Dyson Ruth: Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Dyson Ruth: Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:19051] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 I know we have a commitment from the Minister in the chair the Minister of Health to answer our questions. I appreciate that offer. I have one question in relation to the number of people who are likely to be affected by the Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill and whether people will be getting reversals of actions that they have already taken between 4 September and now. Will they have already paid some tax liability and now receive a refund; if so how will that process work? I just want to get a bit of a feel of how many people we might be talking about how many organisations we might be talking about and what sort of process they will have to go through in order to access the benefits of the legislation. I am looking hopefully at the officials who are busy writing some advice for the Minister who unfortunately is not the Minister responsible for this legislation. The Minister of Revenue has been detained on very important matters of public business no doubt and is unable to join us tonight. 
The second question I want to ask is whether any consideration was given during the preparation of this bill to the terrible situation that our early childhood education centres have found themselves in. The Minister of Education has recently announced that the operations grants for our compulsory education in schools are to be maintained at the pre - 22 February level until the end of the calendar year. That is an absolute delight for our schools which were really wondering how they would be able to fund-raise in order to meet the deficit when they have quite traumatised children who need additional support not less support. That was a really welcome announcement by the Minister. But nothing at all has been given to early childhood education centres which are in exactly the same position as schools. They are even worse affected than schools because both their staff as well as their comparable operations grants come from their daily attendance records. They are paid by the number of pupils the number of students who attend early childhood centres every day. Once a few families leave the suburb or leave the town those numbers drop. We do not know quite when people will come back to Canterbury if they will at all. The insecurity for early childhood centres is also really problematic. During the preparation of this package of support for Cantabrians I wonder whether any consideration was given to that; if not would the Minister give a commitment to pass that matter on to the Minister of Education for her consideration at the earliest possible opportunity? 
The final question I want to ask is one that I will also answer for the Minister. It is not because I do not think he knows the answer but because I received a commitment last evening from the Hon Peter Dunne to answer the question when I asked it so that we would have it on the public record that this was in fact the case in relation to this legislation and the employment subsidy. The concern I raised with Peter Dunne last night when I read the legislation was whether the tax exemption applied to the employment support subsidy. It might sound odd but if it did it would be very problematic if it was not counted as income. I do not need to go into the details unless the Minister would like me to share them with members in which case I am happy to do that. I checked with the Minister on whether an employment support subsidy would be counted as a gift to a Cantabrian and therefore be exempt from income tax. I had my fingers crossed that he would come back to me and say no and I was very pleased when he did that. The employment support subsidy is treated as income. It covers loss of wages and it is subject to PAYE. I am happy with that but I want it to be put on the record that the Minister gave me that advice so that there can be no confusion as to the status of the subsidy. 
Those are is all the outstanding questions that I have and I look forward to the Minister’s responses.