Hughes Gareth: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 03 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10737. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): If there is one thing that has baffled me in my political career it is staggering speeches like that. For some reason National members can still with straight faces go to the people of New Zealand and say that they are good economic managers. This is despite all of the voluminous evidence the staggering amounts of data and parliamentary contributions like that. This is a quote that will go down in that member Alastair Scott’s history; I hope he raises it in his valedictory speech. The member asked this House: “What is the difference between investing in property and shares factories etc.?”. He should go and talk to some New Zealand businessmen New Zealand businesswomen and investors and they might be able to tell him. The difference of course is that a dollar invested in a house is not a dollar invested in growing the economy developing the regions or creating employment. It is a dollar invested in a house.This is what the Green Party wants to see: a prosperous New Zealand that is investing in its economy that is investing in factories and that is investing in innovation. But this is the problem—and if you look at the data just this year the median Auckland house has appreciated in value by $100000. That is more than the average Kiwi can earn in a year or two—$100000. And that is because with all the economic signals under this Government—under no doubt conscientious members like that with contributions like that—that is exactly what we will see: a New Zealand that is entirely imbalanced when it comes to the economy and people investing in speculating and not investing in productivity.I was also going to criticise the member for not talking about the speeches and talking about other parties so I had better make sure I actually talk about this bill which is the .Hon Member: We need an acronym for that.GARETH HUGHES: We do need an acronym for this one. It has got three main parts which my colleague Julie Anne Genter very competently discussed such as the online purchases goods and services tax the new brightline withholding tax and then of course the new information-sharing provisions relating to the student loan scheme.This is the part that I would like to touch on because this year we have seen some milestones. We have seen an economy underperforming and we have seen the rapid unsustainable out-of-control housing crisis—particularly in Auckland but in other centres as well—but we also passed a milestone which is $15 billion in national student loan debt. Fifteen billion dollars is a huge sum. It is a figure on the Government’s books written down on bits of paper but you must remember this is a figure worn like a millstone around the necks of hundreds of thousands of real New Zealanders—hundreds of thousands of real New Zealanders with their own letters in the mail and emails from the Inland Revenue Department explaining how many thousands or tens of thousands or in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt they have. Fifteen billion dollars is the real story that Kiwis face. This bill is all around one side of it which is how the Crown accesses the information relating to New Zealanders offshore whether or not they are fulfilling their contractual repayment obligations.This is the problem because when you come to the student loan crisis that $15 billion this Government is more focused on token scare tactics such as the arrest at the border of the single potentially offshore New Zealand resident from a New Zealand dependency. That single act alone was of dubious legality. The fact is that the Government is focused more on scaring New Zealanders with student loans who are offshore than on working out sustainable pragmatic practical solutions. This Government could instead be focusing on making it easier for New Zealanders offshore to pay their student loan repayment obligations.The fact is that I believe carrots work so much better than sticks and when you see the real crisis that is affecting New Zealanders with student loans you have to question decades on from the establishment of this scheme whether there is in fact a better way. This is what the Green Party stands for: an affordable world-class high-quality tertiary education system and more affordable education where the costs of a more educated prosperous knowledge economy is not all borne on the shoulders of students. That is exactly what is happening at the moment as the Government reduces in real terms funding for tertiary education but also in real terms increases the costs faced by students with their fees by 20 percent. The Green Party believes in a more affordable world-class tertiary education—