van Velden BrookeBROOKE VAN VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. I will keep my contribution specifically to the commencement clauses of the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2021-22 GST and Remedial Matters) Bill. It was a huge disappointment for me when reading through this bill that there are already commencement clauses in here that have already taken effect and it does us no good service to be passing laws that have already come into effect. When the Government announced last year that it was making changes to the brightline test and to interest deductibility limitations—which are specific in this commencement clause having started last year—we are going against good lawmaking practices which allow people to prepare for the future to know what the rules of the day actually are so that they can abide by them at any given time. What this does by putting in place a date that it takes effect on before the law is even changed is it goes against the rules of making good public policy where at any given day you can get up you can go to the legislation website you can see the laws of the land that you live in and you can see what you're supposed to be doing right and how you could be going against the laws at any given time. By putting in place laws that have an effect over a year ago—Mark Cameron: Retrospective.BROOKE VAN VELDEN: —a retrospective change—you cannot allow for a person to know in black and white what the laws actually are on any given day. There is the ability for the Government to have actually said You know what? We don't want to pass this bill any more and we don't want these laws to commence as of taking effect last year." and they'd be able to do that. But in the meantime you'd have people up and down New Zealand saying "Well I don't really know what the law actually is any more." You've got governing by PR and press releases on the Beehive website telling me that I'm now in breach of the law but the law doesn't exist in reality so what is right? And I don't think that is right.I think the Government should change the commencement dates so that they actually take effect after this law is passed. But I also think they should stop making commencement clauses like this because this has not only an effect in this bill but it has an effect for all of our laws across New Zealand because we want people to invest in New Zealand. We want foreign direct investment. We want a stable economy where people feel like they know what the laws of New Zealand will be at any given time and going against that means that we are less reliable for people to send their money to. Because who knows? You might invest in a massive building development tomorrow and low and behold the Government comes along and creates a new law from press release and says "You're not allowed to build in that piece of land any more." but it's not actually the law. That instability and that uncertainty of what the laws are does not make New Zealand a good place for investment development and growth which we need to make New Zealand a prosperous growing society where people want to send their money to and where we can become wealthier as a country and as a nation. That instability means that somebody else could potentially think of sending their money to Australia or sending their money to the USA instead of New Zealand where we desperately need to increase productivity for the wealth of all New Zealanders. These laws should not be retrospective. The Government should own up to the fact that they have created laws by PR rather than actually putting them in black and white so people know what they are any given time and they should change them—change them for all the people who are blind-sided by the rules that came in last year and change them so that we have stability for our economy going forward."