O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): I believe it was Albert Einstein who said that the hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax and what we've heard tonight—and I congratulate the member for having his bill drawn. Certainly when one looks at some of the relatively minor issues that are in bills in the term I think this is one that has some substance. It does have some substance. It's got enough substance that were we to pass it here tonight were we to pass it at any stage it would have a considerable impact on the way we do business as a country. Therefore there is no way we should be debating it in isolation without a full understanding of the impact it will have down the track because as we all know good policy is about ensuring we understand the unintended consequences and there will be considerable unintended consequences were this piece of legislation—this significant piece of legislation—to go through without full consideration of what difference it would make right across the board.I invite those opposite because we will debate many bills today this week this parliamentary session and generally during those debates—in fact during general debates; in fact during question time. Generally the theme coming from the Opposition is we should be spending more money on the projects or those issues which they're raising in this House. Well of course a simplification of the tax system means that that money has got to come from somewhere and that is what tax is all about. Many of the arguments being put up here tonight particularly by the Opposition are very much strawman—or we should say strawperson"—arguments because they are arguments not about this bill; they're arguments about whether we should pay tax at all. I give it to David Seymour. At least he is honest about it. He wants those at the higher tax brackets paying less tax. Good on him. He got up there and said it. Generally people who are in that position think it they act it out but they don't say it. So good on you Mr Seymour because what that does is ensure that as we look at this bill whatever we do we're going to end up with more inequality.Now I was privileged enough to have a position before I came here which took me around the world. I was president of a world body and I got to spend time in different countries with generally police forces but exposed to funding regimes. I looked at the northern European regimes particularly the Scandinavian ones and I would like to see this country compare itself with Scandinavia much more. The first thing that most New Zealanders if they are lucky enough to get to Scandinavia—they'll see that it's a country that runs pretty well pretty equitably and the reason why is they are pretty cold countries and the cold countries know that unless you actually work together then things will not work. If you try to be an individual out there try to live out alone and each man is an island or woman is an island—I'm getting good at that—you will perish. You simply will not survive. So at the basis of that cooperation of the Scandinavian model is actually a high tax model a fair tax model.One thing when you do speak to Scandinavians—they do pay a lot of tax. They get their very good hospital treatment free. They get their very good education systems free. So it's important that when we look at any change to the tax system—and once again I congratulate the member for having drawn this very significant bill from the biscuit tin but it cannot be seen in isolation. It is folly. There are tax experts on this side of the House. There are tax experts everywhere where we'll quote. The one thing they won't do is agree. So what is important is that any significant piece of legislation like this that's being debated must be seen in the whole. It must be seen in the whole of what we're trying to achieve as a society and certainly merely introducing a piece of legislation picked out of the biscuit tin that is going to ensure that we have less income to make sure that we are able to be that equitable society we decide to be is a poor outcome and for that reason I cannot tonight support this bill. Thank you Madam Speaker."