9. Question No. 9—RevenueHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) to the Minister of RevenueQuestion No. 9—Revenue9. Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) to the Minister of Revenue: Did he know that the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme was in the COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Other Regulatory Urgent Measures) Bill that was introduced to Parliament on Thursday 30 April; if so why didn't he notify the Opposition that the scheme was not in the bill supplied to them that morning?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the House) on behalf of the Minister of Revenue: No. The Government had directed that the bill be divided into two with the small business loan scheme to be progressed through a separate subsequent bill. A miscommunication between the IRD and the Parliamentary Counsel Office resulted in an earlier version of the bill being tabled. I was not made aware of the error until after the House had concluded its business for the day. I regret that the version of the bill supplied to the Opposition differed to the one that was tabled. The Leader of the House has received an apology from the Chief Parliamentary Counsel for the error and I seek leave for that letter to now be tabled. SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that occurring? There appears to be none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Has he had discussions with the Leader of the House that would lead to any bills that might be coming into the House next week in his name being provided to the Opposition ahead of them being tabled in the House so that there can be no confusion about what is in them and what their purpose is?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes there have been several conversations between myself as the Minister of Revenue and the Leader of the House around expectations around this. Also there have been conversations between the Leader of the House and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel around how to ensure that this sort of error can never happen again in the future and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel has initiated an independent review to ensure that the process is tightened up.Hon Gerry Brownlee: The question was: will the Minister if he has bills coming into the House next week in his name make those bills available to the Opposition ahead of time or ahead of them being tabled in a more timely fashion so that there can be no doubt about the purpose of the bills that are being put in front of the Parliament?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The shorter answer to that question is yes and that is what the Government endeavoured to do last week. The copy of the bill that had been approved by Ministers for introduction was supplied to the Opposition. The Parliamentary Counsel Office introduced a different version of the bill.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Can we take it from the Minister's answer that there will be no taxation bills in the urgency motion next week?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: No.Rt Hon Winston Peters: That said is it the job of the Opposition to oppose and propose to forensically examine bills before Parliament—Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Rt Hon Winston Peters: —and that democracy only works—SPEAKER: A point of order—[Interruption] Order!Rt Hon Winston Peters: Sit down.SPEAKER: No don't tell me to do that. The member will be in real trouble. A point of order the Hon Gerry Brownlee.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Well Mr Speaker I think it's pretty clear where this question is going and so I just want to make it clear that we do understand what the role of the Opposition is but the—SPEAKER: Order! Now the member will resume his seat. I was giving the right honourable gentleman a chance to get his question into order. It seemed to me the further it went along the further away he got from it. I'm not going to give him another shot. We're just going to move on.