Allan Kiritapu; Rurawhe AdrianKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai. I will do my best to focus solely on the bill that is before this House this evening which is the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2019-20 GST Offshore Supplier Registration and Remedial Matters) Bill. If there's anything that this Government is trying to do it's that we are tackling the long-term problems facing this country. Now what this bill does here in part is it is going towards fixing some of the systemic issues that we have in the area of housing. I want to commend the Hon Stuart Nash because what he's doing through this bill and what we on this side of the House see as appropriate is that we are introducing measures to ensure that we no longer are allowing those—no longer allowing those—[Interruption] There we go—no longer allowing those—yeah God it's been a long day hasn't it?—folks that have been relying on accruing properties building up a whole portfolio of properties to ring-fence losses on those rental properties.Now I listen to the Opposition and they've been going on about how we don't on this side of the House understand the difference between speculators and mum and dad investors. Well what we do understand is that there has been an immeasurable crisis in our housing terrain. I want to reference in my neck of the woods a small town up in rural New Zealand—a little town called Ōpōtiki. Now up there we have—and it's well known in the community—particular people up in that community that are accruing and accumulating abundant enormous amounts of housing stock. Much of those houses they go untenanted. They are very poor quality they go untenanted they can ring-fence losses and I'm talking not just in the 10s or the 20s but far more than that up into the 50s I understand.Now what we're trying to do here is introduce a tax system that is fair. What we're trying to do here is say actually the taxpayers shouldn't bear the burden of enabling some of those people that have sought to rely on basically a taxpayer's tax cut for those that do want to speculate that do want to ring-fence their losses. Well we're getting rid of that because we say that as a Government that is tackling some of the long-term systemic issues—we are tackling the long-term problems facing the country and in part that means tackling our housing situation. But we know that not everything can be fixed overnight and we're just getting started. What we're doing is we're committed to building a strong economy. So the way again that this bill here seeks to do that—what we're trying to do is ensuring that on all low-value goods we are ensuring that GST will be applicable regardless of where people are trading from. It was in 1996 that the GST system was introduced into New Zealand. I was still wearing nappies at that point in time. It's fair to say that it probably was not anticipated that the nature of e-commerce at that point in time had been anticipated in the way that we operate and conduct ourselves as consumers of products as traders of products. So last year we saw over in Australia that they introduced a scheme that would ensure that all low-value goods would have the application of their equivalent of the GST system apply there.What we are doing is ensuring that all goods under a thousand dollars—that GST will carry through to those goods. Now that may seem like a minor amendment but for a tax system that should be fair that should be equitable—I'm thinking about areas again back up in my neck of the woods up in Gisborne. I'm thinking about Muir's bookstore. Now they have to contend with the likes of eBay Amazon and all those. So those large multinationals that aren't required to put effectively 15 percent on their goods but which I as a consumer can go online enter my wee digits in and in under a week I'll have that product. Well my small businesses in the electorate like we all have our small businesses in our electorates—26000 small businesses will benefit. They employ 62000 people across the country. Now these small businesses will benefit unlike what they're saying in the Opposition over on that side of the House. Actually what we're doing by this relatively small measure is ensuring that this tax system is fair it is equitable and by the period 2022 and 2023 the estimation is that that will bring $126 million into our economy.But we are also focused on wellbeing and we've heard a lot about wellbeing not just from our finance Minister but from this side of the House that it has been a key objective of this Government. One might say Well how is this tax bill bringing about wellbeing?" Well as my colleague the Hon James Shaw asked of the Opposition earlier how can the Opposition not vote for a bill that seeks to introduce measures that will for example enable the IRD commissioner to allow exemptions for in most circumstances women that have been the subject of sexual violation? How would the Opposition not vote for a bill that will give that discretion to the commissioner? There's an anomaly right now in the law and this is something that the Hon Stuart Nash—he was receiving correspondence and there are a whole range of cases. I mean look they're not in the high numbers but they are a specific set of cases. He was receiving correspondence that there were young women who had been sexually violated that when they went to give up those children—and sometimes and in the case I'm thinking of in particular a 15-year-old woman. Once that child came into the world it was raised by her mother. There was no ability by idea at that time or there was some very limited ability to be able to provide an exemption for this young woman who would receive letters from IRD month in month out saying that she was required to pay child support payments to her mother who was raising this child because her own child had been the subject of sexual violation. This bill this GST bill is bringing about ensuring—it's a relatively simple and it's a minor amendment but it is an important amendment to ensure the wellbeing of all of those in our communities that have been subjected to any of those types of sexual violations. But I'm absolutely pleased to see that there has been the inclusion of this type of discretion for IRD.Now I also want to turn to in terms of wellbeing not just through a fiscal lens but as my colleague—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): I'm sorry to interrupt the member but it's come time for me to leave the Chair. This bill is interrupted and set down for resumption the next sitting day.Debate interrupted.The House adjourned at 10 p.m."