Edmonds BarbaraHon BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana): Thank you Mr Chair for giving me the ability to take a call. I do actually want to speak to both Schedule 2 and the tabled amendment in the name of Kahurangi Carter.It's really important that when Parliament goes through the process of either increasing taxes or increasing levies or imposing levies or taxes that there is some assessment of where the incidence of that burden lands. There is no regulatory impact statement in relation to this bill; however I'm looking for the impact of where the incidence of this increased levy lands. I looked in the supplementary analysis report and pages 16 to 17 have some brief comments as to the different sectors as to the impact of increased levies on them—or increased taxes—and how it would impact them. The reason why I just want to step through those different sectors is because I think it's important as to provide some understanding as to where the Labour Party will vote in relation to Kahurangi Carter's tabled amendment.So if you go to paragraph 75 of the supplementary analysis report the first group that it looks at is landfill site operators who will need to pay the higher levy costs. However the statement continues it says that this is expected to pass through costs on to others. So in some cases where there is a substantial competition some site operators may find it harder to pass all the costs on.So then the question is: well if there are less site operators what's the impact if there are less site operators because of the increased charges set out in Schedule 2 and proposed in the tabled amendment? Does that mean that we're going to end up with more dumping of waste—construction waste or other waste; household waste—onto public sites because the incidence of the burden of this increased tax falls on those site operators where there is a lot of competition they're not able to pass the cost on so therefore there will be less site operators.The next sector that the analysis report goes through producers and disposers of waste: household businesses territorial authorities. Overall the increases to levy rates are estimated to raise an additional $171 million in revenue between the 2025/26 financial year and the 2027/28. That's compared to what would apply from 1 July 2024 so that's quite substantial—$171 million. I haven't calculated how much the amount would be given under the tabled amendment but I would say given that the construction and demolition disposal facility is recommended at $90 per tonne from $27.70 per tonne for managed or controlled field disposals and then 75—sorry I'm just reading what Kahurangi Carter's tabled amendment says—it would be considerably more revenue that's collected by the Crown.But again going back to the land site operators there may be less of them they won't be able to pass the operations on so therefore just some concerns raised there about actually increasing it way too much which is covered within the tabled amendments.The statement also says that the impacts on households: while households would likely face some cost increases this will vary depending on how territorial authorities and landfill operators charge for rubbish collection. So we already know right now that local authorities are having difficulty in basically meeting their everyday operational and capital costs hence why we are seeing soaring rates increases across the country.For example I'm not too sure what the Bay of Plenty increase is—I know in Porirua it's around 17 percent and 8 percent the next year. But obviously depending on where it is in the country the increases in the rates—basically this impact assessment says that it's likely that that cost will be absorbed by those territorial authorities. But I don't think that that's actually going to happen because local authorities are already telling us that they have a huge increase in rates. So the statement goes: this would be a $3 plus GST increase across the period per trailer load.So then it goes on to the next sector: impacts on construction and demolition and development. Now this is a really key part for me because the construction sector is the second largest employer in my electorate of Mana. We are already having an economic slowdown. The construction industry is already on its knees because the Government has slowed down buildings of houses hospitals and schools. However what this bill then does is increase the cost and the Schedule 2 for the construction demolition and development sector—Mr Chair?CHAIRPERSON (Teanau Tuiono): The Hon Barbara Edmonds.Hon BARBARA EDMONDS: I'll sum it up really quickly. So therefore what this talks about is that based on estimates of how much waste is produced during construction of a new-build house levy costs for waste disposal could increase by $46 per house while levy costs for disposal of materials from a typical house demolition could increase by around $206. Schedule 2 looks at increasing the cost for the typical house demolition to around $206.So my question really is to the Minister—I'm sure the Ministry for the Environment would have given careful consideration about those incentives; they would have recommended an amount where you didn't want people to incentivise people to dump into public sectors. But I just want to check with the Minister in relation to the table remembered by Kahurangi Carter. Was there any advice she received in relation to higher than what she has proposed in Schedule 2? Because I think that's an important consideration for us in the Labour Party as to whether we would support that amendment. I know the Minister doesn't have to do it but we are really concerned about the increased cost to the construction sector in particular for a house build that's going to increase from $46 per house to $206 per house so three times the cost.So if the Minister can just provide a bit of clarity whether they considered anything higher than the $45 which is in Schedule 2 from 2027 and if not then we can see whether we can support the tabled amendment or not. Thank you.