Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): Just prior to the break we had the delight of listening to the closing remarks of the Hon Steven Joyce. We sat back and we got to have a little giggle about some of the trials and tribulations that one faces as a parliamentarian but it also triggered my interest to see what types of comments and recommendations had been before this House as we were considering this bill the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2017-18 Employment and Investment Income and Remedial Matters) Bill.Now by and large it seems under the good stewardship of the former Minister and a majority of his senior colleagues—and we've listened to their commentary this afternoon. By and large they seem to support the substantive matters in this bill. We look down and it's you know proposals to reform the administration the PAYE system—so that's around simplicity—and accessibility ensuring that people can access the tax system in a more user-friendly way. We've got proposals relating to the collection of investment income information proposed changes to the taxation of employee share schemes and the setting of the annual rates of the income tax for the 2017-2018 year. All of these themes seem to be relatively agreed to but the sticking point if I listen to the remarks of our colleagues from across the House seems to be around a wee rule that they introduced in 2015 the brightline test—the brightline test. It was a cracking policy then and it remains a cracking policy now and I'm absolutely heartened to see that we've finally got a Government that's taking some of these issues seriously.Now just on my way back from the dinner break I had the misfortune of falling down a blimmin hill on my way back down here and I ripped my pants and had a biker zoom past me and I realised I needed a band-aid. Then I was reflecting on the policy that they introduced in 2015 when they amended and introduced the brightline test and I realised it was just an ad hoc band-aid that they had sought to rely on to address this housing not crisis" crisis and to appease and make some goodwill amongst the populace. Then I was reflecting on "Well surely there must be something else to it." If they really are not going to support this fundamentally important tax bill—and by and large it's an omnibus bill. I stumbled across this fantastic quote and they said "Well what is the difference between the two-year and the five-year rule? You have five years and one day"—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! I'm struggling to hear the member's colleague and we have two people sitting in the whips' seats who are involved in a conversation with Mr King and it's to stop.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Thank you sir. I stumbled across this fantastic quote and the quote is "What's the difference"—in reference to the brightline test—"between a two- and a five-year rule? You have five years and one day—same problem. It's exactly the same thing." I want to thank the Hon David Bennett for that contribution in 2015.And then I was thinking "You know well OK—righty-o." Here we are we've got a Government that's recognised that there are some fundamental crises that exist within this country right now—housing's right at the top of that. When we're looking at—look by and large a majority of this bill is great law that this whole entire House can agree to. But the sticking point is about whether or not we should extend the brightline. There was a failure in the previous administration to recognise that there is an absolute housing crisis and if some of the members opposite would take a minute just to step outside of their fine dwellings and fine environments they'd realise that the people that are crying mostly about this bill aren't your mum and dad investors and so on and so forth as we've heard bleated from across the other side of the House. This particular provision the Supplementary Order Paper introduced by the Minister is about taking off the pressure valve on a system on a housing market that's completely overheated.Brett Hudson: No it's not.KIRITAPU ALLAN: It's absolutely overheated and the same submissions that my colleagues from across the House made in 2015 can apply now. I read again: "The heart of this bill is all about introducing greater fairness for all taxpayers and it's about introducing greater fairness"—sorry for all taxpayers. And it's not about ensuring that those who are speculating on—it's about those that are speculating on property do pay—SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired."