Woolerton R Doug: Limited Partnerships Bill — First Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: Limited Partnerships Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11317] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First supports the Limited Partnerships Bill. I am sorry that I do not have the education to be able to talk about Roman history as far as it extends to limited liability companies— 
Dr Richard Worth 
: The Japanese example. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: —the Japanese example or any other example. But I have to say that listening to Dr Richard Worth’s intelligent contribution was well worth it and I am just sorry that radio listeners could not share in what we were able to see and that was the rapt adulation with which Bob Clarkson was looking at Richard Worth. That alone was worth the effort of being in this Parliament. I might say that Bob Clarkson is not returning to me a look of rapt adulation at this point! 
We support the Limited Partnerships Bill because it brings New Zealand up to date and aligns our laws with international law in an area where New Zealand is particularly apt and that is in the area of innovation. It is modern stuff we are talking about here. Every day we hear about the intervention of angels which is not the intervention of angels I was taught about at Sunday school or even Bible class. I wonder whether Bob went to Bible class. I do not know whether he did. 
Bob Clarkson 
: Yes I did actually. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: But they are not those sorts of angels. 
Bob Clarkson 
: I’m a Christian too. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: I am a Christian too my friend. It is a broad Church is it not when it can have both of us within it. The thing is that these are not those sorts of angels; these are people who come along and put up money or advance money not always out of self-interest to entrepreneurs who have a business idea that needs to be taken further and needs some pretty big money to go with it. The limited partnerships that we are talking about here are a vehicle for them to be able to do that. 
One of the good things about these limited partnerships is the flow-through treatment of taxation and I am mentioning flow-through treatment of taxation only because it seemed to impress Simon Power. I think that Mr Power felt he is the only person in the House who actually knew what that meant—but he was not sadly. Flow-through taxation is important because these people who put up money are able to get tax advantages commensurate with their wealth. In other words they are not being taxed through the company; it is at the tax rate that they personally have. So that is important. It is something that is undersold in this country because we do not see the fruits of these people’s labour often enough. They start off here they get the venture capital then sadly they usually have to go to Europe or America to take the idea and the business to fruition. 
New Zealand First would like to hope that the day comes—and we hope this will be possible in New Zealand—when we can provide enough venture capital in this country so that these people can see out their visions without having to go offshore with many of them never returning. This bill is one little step on the path to doing that we recommend it to the House and we are proud to support it in its entirety.