SpeechDAMIEN SMITH (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. The bill sets the annual rates of income tax for the 2022-23 tax year. It deals with the platform economy and GST exemptions for the North Island and dual dividend companies. It also deals with the great dream of the Green Party to get David Clark fringe benefits when he moves from Parliament into his consulting and corporate advisory work and I congratulate him on that. But you know while Rome burns or while New Zealand burns Minister Parker and Minister Robertson play the duet fiddle with the people of New Zealand around taxes. And today in Parliament the Prime Minister showed that he's joined the party and he doesn't care about hard-working New Zealanders who are falling behind in wages after inflation and he's prepared to run a high-tax economy on a per capita basis and give no benefits to the 3 million people who are working hard out there. So the ACT Party has made it its goal to actually look after those people and lobby for them and if it means that we will incite financial rectitude marches everywhere in New Zealand to make this an issue of the election. Since Grant Robertson became finance Minister the average tax take has gone up to $3299 annually. And if you add GST from 2017 it's gone up to whopping $8000 per earner. It increased dramatically in 2002 and as a cost of living crisis is upon us the people are losing out more of their income to the Government and we used to have a deal where that was not the case. Somewhere somehow the one thing that doesn't get you ahead is taxing people. The cost of living crisis is firmly on the agenda and New Zealand was built around Government policy that rewarded and focused on hard-working New Zealanders. Just as an example taxes to June inside this bill will continue to increase $52 billion from when Labour was first elected and it's going to rise as inflation is still rampant.Instead of taking the extra money from workers and finding new ways to hand it out the Government should get its spending under control. It should pull the right levers to cut taxes and give everyone a break from working with more of their own money in their own back pockets. ACT is the only party who will represent these workers and give them an alternative budget that shows and explains to them that they can have tax decreases and maintain services with the health police and educational system remaining intact. All we call for is more efficiencies and focus on what has been delivered for the people of New Zealand.We will address the brightline test and dump it as a tax completely. We will give $2000 minimum tax to someone on an average wage. We will scrap the 39 percent envy tax rate which is contained in this and restore interest deductibility which is not contemplated in this bill. ACT's the only party for workers now. It's the only party that will actually challenge this bill and challenge Government spending and the provision of services to that. Just to put it in context—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! I'm going to direct the member back to what is intended in a third reading. To quote: the member should summarise and discuss the bill in front of the House and not what another party might do in the place of that bill. So can I ask Damien Smith to come back to the bill.DAMIEN SMITH: Thank you Madam Speaker. We live in a country where this tax bill has resulted in a current account deficit being the worst in recent history. We are in a recession. There are no benefits to the income tax brackets to allow people to meet the cost of living and rising interest payments that will hit this year. Our net liability position is in a negative situation. We actually owe more than we actually have as assets in the country. And so this bill should have been one of taxes that were paid out to people who were incentivised to contribute to society and there's nothing in this bill that provides any benefit to that. We will attack any legislation including the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act which has now reduced liquidity. All these levers have come to the point where this tax bill has if we all admit it not got the required focus to get us through the next two years. The tax bill itself whilst punishing overall citizens of the country doesn't actually address the one fundamental thing: how do we make New Zealand more prosperous and how do we create equality in this country and allow people to manage the cost of living? ACT opposes this bill and will be repealing it after the election.