Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (Deputy Leader—NZ First): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker for this opportunity to speak to such a fantastic piece of legislation. You wouldn't realise it by listening to those on the other side of the House would you but this is exciting. This is amazing and we're doing it at a time when the economy is doing really well—really well.Hon Member: Ha ha!FLETCHER TABUTEAU: The member laughs because he believes his own internal spin machine. But right now we have for example the tech industry—they just saw I think it was an increase into their R & D of $1 billion themselves just in the last year. Why are they doing that? It's because they see the positivity of this Government that's willing to participate and encourage and make sure that this country takes advantage and that our businesses are able to take advantage of real opportunities that are out there in abundance through the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF). And through—I'm proud to say—New Zealand First's negotiations with our amazing coalition partner Labour we've got Minister Woods and Minister Nash doing fantastic work to bring this vision to fruition. They see and understand and saw it themselves the logic of what we're trying to do here.I'm getting lambasted from the other side of the House not very well but what I would say to that is for—I think forgive me I forget the year that it was trialled. It was kind of started and then it wasn't implemented particularly well.Hon Andrew Little: 2008.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: 2008?Hon Andrew Little: Never had a chance to get off the ground.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: No it was pretty much stopped as soon as National came in. That's right—2008. That's right. Thank you. That's exactly right. And they spoke about the abuses of it the stories that Mr Bayly was regurgitating earlier in his contribution. So what he doesn't acknowledge in his contribution is that we learnt from that lesson. We saw the abuses that businesses were trying and successfully getting away with. So we saw it; we've identified it. Good minds good people with tax expertise have worked on this so that we're not enabling another system where businesses can take advantage of a tax system. What we're doing actually and what we should have done a long time ago—what a Government should have done a long time ago—is actually bring in these R & D tax credits because what our businesses have been facing is the real issue of competing with their international competitors who have regimes that we're trying to implement in New Zealand right now. They have been advantaged by this very type of regime and they are doing incredibly well because of it.I wanted to note that for example our tech industries—and I've spoken about the PGF so I'm pleased to say I've seen first-hand our tech industries in our regions actually setting up shop out in our rural communities out of the big cities and doing incredibly well because we're supporting them to do that. We think it's a wonderful thing. Their revenues grew by 11 percent in the last financial year.Alastair Scott: Without tax credits.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: I'm getting there mate. Calm down. And their exports rose by 12 percent and staff numbers in the tech industry have increased to nearly 50000 people. Now what we have seen in the conversations that we have had is the engagement with PGF and the opportunities that has created but they've seen that fundamental change in the Government's approach. They knew this was coming. They knew that they will be able to take advantage of real opportunities for R & D tax credits so that they can compete on a level playing field with their international competitors. We are at 0.86 percent I think of GDP in terms of spend on R & D. What we're trying to do here is take us to a place where we're at least at 2 percent. My understanding is that actually is simply a good start because international competitors are at two-point-something percent of GDP in terms of the R & D tax credits.So this is fundamentally good Government practice. This is something that will encourage the very innovations that we have been celebrating recently and we will see more of. We were having a debate around clean technologies in the House earlier and this is the very kind of mechanism where we can encourage these renewables that research that fundamental core element of good business at that cutting edge so that New Zealand can continue to be good at what we do in terms of niche industries where we're operating just ahead of the curve in terms of world competition. This helps. This makes a big difference but you wouldn't think so from listening to the Opposition.We envisage 2000 businesses including start-ups benefiting from this package. We are absolutely sure that what we are doing in terms of the Callaghan Innovation Growth Grants—that's just the growth grants. Callaghan's still there. We've still got New Zealand Trade and Enterprise; we've still got Callaghan trying to do good work with businesses directly. But we know that industry said Actually this growth grant is really difficult and actually it's putting us into boxes that we don't necessarily want to be put in. So let us make our decisions for ourselves. Let us take the risks that we want to take but help us to do that." And so that's exactly what this Government intends to do with this piece of legislation.Thank you to the Opposition for not politicking for the sake of politicking I suppose is one way to put it. We will have a good robust select committee process and I look forward to that. And I suppose all there is to say now is: I commend this piece of legislation to the House. Thank you."