McClay Todd: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcClay Todd: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 29 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:363. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TODD McCLAY (Minister of Revenue):May I start by congratulating you Mr Deputy Speaker on your election as Deputy Speaker. Can I say that it is a great pleasure to have worked with you and I very much look forward to the way that you will conduct this House as we go forward. I think you are more than able and up to the job. Can I also recognise the Speaker for his re-election or reappointment and Mr Tisch as Assistant Speaker. I also want to pay tribute and compliments to the Hon Trevor Mallard who has also become an Assistant Speaker. I think that contrary to what the chattering classes might be saying he will do an exceptional job. His knowledge of procedures in this House is almost second to none and I think that we will look forward to many days weeks years and debates ahead of us where his input will be of assistance to the House.Can I say also that during the election campaign the highlight for me was probably Mr Mallard’s announcement of a policy around bringing back the moa to the Hutt. I think it was an exceptional policy. Indeed I had conversations with people in my electorate of Rotorua who thought it was a little bit mad. I was in the Hutt and I looked around and said to one of them: “I’ve just been there. They don’t need mowers. They are very good with their lawns.” He said: “No no—giving everybody in the Hutt a free mower would be silly but bringing back the moa to the Hutt is a good idea.” I think that it is something that his colleagues were disingenuous with him about but he may have been predicting or foreseeing what would happen in the election. He may also have foreseen what would happen to the Labour Party and that what it might be doing in the selection of a leader was bringing back the moa.Can I also pay compliments to and recognise the Prime Minister for his work during the election campaign and for the way he has directed New Zealand over the last 6 years. Can I say that he went out on the campaign trails he allowed New Zealanders to have their say and they did have their say and the Government was returned. I can say that we are going to work extremely hard over the next 3 years to prove to New Zealanders as we did 3 years previously and the 3 years before that that we deserve their support we deserve their vote and that they can continue to have confidence in the Government.I want to thank the people of Rotorua for re-electing me for my third term. It is a great honour and one responsibility that I take extremely seriously. In particular I say thanks to the new areas of my electorate of Rotorua which came about as a result of boundary changes—the Te Puke township Ōhauiti Ōropi and also parts of rural Bay of Plenty. It is an honour to now represent them. I follow in the footsteps of Tony Ryall who was their representative for so many years. I very much look forward to working hard on their behalf as the Government too will work hard on their behalf to make their lives better to make their lives fairer and to offer opportunity to them and to their children.I also give compliments to colleagues. You see the thing about my central North Island seat in my electorate of Rotorua is that I am ring-fenced by a circle of blue—every single seat. If I stand on Mount Ngongotahā and look in any direction I see only National MPs and National seats. That cannot be said for very many Labour MPs who hold electorate seats in this country.Carmel Sepuloni: All I see is red from where I am out west.Hon TODD McCLAY: Well to be fair you often see red when you are here and that is rage and I can understand that. I would be pretty angry if I was sitting over in your seat as well.What I did want to say is that around me I have some very capable members of Parliament—the Hon Simon Bridges who continues to represent the seat of Tauranga; the Hon Anne Tolley who not only continues to represent the East Coast electorate but now represents the very able the very capable and the very friendly and genuine people of Kawerau; and also Todd Muller who I would like to say gave an exceptional speech last night as his maiden speech. I very much look forward to working closely with all of these MPs on behalf of the bay. That is very much the reason for the resounding success of the National Party not only in the Bay of Plenty but in all other parts of New Zealand. We are a team. We join together we work hard and we are focused on the issues that matter. I have a little bit of advice. There are other parties in this House that if they had thought a bit more about the public than themselves may have found the result of the election to be a little bit different—although when one considers the policies probably not a lot different.What I want to say is that I am extremely grateful to the Prime Minister for giving me an opportunity to serve in Cabinet and for returning the revenue portfolio to me. It is a portfolio I have held for almost 18 months. It is one that I enjoy and it is one that I very much look forward to working hard on over the coming period of time. You see the thing about revenue is that we must collect it so that future Governments can spend it. We have to make sure that the tax system is fit for purpose that it is fair that it is balanced that it is efficient and that everybody pays their fair share of tax.Dr David Clark: A worse revenue Minister than Peter Dunne—worse than Peter Dunne.Hon TODD McCLAY: What we have found over the last 18 months is that issuing small press releases or squawking from the other side of the House does nothing but squawk and does not collect any tax. Largely all it will do is create great confusion around the country.Business transformation is something the Government has had on its agenda for a period of time and we now start to move forward on this. Business transformation is about the modernisation and simplification of the tax system. It is very important that we work hard to get this right. There will be many opportunities both here in this House and in committee to focus on the issues that matter when it comes to taxation through business transformation. It is very important that the planning is got right that we look at all of the opportunities that will be available because first and foremost this is about the New Zealand public—about simplifying the tax system and modernising the tax system so that the New Zealand public mums and dads sitting at home or the businesses that make New Zealand work can rely upon the tax system and it is not overly arduous for them. I very much look forward to working with the dedicated professionals in the Inland Revenue Department as we work through this process.I am also grateful to the Prime Minister for offering me the State-owned enterprises portfolio a very important portfolio. We own a number of companies that are of extreme importance to New Zealanders. It is also important for New Zealand in the area of State-owned enterprises that the companies themselves deliver for New Zealanders. There will be a job of work to do to make sure that they are as efficient as they need to be and also to make sure that the taxpayer can rely upon the services they provide where they do provide services and that they actually are run effectively and efficiently. I very much look forward to working closely with the chairs the boards and the employees of many of these companies and also Treasury as an adviser to look at how we can ensure this on behalf of the New Zealand taxpayer.I have also been offered the opportunity to be Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs. Can I recognise the very significant body of work that the Hon Murray McCully has done over the last 6 years as have other Ministers before him and members of this House. Every day almost singlehandedly he has focused on what is important for New Zealand and helped with others to deliver a great victory for New Zealand in our election to the United Nations Security Council. I said I think it says a lot about Mr McCully and a lot about the way the world views New Zealand when one looks at the result of that vote. To have more than two-thirds of the countries casting a vote to select New Zealand as their preference on a first vote tells you a lot about the reputation we have.To the previous speaker in this debate David Shearer I want to say that I believe he does have a lot of wisdom. In fact he should have put his hand up to be another candidate as part of the Labour Party leadership election because I think he probably has more to offer that party than it realised when it got rid of him a short period of time ago. In the area of foreign affairs he has a lot of wisdom but we must be very very careful not to politicise some of these issues because we would do a great disservice to the reputation that he and Mr McCully and others have built around the world for New Zealand.Finally as Associate Minister of Trade I very much look forward to working closely with Minister Groser and also working closely with New Zealand companies. Trade agreements are very important. Without them we cannot get the important access we need reduce red tape and get down the cost and the tariffs when we want our companies to export to other parts of the world. But the negotiation is only part of it. We have experts who will negotiate agreements. We then need to make sure that these agreements are working and that our companies are taking advantage of them. Our Business Growth Agenda is very much focused on that with more than 350 initiatives that allow New Zealand companies to grow to build and also to take advantage of these free-trade agreements. Every time we trade efficiently as a country with another country it is about jobs—it is about protecting jobs in New Zealand.So there is a great body of work for the Government. We are focused on the opportunity New Zealanders have given us. We are focused on the responsibility they have given us. We will work hard on their behalf just as I will work hard on behalf of the people of Rotorua to show that they were right to have confidence in us to lead this country for another 3 years. Thank you.