Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Port Waikato): Thank you Mr Chair. It's a pleasure to be talking on this bill. I think we're in for a long night because we've heard today that there's going to be a major change which in effect relates to tax. I know this first part relates to income tax but we've got a whole stack of things happening with tax in this bill which does worry me and I think we need to look at them in the context of what Part 1 is about which is setting the income tax rates at the same level. I think just as my colleague was talking about before this gives rise to a whole raft of issues. I think in a tax context what are we trying to achieve for the country? What is the purpose of what we're trying to achieve? Now obviously a Government has a demand and an expectation to get revenue and that's a fair comment. But what is the best way to do that? What is the best way to achieve the highest tax take and how to support the people that are actually making those payments? In that case in Part 1 we're talking about income tax on individuals but also it relates to corporate tax to GST and it also relates to duties and we're at risk I think. As we work our way through the bill I think you'll find the context of what we're talking about in terms of tax in this bill alone covers issues such as GST on mobile roaming fees—something that we're going to oppose very definitely and already have stated our position on it. But there's a whole lot of other tax changes and I think we are concerned that having come through a global crisis and having now gone through the COVID crisis which we're still in the midst of we're in a situation where we have got many vulnerable businesses and individuals as part of New Zealand out there trying to survive trying to get through the next period so they can start to generate some money hopefully when the border is opened—hopefully when the border is opened. So we've got people with little cash flow who are really struggling and here we are—we're just sailing on as if we've got nothing to worry about. We'll keep taxing at the same rate. We don't need to worry about those hard-working New Zealanders those hard-working mums and dads who are out there trying to create a livelihood for their families. I think we should actually be having a much more strategic conversation around where we see tax at the moment what we're trying to do to balance the needs of the Government against the requirements and the sensitivities around people who've actually got to make those payments and by the way the timing of those payments is quite ruthless in terms of particularly for businesses. One of the things we were very keen to see was a change of when the payments were going to be made for businesses particularly the 15 January payment which we think is a dreadful time to be forcing businesses to be making tax payments. I think what we haven't seen from the Government—and I note that the new Minister of Revenue is in the chair and hopefully he's going to bring some innovation to tax over time because I think we need to be much more innovative about supporting New Zealanders in general to make sure that yes we get enough tax but actually we don't put them in a disadvantaged situation where they have to make those payments.I want to just concur with my good colleague the Hon Michael Woodhouse. This issue around inflation is a crucial one—it's an absolutely crucial one—and that's why we propose a change. It's called fiscal drag where effectively inflation starts to push people up into a next-higher tax bracket which would not otherwise have occurred if it weren't for inflation. We came up with that proposal. We were very strong on it. It was back then when we proposed it a couple of years ago. It was about a $660 million package and of course it's probably more than that now given what's happened. I think in terms of supporting New Zealanders—because we do not want to see New Zealanders progressing into higher levels of tax and that is what's going to happen with the issue of fiscal drag. That's why I'd been keen to hear the Minister's view around those proposals and whether in fact he even contemplated it whether in fact he actually sought advice from Treasury or the IRD on the importance of it whether in fact it would help to drive economic activity in New Zealand and whether in fact it was actually a fair thing to do for all New Zealanders particularly those hard-working mums and dads.