Joyce StevenHon STEVEN JOYCE (National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise to speak to the Taxation (Neutralising Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Bill. This is the first reading of an excellent Government bill I must say. In fact it is an excellent bill of the previous Government so therefore I'm very excited to have the opportunity to speak to it and to also say that I'm assuming that we'll be referring it to the Finance and Expenditure Committee once the bill has been discussed in this first reading.This is an excellent bill and is one of a number of excellent bills that this Parliament has been debating in recent weeks. So far this Parliament has debated 13 pieces of National Government legislation with just two Government bills from the Labour Party which were of course members' bills. So I'd like to thank the Labour Government and the Labour-led Government for giving us the opportunity to lead on this bill on this particular day because it is only fair when the work has been done by the previous Government that the previous Government gets the opportunity to introduce what is a very important bill to this House.This bill was indeed announced in August of this year by the then Government as part of its final decisions on proposals to address base erosion and profit shifting. Our broad based - low rate tax system continues to perform very well for New Zealand. It is important it keeps evolving and the previous Government was very focused on that evolution and coming up with the proposals that we see in this House here today—the exact proposals in fact of the previous Government. So this bill will target multinational companies that seek to avoid legitimate taxation by the Realm of New Zealand and its changes are significant significant strengthenings of our tax rules and our ability to ensure that multinationals are taxed fairly and on the basis of their actual level of activity in this country.These decisions come into four important areas and I'm pleased to have the opportunity to share those with the House: firstly stopping foreign parent-companies charging their New Zealand subsidiaries high interest rates to reduce their taxable profits in New Zealand; stopping multinationals using artificial arrangements to avoid having a taxable presence in New Zealand; ensuring multinational companies are taxed in accordance with the economic substance of their activities in New Zealand; countering strategies that the multinationals have used in the past to exploit gaps and mismatches in different countries' domestic tax rules to avoid paying tax anywhere in the world; and finally making it easier for the Inland Revenue Department to investigate uncooperative multinational companies.This bill has been developed thoroughly over a period of time by the previous Government. It was put together very carefully and supported by Inland Revenue Department officials but it has to be said that it didn't meet with universal acclaim immediately. In fact I have a number of people who were concerned about this bill when the announcements were made in terms of what would be in it. For example this particular individual said This is unambitious at the very least and a double-standard that will cost Kiwi taxpayers." This particular person was Michael Wood of the Labour Party and now of the Labour Government. [Interruption] Well I go on actually. The Labour Party had decided—are there any Ministers in the House?Hon Gerry Brownlee: Keep going.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The Labour Party had decided they weren't going to support this in Opposition. They said that they wanted a diverted profits tax which taxes any profits a multinational has avoided reporting. This was to be called a "Google tax" like the one introduced in Britain and Australia but it's not in this bill. They haven't put it in the bill after railing that this was something that they were going to do. Then they accused the then Government of a "sluggish vein of Government inaction still selling New Zealand taxpayers and companies short by $100 million a year" when this bill was announced by the previous Government.So this bill we have is an excellent bill that was done by the previous Government which the current Government opposed and then introduced and allowed the Opposition to lead off on debating. So if you're at home I imagine you'll be a bit concerned by all of that but it is a very good bill and I am pleased to say that National will support it and commends it to the House."