Williams Andrew: Taxation (Livestock Valuation Assets Expenditure and Remedial Matters) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Taxation (Livestock Valuation Assets Expenditure and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 02 July 2013. Volume:691;Page:11748. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First):Thank you Mr Chairperson—a wise choice. The Taxation (Livestock Valuation Assets Expenditure and Remedial Matters) Bill—I was just very interested in the comments from the previous speaker Dr David Clark because I actually thought at one stage that he had read some of the notes I had for my speech because he made some excellent points.The first point which I think we all have to be reminded of and which most New Zealanders do remember is the fact that 2 years ago this Government gave something like close to $2 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest of New Zealanders at the expense of the rest of New Zealand. As a result of giving those tax deductions to the likes of the Prime Minister who got another $1000 a week in his pay packet; to the likes of Paul Reynolds the Chief Executive of Telecom who got another $5000 a week rebate on his tax—$5000 a week can you believe it—and to the likes of many other National Party - supporting high rollers who got a lot of money back we end up with the Hon Peter Dunne the Minister of Revenue at the time who is now very much the “done Minister” rather than Minister Dunne who brought forward this bill 167 pages long to tinker around with the tax to basically find the rats and mice to find the little nickel and dimes to do what he could to try to claw back some money to help offset the couple of billion dollars that the Government gave to the likes of John Key and Paul Reynolds.We were very sceptical about this legislation in the first place because we could see that it was very much just tinkering around the edges. However we have come round to the viewpoint that we will support it in that it does state that it is “in order to improve the fairness of existing tax law and regulations protect the tax base and minimise the burden on businesses.” These are very much in line with principles that New Zealand First has to support streamlining the tax system to support the reduction in cost tobusiness to help the New Zealand economy to help grow the New Zealand economy and to help make our people basically a more prosperous people and nation as a result.We do note that there are some areas in this bill that are worthy of note and they are that there have been some changes to the GST laws which remove the inequitable situation of non-resident versus resident businesses. That is fair enough.There have also been some changes to the livestock valuation rules around the whole livestock valuation area. It also provides—and we think this is an important aspect in this bill—Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Speaking of livestock.ANDREW WILLIAMS: Speaking of livestock? Oh speaking of livestock—really? It also provides tax deductibility for expenditure on trees and plantings for erosion shelter and water protection purposes and we think that is a good thing. With the increasingly erratic climate that we are suffering and with what we saw as recently as last week with storm damage in different parts of New Zealand it is increasingly important that we do have increased planting of trees and other such planting to reduce erosion to provide more shelter and to help with protection of our important waterways around New Zealand.Similarly this bill has a part in it that provides donee status to three charity organisations that operate internationally. Again we feel that that is fair and it recognises those particular three organisations in order to treat them in a fairer manner. It also eliminates tax treatment mismatches to certain foreign currency hedges. Again it helps our currency markets to perhaps operate in a fairer manner. It does in the end withdraw what was going to be a silly tax the car-park tax on Auckland’s central business district and Wellington’s central business district. Again we are pleased that that was withdrawn from this bill because that would have been a complete nonsense. We have heard from so many people who said that you could literally be across the street from your biggest major competitor and on one side of the street you would be paying for your staff to be parking and on the other side of the street your major competitor could be getting off scot-free. What a total nonsense. How the Minister and how this Government allowed that sort of thing to get into this legislation is beyond us. [Bell rung ] Mr Chair—The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): The honourable member Andrew Williams.ANDREW WILLIAMS: Thank you. Another wise decision Mr Chair—another wise decision.We also remind New Zealand that in terms of the tinkering around the edges this Government does have to face up to the fact that all New Zealanders need a fair go when it comes to tax. What we are seeing increasingly is that the Government is getting behind and doing backroom deals with those who can take advantage of situations and who can do very well out of the system while others—the general everyday good solid Kiwi hard workers—are not being treated in the same manner. It is not right. We certainly hope in this House that every politician would be aiming to get a fair tax system for everyone. Aspects of this bill go some way to address that but there is still a long way to go and there is still a lot to be done to streamline our tax system in order to make it simpler to make it fairer to reduce taxes in this country to make this economy more affordable and more competitive and to put us on a stronger level pegging with many other economies that are moving forward at a much greater rate with lower company taxes and lower taxes for the likes of the export sector. Again New Zealand First is very strong on the fact that we are not doing enough to support our export sector. If we do not make more money offshore and if we do not bring more overseas funds into this country we as a nation will suffer. The Inland Revenue Department isalso going after some silly areas in taxation instead of looking at the much bigger picture of how to reform the taxation system for the benefit of all.Just in closing we hear that the Inland Revenue Department is about to spend $1.5 billion on a new computer system to oversee its revenue and tax collection. That is a vast amount of money by anyone’s standards—by any country’s standards—to spend $1.5 billion on a new computer system. One would hope that if New Zealand is spending that sort of money we would get hand in hand with that new computer system a lot more of a streamlined system that would make this country really tick over a lot faster. We would hope we are not going to get another Novopay another INCIS and another debacle and that we will not look back in years to come on the Inland Revenue Department in terms of having some disastrousTitanic of a computer system strung around our necks. New Zealand First will be supporting this bill but we do so with some reservations.