Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Port Waikato): Thank you Mr Chair. I'd just acknowledge my colleague David Seymour there for his passionate speech about tax. He is quite right: tax is the issue we should be talking about today. I would just preface my comments with what we heard at question time when the Prime Minister was asked about the issue of cost of living increases. Of course we do have a cost of living crisis. Her response was that we should be increasing benefits. She was very proud about what's been done with benefits. Of course it's all about the Government taking money from taxpayers—from hard-working New Zealanders—and reinjecting it putting it through the big mincing machine called the Government and then repaying it out to people that they decide are the most worthy of that benefit.But of course as Mr Seymour has quite rightly pointed out taxes come from hard-working New Zealanders and that is the central issue. That's why we will be opposing this bill: because we're fundamentally opposed to a Government that thinks that it has a right to continue to increase taxes—which this Government has and I'll talk about that shortly—and then to pay it out the way it should do. The principle we should be trying to do to drive New Zealand forward is to increase real wages—not by artificial means of paying benefits to support people or to reduce bus fares or whatever but by actually creating wealth through better jobs better economic outcomes and as a result real increases in wages. As Mr Seymour alluded to the Government is raking in tax at the moment. This year we're basically talking about $100 billion. Over the next four years it will take in roughly about another $24 billion of additional tax. Just to be clear: what I mean by that is that by 2026 it will be not taking in $100 billion but in that single year will be taking tax of about $124 billion. Of course that is a massive increment of tax—because you've got increases next year and the year after ultimately to get to that figure. The only reason I quote four-year figures is that is what the Government's projections are always about: four-year cycles. We have got a Government that is just continuing to rake in huge amount of tax and that is principally because of inflation. There have been a whole stack of other taxes that have been imposed but I'm principally talking about personal tax. The other taxes as we all know that the Government has put in place—there's a whole stack of them; we've been talking about the fuel tax today—are just driving up the cost of living for people. Here is a Government that is very happy to spend money. We've got the $15 billion light rail project. We've got the $500 million that's going to be spent on the health reforms and that's only a part down payment. We've got the $1 billion that's going to be set aside for the three waters change. Of course that is about taxing people to fund that. That is why we oppose the tax rates that have been put forward in this bill: because fundamentally we don't believe that they are justified. That is why we have put up an amendment in my name which is about reducing tax rates. Of course this was announced by our leader Christopher Luxon not long ago and is actually a core part of what the Hon Simon Bridges has been talking about for a long time which is adjusting tax rates to take into account inflation.If we look back for instance and say What has been the net inflation over the last four years under the Labour Government?" it's been about 12 percent—just slightly under. So what we've proposed—and this is what the amendment deals with specifically—is that we should go back and adjust the threshold at which point people enter into the higher tax bracket. For instance at the moment New Zealanders pay tax at 10.5 percent on the first $14000 of income. Under the proposal that we're talking about we would increase that to $15600 because that is the inflation taking into account the 11.5 percent that I talked about over the past four years. Conversely—just working through the next arrangement—at the 17.5 percent tax rate we're suggesting that that cut in at $15600 and would increase to $53500. At present that rate stops at $48000. There is a $5500 increase in the threshold. Of course that would mean for people earning an average wage they would still be paying tax at 17.5 percent rather than as currently flipping into the next tax rate of 30 percent. The next rate would be increasing from $53500 to $78000 for the rate of 30 percent. The 30 percent at the moment goes up to a maximum of $70000; we're increasing that to $78000. The final adjustment is that all tax from $78000 onwards would be paid at the 33 percent tax rate. Of course what all this does and what the proposals are around this is put more money back into Kiwi pockets.I know that the Government particularly the Hon Grant Robertson—and it would be interesting to see what the Hon David Parker says—characterise this as a tax cut. They're not tax cuts actually. What they are is stopping the Government and reversing the Government's tax take that has been imposed on New Zealanders over the past four years. It's reversing that and giving it back to New Zealanders. It's like saying "Let's go back to the status quo before the Labour Government came into office four years ago." That is hardly a tax cut. What it is is saying "New Zealanders you should keep what you should have been entitled to back in 2017 and we're going to reverse it back there." What it means ultimately is that New Zealanders will have more cash in their pockets and more money to spend on vital things for their families. Of course this is at a time when we've got these massive cost of living increases. We've been talking about fuel about housing costs—rent's up by $150 a week since the Labour Government's come into play—and about all those increases around fruit and vegetables. That is making it so much harder for New Zealanders and New Zealand families to just be able to pay for the necessities of life. For the lower-income people they are the ones who have little discretionary income and this is about helping people on those lower incomes. To put it in context for an average wage they would be getting about $870 extra per annum and for someone earning over $78000—which the Government loves to focus on—they'd be roughly about the same: about $1000 extra. What these broad changes will mean is that every year people are about $800 better off. For superannuitants—which is a very important component—they'd be about $540 better off as a couple. Giving money back to them that the Government has otherwise taken off them over the past four years will allow them to meet their commitments and to look after their lives and to actually try and deal with this massive cost of living explosion that we've had. Now these tax cuts will cost about $1.7 billion and I think what this will mean is that we move back to a situation where we stop taxing and taxing people and the Government taking that putting it through all the administration that the Government has and spending it on a lot of bureaucratic processes to get to a point where the Government then pays it back to New Zealanders. That is just a way to circumvent that so that people keep the money at the time that they earn it and so that they can prioritise how they want to use it. It is about allowing New Zealanders to get on with their lives with less input and influence from the Government.This is what my amendment is about and I think—if I may say so—this is something that we've been talking about for some period of time as the National Party. It is an excellent idea. It has got good outcomes for all New Zealanders. It's fair and equitable. There are further amendments that I'm going to talk to on this matter but I know my time is drawing to a close. I think this is an excellent start in terms of the tax debate."