Hughes Gareth: Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 19 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18729. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green):Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. New Zealand First is not the only party opposing this bill. You have also got the Green Party because although it is called the Taxation (Annual Rates Employee Allowances and Remedial Matters) Bill what this bill should be called is the “National Party (Oil Drilling Subsidies) Bill”. I want to get on to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act provisions that the honourable member Winston Peters just touched on. But at this bill’s heart is an extension of $5 million in subsidies for one of the world’s wealthiest industries the oil industry. This Government wants to fork out $5 million of taxpayers’ money for the oil industry to see more oil drilling risking more oil spills and seeing more greenhouse gas emissions. That is not a good idea for New Zealand. This is not the way to build a richer New Zealand and lift our kids out of poverty.When we are looking at the tax code—and we in the Green Party support tax reform—we should be looking at how we reduce the burden on Kiwi families. We should be looking at how we send the right economic signals through our tax system. How do we actually address tax avoidance which the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act tries to address? But when you look at it there are massive privacy concerns. The fact is that the treaty has not even concluded its negotiations yet here is the little old New Zealand Parliament signing up to a treaty that has not even been concluded. This treaty deals with 70000 foreign-born residents in New Zealand. If they are American citizens and they have more than $10000 in their bank account they have to register in the US. It raises significant privacy concerns surveillance concerns and is an exercise in extra-territoriality. It is a big risk and the fact that the treaty has not been concluded should I think raise alarm bells.When we are looking at the tax code let us look at the avoidance issue. Let us look at the economic signals we are sending through our tax system. But let us also look at how we can make it better and that is why the Greens are proposing a capital gains tax on the family home. We want to see investment go to the productive sector not into the skyrocketing Auckland housing market driven on by speculators. At this election the Kiwi public has a clear choice. On the one hand is a party for the speculators a party that wants to see more money being invested into housing—not to improve it but to speculate. On the other hand this side of the House wants to see investment in a productive economy and investment in an innovative economy. This is how we are going to see a richer New Zealand—a smart Green and innovative economy and a carbon tax cut along with a capital gains tax on the family home are critical parts of that.It is quite a surprising situation. When we are talking about tax reform as we are with this legislation it is not the National Party and it is not the ACT Party talking about tax reduction; it is the Green Party. It is the Green Party that wants to take $2000 off the bottom tax threshold. It is the Green Party that wants to see a 1 percent business tax reduction rate. It is the Green Party that wants to ease the burden on New Zealanders. And who do we want to see paying? We want to send a message to the polluters through the tax system to invest in smart Green innovation. At the moment National members and the member sitting there barracking out are quite happy for the taxpayer to pick up the tab to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidise polluters. National wants to subsidise polluters. It is subsidising polluters and it is doing that right now through our emissions trading scheme. It is time for a carbon tax cut and a capital gains tax really focused on avoidance.But let us get to the issue at hand which is fossil fuel subsidies. This bill extends the non-resident offshore oil rig tax exemption—$5 million of taxpayers’ money is going to foreign oil companies. This Government is pouring tens of millions of taxpayers’ dollars down these failed oil wells. It is National that gave a $25 million seismic survey subsidy handed out on a platter to the fossil fuel industry. It is National that presides over $46 million per annum in tax breaks for the most wealthy sector in the world—a sector responsible for the spike in carbon emissions a sector responsible for a great deal of harm around the world. And it is National that wants to extend the $5 million non—resident oil drilling ship extension.This is not the way New Zealand should be going. We should be embracing a smart Green innovative economy and building a richer New Zealand. This is what the experts say. This is what the evidence suggests when you look around the world. This is what the brute economics is. While National stands up for the oil drillers and wants to see more fracking drilling and mining and they want to see Denniston expanded we are offering a real choice. It is a choice that is going to see more workers employed more profits staying in New Zealand and a more sustainable economy.This bill is part of a long list of fossil fuel subsidies that you see under National. Globally the International Energy Agency estimates we could have $610 billion every year subsidising fossil fuel globally. The international experts from the United Nations environment programmes and the International Energy Agency are all calling for reform because that $610 billion of which New Zealand is a component could be better spent on lifting people out of poverty giving people real energy choices and building a resilient energy system powered by clean energy. Although Treasury is opposed to extending this the OECD is opposed to it and the International Energy Agency is calling for fossil fuel subsidies National wants the taxpayer to face the risk.I challenge any National member to go out to the election go out to the constituents and go out to the voters and say “Do you want us to keep propping up and subsidising with your money the fossil fuel sector—the oil drillers risking our beaches and our treasured wild places?”. Go on. Ask your voters and constituents whether that is what they want to see hard-working taxpayers’ dollars being spent on. I bet your bottom dollar that taxpayers do not want to be forking out for this. We want to see kids lifted out of poverty. We want to see our wild places and our animals protected. It is a clear choice we are seeing and this bill is symptomatic of the clear choice we have this election. On one hand that choice is a Government that is quite happy to risk the last 55Māui’s dolphins by offering oil permits over their sanctuary a sanctuary that is hardly providing sanctuary if the Government is quite happy for seismic surveying to subsidise the oil drilling industry to drill more wells. This is a Government that is quite happy to prop up the likes ofTīwai and get it to stay in New Zealand for only a couple years.This is a Government that this week embarrassingly had the first Environmental Protection Authority case declined. Remember that it was National’s Simon Bridges who went on television and said “I support the Trans-Tasman Resources proposal. I support more ironsands mining on New Zealand shores.” It was Simon Bridges who said that. He said he wanted to see this project go ahead. And it was Steven Joyce who was quite happy to front up again with taxpayers’ dollars playing fast and loose with taxpayers’ dollars. It was Steven Joyce who offered up to $25 million to this foreign offshore oil company with Dame Jenny Shipley on the board. He offered it $25 million. But you know what? The project was so bad. The company had not done its homework. The risks were so great that even National’s Environmental Protection Authority had to decline it. That was the first one ever.What you see is on the one hand the marine environment being the winner—the humpback whales and the Māui’s dolphins which live nearby are the winners—and National being the loser because it is National that supported the proposal. It is National that said that this company had done its homework yet the Environmental Protection Authority said the company had not done its homework. And it was National that was quite happy to throw taxpayers’ dollars at it yet the Environmental Protection Authority said it was not going to happen.So let us focus on a smart Green innovative economy. Let us build a clean-energy economy for New Zealand. This is a $22 billion annual economic opportunity. Investment New Zealand says that there is a $150 billion export opportunity in cleantech and green energy by 2030. That is what we want to embrace. That is why we are going to the election saying we will get to 100 percent renewables. That is why we are saying we are going to help Kiwis with more insulation under their roofs and with solar panels on the tops of their roofs through our low-interest loans. We are going to give Kiwis a fair deal a fair and reasonable price when they export surplus electricity to the grid. It is the Greens who are going to help those Kiwi start-ups and investments through the Green Investment Bank. It is the Greens who are going to send a proper economic signal through the tax system through the carbon tax cut to save Kiwi businesses and families’ money and to see a clean-energy economy.This is why I am very happy to be standing here opposing this bill because there is a better pathway to a richer New Zealand which the Green Party is championing. This is what I think New Zealanders want to see. When we go and ask the public whether they want to keep subsidising the polluters the oil drillers the seabed miners—no. They want a fair go a proper economic system that has leadership and vision and looks to the future. A smart Green innovative economy is a richer economy leading a richer New Zealand and that is what we are going to continue to champion. Kia ora.