Shaw JamesHon JAMES SHAW (Minister for Climate Change): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. I rise to speak on behalf of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand on the COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill. Before I turn to the substance of the bill I did just want to thank and acknowledge whoever wrote it. I don't know your names but I do know that like many tens of thousands of public servants over the course of the last several weeks your commitment to delivering this public service has been utterly vital and I know that you have worked around the clock under horrendous circumstances to prepare this and under a great deal of pressure. So I just wanted to commend you for your service. Thank you.Turning now to the purpose and the intent of the bill we know that there are a lot of New Zealanders who are extremely anxious as we enter this sort of brave new era of working apart but together to defeat COVID-19 and to stop the virus from spreading and there's a lot of people who are worried about what it means for their health and their jobs and their livelihoods even the security of their own homes.We know that we won't be able to save every job with this bill but like all of the others that are proceeding through the House today it does exemplify the measures that we're taking to cushion the effect. I do want to say that we know also that there are many people who won't be covered by the measures that are outlined in this bill and so I just wanted to say to them that we hear you and this is only one of the sets of measures that we're doing to support New Zealanders through this.In terms of the substance of the bill itself there are a number of things that I just wanted to draw attention to. First of all there's the winter energy payment which has been mentioned already helping to ensure that more people have support as we do go through these winter months and of course people will be at home more; second of all making sure that families can keep receiving the Working for Families tax credit even if their hours change and of course that's highly likely given this scenario. There's also a series of technical changes supporting people who are self-employed to delay paying provisional tax. We know there's been a lot of people who when they've heard about things like the wage subsidies and so on have been worried that as sole traders or freelancers or self-employed in other ways they may miss out. So there are some measures in here for that for them.There's also of course supporting cash flow which is incredibly important at the moment by reinstating tax deductions for non-residential building depreciation. I do want to return to that point. There's also waiving interest on late tax payments if the taxpayer's been significantly affected and also to ensure that research and development which is often the first thing to go in a downturn can continue.I just want to start with the piece around the winter energy payment and that is something that we're really strongly supportive of. My co-leader Marama Davidson when the winter energy payment was first introduced by this Government said that The winter energy payment is going to some of our most vulnerable families children and people who are living alone including elderly who are struggling to pay lower power prices that are not just—that are unjust and are keeping people in hardship." This bill doubles the winter energy payment for this year and I think that that is utterly critical during a period of time when actually the rates of respiratory illnesses and so on increase because the quality of housing in New Zealand is in general so poor. So very pleased that that's happening.The second point is on the in-work tax credits. On that we're supporting families by removing the "hours worked" test in the work tax credit. Of course New Zealand actually has one of the highest rates of churn between employment and unemployment in the OECD so people are moving in and out of employment a great deal and of course we know that that is going to be a real feature of the coming months.We know that there are going to be a lot of people who are doing fewer paid hours and I think one of the things that we often lose attention to when we're looking at the unemployment rate is the under-employment rate which is where a lot of these people are and of course that is going to be significantly affected. So there will be people working fewer hours—those hours may become more irregular—so I think it's incredibly important that we introduce this change.The third piece is around Working for Families—extending the Working for Families tax credit eligibility to those on a temporary visa. I think that extending kindness to those on a temporary visa just highlights how these changes reflect who we are as a country. We know that there are a lot people who are getting an emergency benefit; they also need to move on to the Working for Families tax credit—it's a logical move to do in these circumstances. But I think in both those cases this is something that is going to help to cushion the blow of the coming months.The bill also features changes to depreciation and this was a recommendation of the Tax Working Group. The changes reinstate the ability for depreciation deductions to occur for non-residential buildings. This is a good thing because it's going to help support businesses by freeing up cash flow in the short term and encouraging building repairs and new buildings to occur when we move down from level 4. So it means that people know that we can start to do that. It also means of course that we're coming into line with much of the rest of the world. We know in New Zealand that the construction sector employs almost a quarter of a million people and we want to make sure that when the lockdown does phase down and we can go back to work those people are continuing to build and in fact we need to build our way out of this recession.It would be good if those upgrades could focus on energy-efficient buildings so that we're not making some of the same mistakes that we've made in the past; when we've had to rebuild in a hurry we've often done so without keeping an eye on quality and that has created yet more problems for us that need to then be cleaned up.I would also like to see if we can find ways to encourage high-quality medium to high density housing through this measure and that is something that I am a bit worried about with this because of course this only applies to commercial building and not to residential buildings. That does create a discrepancy which could incentivise the building of commercial buildings over multi-unit apartment buildings exactly when we need multi-unit apartment buildings more in the middle of a housing crisis. Of course if we were to apply it to multi-unit apartment dwellings then that would create a discrepancy between the owners of apartments and the owners of the houses.So it is a thorny issue and we are moving through this in a hurry but I am concerned that we are locking in with this piece of legislation something that will both create an incentive to build fewer apartment buildings more commercial buildings and create a discrepancy that we're going to need to clean up. So I would like to draw the House's attention to that because I do believe that we're going to have to come back to that issue in the not too distant future recognising constraints on the House's business for the foreseeable.In research and development there has already been an explosion of innovation in response to COVID-19. We're seeing micro-distilleries switching from the production of gin to hand sanitiser. That is a good thing right now.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Speak for yourself!Hon JAMES SHAW: Ha! Well Gerry you should probably stay off the hand sanitiser if you're not using it for your hands. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare I want to draw attention to—an iconic New Zealand business with clients all over the world who are providing absolutely vital healthcare equipment right now not just to New Zealand but to countries all around the world and are ramping up supplies of essential equipment. So it's important obviously that we recognise that. And so we want to make sure as we go through this that research and development continues through the tax credit changes that we're introducing in this legislation. So I wholeheartedly support that piece.And actually I just want to take a moment to encourage businesses to do that because you know these types of moments are often things where the first reaction of a business person is to cut costs and batten down the hatches; what can actually often happen is that they then spiral into a negative spiral which can lead to the closure of the business. Actually it's during downturns that are ideal times if you can to invest in the future so that when things start to recover you've got things in place.Finally the other thing I just wanted to draw attention to is around late payments—relaxing the rules of interest charges for late tax payments. You know cash flow is going to be difficult for a lot of people particularly the hundreds of thousands of small businesses in New Zealand and this will give them room to put their businesses back on track. So I do want to stress that while we may be apart for the next month we are apart together and this bill supports that. Thank you Madam Speaker."