Genter Julie Anne; Robertson GrantHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green) (remote): Tēnā koe. To the Minister I really appreciate all of your comments. Of course I think most of us in this House appreciate the steps the Government took to provide financial security to many people during the COVID-19 pandemic and the investment in the health sector.The question the Greens are raising is: what systemic changes can be made to our tax system to ensure that those who are profiting or benefiting more from these sorts of interventions are really paying their fair share?I think there's several areas that it's really obvious; it's easy to make lots of money in New Zealand. We know supermarkets energy companies banks construction supplies and petrol companies are all areas where there's an ability to wield huge market power because we are a small market because we're far from other markets. And we have a situation of duopolies or oligopolies which enables super-profits.So the question is: how do we make our tax system fairer so that when companies are in a position to be able to make these excess profits enough of that is coming back to the community? I note that the National Party and the ACT Party complain constantly about Government spending but you never see them complaining about the arguably under-contribution of corporates in this sector. I guess following Nicola Willis' contribution about how the Reserve Bank pumping lots of money into the economy did lead to an inflation in asset prices and house prices one way that Government could come in and ensure that that doesn't become a privatisation of what was public policy—a private benefit from public policy—would be through a wealth tax which the Greens previously proposed and which is very common in other jurisdictions in other countries that we would compare ourselves to.So it's not so much a question of was it right for the Government to step in and spend money; the question is: how do we make sure our tax system is fair so that private individuals or corporates who are operating in sectors where there's limits to how much competition you can get—how do we make sure the tax system is fair so that more of that excess profit can come back and benefit the community?Ultimately it's not down to things those businesses are doing that has led to their excess profits. It's not going to discourage investment if we stop the excess profit; in fact they'd still be making money. It's just a higher tax rate on the excess profit which would enable Government to invest more in public health to invest more in cost of living payments to raise incomes from the bottom which is what we need. It's a rebalancing of the whole economic system that's needed and I want to know what this Labour Government is going to do about it if anything.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Thanks Madam Chair. I'm conscious of both the fact that we have relatively little time left but also that the question that the member has asked—while it's a good question—is not necessarily directly related to the Estimates that we're dealing with here.What I can say that the Government has done and is covered by what we're doing here is address within the sectors that the members raised: supermarkets the construction sector—the competition aspects of those—the fuel companies. Ones that we've dealt with through the Commerce Commission's inquiries and we are now pursuing regulatory solutions. We did have the legislation as I mentioned earlier on when it comes to the covenants on land. So we're acutely aware of where there are sectors in our economy where I don't think New Zealand consumers are getting a fair price and where we should be focused on. So we are doing that.In terms of the tax system itself I mentioned earlier obviously we are seeing a greater corporate tax take. That money comes back in and is redistributed to provide for the services that the member wants. Beyond that she's asking questions which are essentially about tax policy and obviously all parties in Parliament will have tax policies that they take to the 2023 election.