Scott AlastairALASTAIR SCOTT (National—Wairarapa): Can I say at the outset what is obvious to me at least: money does not grow on trees. It is not free. It is not readily available like the fresh air that we breathe. It is a limited resource. With that limitation we need to grow the economy to produce greater revenues and that is exactly what is happening here in this country—high worker participation; 10000 new jobs every month. This is a demonstration of a growing economy which allows the Minister of Revenue to collect more taxes—to collect more taxes directly through PAYE or through GST as the GDP grows.With that collection comes responsibility on where to invest. That surplus—those growing surpluses that will eventuate and are in place today—allows us to spend more money on health police defence and education. But most importantly it allows the Government of the day this National Government to return some of those taxes to the people who contributed the taxes to the Government by way of changing the thresholds that were announced in the Budget recently—$48000 to $52000 and $14000 to $22000 are the brackets that were changed which allow taxpayers to hold on to more of their money.The other thing a growing economy allows us to do is invest in better infrastructure and I want to talk about the Business Transformation programme. That is a project that will modernise the way we calculate tax because tax has become more and more complex—Working for Families tax credits housing allowances income-related rent subsidies—and there are issues even now around parental payments and the obligations on parents who avoid those obligations because the system that we have in calculating those parental obligations is too slow and clunky. So we are part-way through the Business Transformation programme. As has been mentioned already it is progressing well to date and it will improve and make more efficient the way we collect tax. That of course puts the onus on those who somehow or other have been able to move quickly from job to job perhaps and avoid some of their obligations today and in the past.The other thing I would like to mention is the accounting income method. It is very significant—very significant. This accounting income method is as the Minister has already mentioned like PAYE for small businesses. If there is one thing about which people have come to me and said Good on the Government. This is a really major initiative. It's going to affect me." it is this PAYE system that allows small businesses to pay as they go. Previously provisional tax has been burdensome. A downturn in a business cycle will create cash-flow problems for small businesses because their assessment in the coming year is based on the previous year's income.This system allows that provisional tax to be paid as they go based on the current business of the day in that business. That actually affects right now businesses in Woodville in my electorate. Due to the Manawatū Gorge closing those businesses in Woodville have seen less traffic go through the town. But they are able to communicate with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) to reassess and recalculate. The bad old days of the IRD where penalties were just compounded and re-compounded have gone. Those bad old days have gone. The IRD is doing an excellent job of working with its customers the taxpayers.I would also like to touch on the ongoing work that relates to base erosion and profit shifting. Mr Robertson suggested that he would like to see a diverted profit tax unilaterally initiated by the Opposition. He can say these things in an election year but unfortunately that is not going to work. We need to have a multilateral agreement and that is exactly what Minister Collins is working on with other OECD countries to continue—"