Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Mr Chair thank you. I find it necessary to take another short call because I put a question to the Minister that—you know I would say it myself I guess—I feel is concise and clear and of interest to a large group of New Zealanders known as taxpayers. I have to say I feel obligated to raise this because in the Epsom electorate there's a particularly acute concentration of these taxpayers and they feel taxes more acutely than in most constituencies.I think they'd be justified in having an answer from the Minister of Finance whom they pay for as taxpayers as to whether or not they would be able to get support from the Minister and his Government—[Interruption] and Tracey Martin—and the Green Party. They would like to know: could they get support for indexation of their tax thresholds to inflation? The reason they'd like to know—and I'll just spell it out again for the Minister because he didn't see fit to answer the question when it was put to him very fairly and reasonably and quite eloquently I thought. Is it fair to expect that if he is going to index the Best Start payments to inflation if it's true that the benefits people get funded by taxpayers should never be eroded by inflation and this Government will protect them against inflation then will those taxpayers also be protected against being pushed further and further into higher tax brackets?I'll also just repeat for the Minister since he didn't answer last time that it may be of greater interest for him then he realises because it is not just those people in Epsom that have a very acute interest in being taxpayers; actually it is people up and down the country. Indeed somebody working full time on the minimum wage will be getting very close by the end of this Government's term—if it believes that it's really going to put the minimum wage as high as it would like—to paying 30c in the dollar. If the Government gets to the end of this term and it finds that people on the minimum wage—if they haven't been priced out of the labour market by the stupid increases as proposed by the Government that is—are paying 30c in the dollar so their marginal tax bill goes from 17.5c up to 30c overnight then it is not just going to be a few people in Epsom that are worried about this tax thing; it's going to be a lot of people—a lot of people—that support this Government.On behalf of those people the constituents I represent and that long-suffering and much-ignored group in this debate—the taxpayer—I'd like to ask the Minister for a response this time. If he understands the concept of indexation is he able to index the tax thresholds the point at which people go up another tax rate to inflation the way that he has indexed the benefits? That's all we want to know. Is there anyone in the committee at this point that doesn't fully understand the question? I'm sure the people watching at home get it. If we can index benefits to inflation can we index tax thresholds? Is there anyone that feels that the question's not clear at this point? No? Everyone gets it. Does everyone understand the question?Hon Members: Yes.DAVID SEYMOUR: Yes? Let me put it another way does anybody not understand the question? OK; so it seems everybody understands the question. Will the Minister support my amendment to index tax thresholds to inflation? Does he value taxpayers who pay his salary as much as he values the people that he is giving money to? OK; I don't think I could make the question any clearer. If there is any way I can make the question clearer then someone give me a call. But I can't make it any clearer. So now Grant Robertson you have to answer the question. You understand what the question is so now can you get up and tell the taxpayers: will you index their tax thresholds to inflation the way you've protected everyone else's benefits?