advantage on that by saying that it was research and development expenditure when in fact it was just the redevelopment or even a new development of internal software. That is not what this bill aims to have happen so those things will be looked at very closely if anybody has ideas of getting involved in that. 
I think everybody understands that along with this bill there has been a rewriting of our tax law. Attempts have been made to line us up with Australia which members may be surprised to know New Zealand First is very much in favour of. Wherever we can assist our businesses to line up with other countries with which we compete New Zealand First is right in there voting for that on their behalf. 
We are also very happy to see that the area of charitable organisations is taken account of. We in political parties all know—at least I hope we all know—the huge efforts of people who work for no recompense other than the satisfaction of helping their communities. We are pleased to see that people who give money to and help charitable organisations in this country are at long last recognised and can get a tax break. 
I think that is about all I wish to say on this bill. New Zealand First is wholeheartedly in support of it. Unlike the National Party we support those areas that attend to savings and in the past we have supported those parts that go towards tax reduction and indeed tax credits for research.