Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National): Today marks yet another assault on New Zealanders' wallets by a Labour Government that remains addicted to spending and has never seen a tax it could say no to—that has after six years delivered nothing but a cost of living crisis which has led more and more New Zealanders into the food bank queues into emergency housing into mortgage arrears and into situations where they are telling their kids they can't afford swimming lessons anymore. And what does David Parker the Minister of Revenue the Minister for More Tax" do? He gets up and says "Look I am thoroughly justified in taxing you more." Well here on this side of the House we think it is exactly the wrong time to be taking more of New Zealanders' hardearned incomes from them. Here on this side of the House we understand that in a cost of living crisis people deserve to hold on to a bit more of the cash that should be in their wallets.The contrast between the two parties couldn't be clearer because on the other side of the House we have a Government that is taxing at higher levels than we have seen in years. Because they are so addicted to wasteful-spending projects like merging TVNZ and RNZ like dreaming up a new jobs tax like little rinky-dink schemes that the Prime Minister then has to intervene and dump—because of that they've had to rake in a heck of a lot more tax. The tax take is up $43 billion since this Government came to power—$43 billion—and the New Zealanders I speak to don't see much to show for it. They see longer waiting lists for hospitals they see more kids on the State house waiting list they see no changes in the achievement in our schools and they say "Why am I paying more tax for all of this wasteful spending?"Let me break it down: the tax take is up—when you break it down per household—$17500 per New Zealand household. That's how much more money this addicted-to-spending Government is raking in. So even while real wages are declining which is to say prices are rising faster than wages; even while many New Zealanders are falling backwards from one pay cycle to the next are less able to pay the rent less able to pay the mortgage—even while all of that is happening—inflation is being a sneaky little helper for this rapacious Labour Government. What it is doing is robbing New Zealanders twice: first when they pay for things at the supermarket—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ms Willis we've had two minutes now of fairly general debate—start referring to the bill in front of you.NICOLA WILLIS: Mr Speaker this bill fails to reduce the tax thresholds that New Zealand working taxpayers are subject to. That is a significant failure. It is the very reason why National opposes this bill. What a good Government would do in the middle of a cost of living crisis when introducing the tax bill is adjust those tax thresholds for inflation. The bill we are debating—DEPUTY SPEAKER: And now we'll talk about what's in the bill.NICOLA WILLIS: In the bill are rates for taxation for 2023. My argument is a very specific one. My argument is that those rates have been set at thresholds which should have been adjusted and which the bill fails to adjust.Now here on this side of the House we have observed what is common practice in many jurisdictions around the world when a tax bill like this is introduced. Rather than just confirming that the tax thresholds should hit at the same level as they always have many countries around the world say "Well actually inflation means that more and more people are being pushed into the higher brackets at which those thresholds hit." So our contention throughout the debate on this bill—in fact for over a year now—has been that it is time for the Government to adjust those thresholds to allow for that inflation. And this bill represents the final nail in the coffin where the Government has failed to adjust those tax thresholds. The reason it has failed to do that is that it is spending so much money. So this bill is a missed opportunity; National opposes the tax thresholds that are specifically set out in this bill and I am setting out for you why that is.This bill also contains new taxes. It contains an app tax. Now this tax is a huge departure from the conventions around GST in New Zealand. We have had a longstanding convention that has been observed by all parties in Parliament: that if a business takes less than $60000 in income for services or sales in a financial year that business is exempt from having to pay GST. Now that longstanding convention is one that we on this side of the House think should be adhered to. But on the other side of the House what they've now said is "Well that only applies if you're in an old-fashioned business. But if you're actually running a 2023 business that uses technology that uses a digital platform for your sales we think we have found a new excuse to tax you more." And in fact what this bill says is that if you are using a digital platform to reach your customers—whether you're the New Zealand business Zoomy whether you are Airbnb whether you are Delivereasy—if you are using technology God forbid then we will tax you. This is a longstanding convention that is being thrown out the window. And mark my words: this new tax will stop innovation because it sends a signal to entrepreneurs in our technology sector that if you come up with a new digital platform the Government will find a way to tax it. That is the wrong signal to be sending into our economy.It also creates direct costs to everyday New Zealanders because the IRD has warned that the full cost-impost of this tax will be passed on to consumers. That's the IRD's advice. And I have had Grant Robertson the Minister of Finance tell me many times that inflation is nothing to do with him; it's just a mysterious visitor from overseas and there's nothing he can do with it. And I have consistently taken issue with that because it's just wrong. This is an exact example of the sorts of policies that lead prices to increase. When the Government has a policy choice it can either introduce the tax—and people will pay more for their ride share they will pay more for their food delivery they will pay more for their Airbnb—or it can choose not to and we will not see the price increases across those services. National is principled; we say stick with the convention around GST and save New Zealanders yet another cost impost in the middle of the cost of living crisis.I want to turn now to an element of this bill that I find particularly cute and that is the build-to-rent provision. I am a huge supporter of build-to-rent. It is something that New Zealand is missing—around the world you see developers building long-term secure rental properties of a high standard—and for various reasons we've not had that sector grow here. I've put forward a bill which now Chris Bishop has in his name to amend it—to fix the barriers that have been in the way. But what this bill claims to do is it says "Oh we'll give build-to-rent a leg up by letting build-to-rent developments exempt their interest."—as if that were a novel idea! For decades upon decades everyone who provides a housing service in New Zealand just like any other business has been able to deduct their interest from their tax bill. And it is a huge overturning of that convention that this Government has engaged in as part of their war on landlords. When KiwiBuild failed when their tough talk failed they turned to their common trick of dividing New Zealanders one against the other and they said "Landlords are to blame and we will put new taxes upon them. We will stop them being able to deduct their interest and we will extend the brightline test."Well you know who the collateral damage in that war is? It is tenants. Rents are up $175 a week since Labour came to power. As we see landlords lose their interest deductibility more and more have explicitly warned that they will have to pass on that cost in the form of higher rents for New Zealanders already struggling in a cost of living crisis. I want to share with this House the human face of that. I knocked on the door of a family in Newlands two weeks ago and I said to them "How are you going?" They said "Look we're OK Nicola but we thought we did everything right—we scrimped and saved to buy a rental property—and now we're completely stuck. Without the interest deductibility we can't make the thing work. But the problem is: we could put the rent up but the family who rent that property have four kids like us and we worry about what it will do to them. But we have no choice." That's Labour's idea of kindness. It's not National's idea of kindness. This bill should have reduced tax. New Zealanders should be able to keep more of what they earn."