Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National): This bill is just the latest in the Government's assaults on New Zealanders' wallets. Here we stand in a cost of living crisis with inflation at a 32-year high with prices at the supermarket at the petrol pump and rents mortgages—all going up up up. New Zealanders' real wages declining their household budgets under strain and what does the Minister for KiwiSaver Taxes" get up and do? He does a David Parker—he does a Minister David Parker and tries to explain away why New Zealanders should feed this Government's addiction to spending with yet another rapacious set of new taxes.Here on this side of the House we say "Actually it's time to give New Zealanders back more of their own money." You know the big thing the Minister didn't talk about in his speech is the rates for income taxation that are set down in this bill because the real missed opportunity today was the opportunity for the Government to adjust tax brackets for all of the inflation that is occurring in our economy. Because not only are they letting inflation rob New Zealanders' back pocket once they're doing it twice: first when the prices go up and second by allowing the tax man allowing the IRD to claw in ever more tax from New Zealanders as they are pushed by inflation into higher tax brackets. But not a word from Minister Parker about that.Let me set the stage. Tax revenue under Labour: it is up $43 billion a year. Now that is a number so big that very few can conceptualise it so let me break it down for you. That number is the equivalent of $17500 per New Zealand household. That's how much more tax the Government is taking.You know I had this conversation with a woman the other day. She said "You know if really what they'd done was they'd ensured that everyone was really well educated that the waiting times in the emergency rooms were down that there was more elective surgery that the environment was being looked after better—hell if they'd done that hundred thousand KiwiBuild houses—then maybe people would understand why the tax take is so astronomically higher."Hon Dr Deborah Russell: Can you table that conversation? Can you table the record of that or do we just make it up?NICOLA WILLIS: But the reality is—Deborah Russell and you know it—the results and the outcomes for the spending are not there. So New Zealanders have an absolute right to say "Why do you keep taking more money from me?" So National says we cannot support a bill that fails once again to adjust tax brackets for inflation. We have put forward a detailed proposal and it would ensure that a New Zealander earning $55000 a year is $800 a year better off. David Parker will never do that because actually what Labour have shown is that they believe that they can spend New Zealanders' money better than they can. We saw that didn't we? We saw that with the original guise of this bill which included a brand new tax which I recall David Parker justifying in very similar terms to those that he just used to justify this bill now. Somehow it was OK for this Government to be wiping literally billions off the KiwiSaver accounts of New Zealanders because they felt the urge for a bit more tax. We've still got the Auckland regional fuel tax adding a tax burden to New Zealanders. We've still got according to the passionate speeches from Grant Robertson in question time today the prospect of a jobs tax that will also tax New Zealanders.But I want to come now to something else in this bill and I want to correct the record that David Parker tried to create. Because what he has said is that what he is doing with the "app tax" is somehow completely in line with the way that we have treated GST in this country historically.Hon Stuart Nash: It absolutely is Nicola Willis. It absolutely is—as a former Minister of Revenue it absolutely is.NICOLA WILLIS: Shame on him and shame on you Minister Nash for trying to pull the wool over New Zealanders' eyes because we know on both sides of this House—Hon Stuart Nash: It's about fairness.NICOLA WILLIS: —that a core aspect of the fairness of the GST regime—which I believe in; I believe in fairness—has always been that if you earn under $60000 for your sale of goods or services then you are exempt from GST.Hon Stuart Nash: You can get a rebate back—you get to rebate back. Come on Nicola. Don't be dishonest. NICOLA WILLIS: So I want to help Mr Nash understand this—he's confused. I want him to imagine a market and in this market there are several sellers and each of them are selling maybe $2000 worth of goods $10000 worth of good there. Overall that entire market is selling $70000 worth of goods. Now what Mr Nash thinks is that means everyone should have to pay GST. We say no. The exact same principle applies to digital apps. Why should it be that the Zoomy driver who has a side-hustle trying to keep up with the cost of living under this rapacious Government decides he wants to earn a little bit more on the side—why is it that the members opposite think he should be slapped with a full GST even though he may only be earning $20000 or $30000 a year. They're changing the rules to suit themselves because they are addicted to spending and they want more tax revenue. They are in the words of the New Zealand Law Society embarking on "a significant deviation to the orthodox GST treatment of services in New Zealand." That is what they are doing.I want them to correct the other bit of the record. We had Minister Parker saying that I was wrong to suggest that this cost would end up being paid by everyday New Zealanders when they get their Delivereasy on a Saturday night when they catch a Zoomy somewhere when they get an Airbnb from someone who by the way on average only sells $5600 worth of Airbnb nights in a year—he said "Look none of this is going to get passed onwards to that effect."Actually it's about time he listened to some of the thousands of officials in his own department the Inland Revenue. Here is what the Inland Revenue said in the regulatory impact statement for this bill. They said explicitly "If GST is required to be collected by digital platforms on these services … this will be passed on fully to consumers. This will increase the cost to consumers of purchases made through digital platforms by up to 15 percent." Now Minister Parker you would do well to listen to these officials. I would warn New Zealanders that that Minister who was prepared to stand up today and mislead I believe in some ways—pardon me Madam Speaker—who was prepared to stand up and make claims about this bill which seem to be contradicted by the facts is the man in charge of revenue in this country.I'm worried about what comes next because right now there's a little unit down in IRD—it's the Piketty unit. It's David Parker's little hobby project to see what new ways he can dream up to take more tax from New Zealanders.Hon Dr Deborah Russell: Actually look at what people pay in tax in this country.NICOLA WILLIS: Not content with tenant taxes the removal of interest deductibility that Dr Russell his Associate Minister knows was a very bad idea from the minute it was introduced—she knows it. Not content with doing that and not content with adding to the price of rent for New Zealand tenants not content with the proposal for a KiwiSaver tax not content with the idea that a wealth tax may or may not be on the table depending on which Minister is standing up on the day he is working away on new taxes.In that sense I just want to finish on this note from the bill which is pointing to something I find deeply ironic which is what is called the "Build-to-rent exemption from interest limitation"—as if for once in their lives the members opposite think someone shouldn't have to pay more tax. Well let's be clear: it's not really an exemption is it when actually the orthodox tax treatment for all rental properties for many many decades has been that everyone can deduct their interest. So actually that was the status quo then Labour came in with their rapacious addiction to spending and they said "We're going to slap tax on everyone. Who cares if the tenants are paying more rent? Who cares if the emergency housing motels are overflowing in Hawke's Bay? Who cares if the State house waiting list is four times longer than it ever was under National? We'll just keep slapping those taxes down. But don't worry there's a build-to-rent exemption." [Interruption] Well if members are so enthusiastic about build-to-rent I would recommend to them that they pick up our build-to-rent bill which would also exempt build-to-rent housing from the overseas investment restrictions which they are very clear is going to prevent it happening under this particular Labour regime. So National opposes this bill—it is yet another assault on New Zealanders' wallets during the cost of living crisis. It fails to reduce income taxes—that is very overdue—it represents a new assault on wallets in the form of the "app tax" it is an unprincipled bill a missed opportunity. We oppose."