Katene Rahui: Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Katene Rahui: Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:19030] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 I am pleased to stand and speak to the Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill to discuss the proposed measures to deal with taxation issues arising from the earthquakes that occurred on 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011 and affected the entire Canterbury region. 
This bill is absolutely necessary to enable the communities of Christchurch to respond to and recover from the impacts of the Canterbury earthquakes. There are dual purposes: the restoration and rehabilitation of communities left shattered by the natural disasters and the rebuilding of the Greater Christchurch area. The Maori Party has actively supported the rebuilding of the Maori community in Otautahi. In doing so we have been very aware of the impressive iwi contribution to the recovery effort of this scale. Iwi organisations sent donations and people to support relief efforts including ropu from Te Arawa Tainui Ngati Rarua and Ngati Whatua. Enormous containers of supplies were distributed from Pipitea marae here in Wellington. In short there has been a systematic effort by iwi to support relief and reconstruction. 
In the immediate aftermath of the quake marae opened their doors to all people in search of refuge food and accommodation. The marae in Otautahi became command centres for different agencies: Maori sectors of the police the Fire Service health providers Te Puni Kokiri Maori media Ngai Tahu and so on. Seventy Watene Maori assisted police and non-governmental organisations with checking on people in the hot spots. In other rohe Takitimu Te Arawa Tai Tokerau whanau arrived either in transit or returning home to an uncertain future. And of course this weekend we are gearing up for the global telethon being led by Maori Television:  
Rise Up Christchurch—Te Kotahitanga 
. I was really moved by the words of Maori Television chief executive Jim Mather: “ 
Rise Up Christchurch—Te Kotahitanga 
 will inspire and unite New Zealanders across the globe to support the people of Christchurch as they ‘Rise Up Christchurch’ from this challenge that Papatuanuku has presented”. 
This bill then the Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill falls well within the context of the leadership that Maori communities and whanau have already shown leading up to this point. We must ensure that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority learns from this lesson and leans on this leadership. And we can apply that same thinking to the proposed measures to deal with taxation issues arising from the earthquakes. A focused and timely recovery of Greater Christchurch and its communities will be assisted by all of us pitching in. So we support the intention of this bill to exempt from fringe tax and fringe benefit tax certain welfare contributions made by some employers to their employees in the 2 months after each of the two big earthquakes; provide income tax and gift duty relief to businesses that donated trading stock with the intention of helping alleviate the impact of the Canterbury earthquakes and their aftershocks from 4 September 2010 to 31 March 2012; provide a discretion to exclude from the “other payments” category of income for Working for Families certain payments made to people adversely affected by the Canterbury earthquakes and similar events; and extend the redundancy tax credit by 6 months to 30 September 2011. 
These proposals will work in a number of ways. It is proposed that a tax exemption applies where targeted welfare in the form of cash including pro rata payments to Canterbury staff and/or goods and services have been provided to known staff. Some employers have provided emergency accommodation for their staff. It is also proposed that this be tax-exempt. Some employers have made welfare contributions that fall into sundry benefits available to all staff and targeted welfare to known recipients. It is proposed that these welfare-type benefits be tax-exempt for compliance and equity reasons where they are unclassified benefits that are generally available to all staff and provided in the 8 weeks after both the Canterbury earthquake and the Christchurch one. These benefits have an obvious welfare intention. 
In essence this bill is both pragmatic and technical in its application. Having said so however I would be very interested to learn from the Minister what the response of mana whenua has been to the provisions included within the bill. In a recent submission to Parliament Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu stated: “Like the Crown and local government we are a perpetual presence with histories aspirations and accountabilities to contribute to the recovery and rebuilding of Christchurch.” The Maori Party has therefore been very pleased that Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu is explicitly stated as one of the entities that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority must work alongside and that Ngai Tahu and other Maori will be included in the community forum.  
Mana whenua must remain an essential part of the recovery strategy and have help to lead development of the central business district recovery plan and other statutory plans. To this end whether it be about employer welfare contributions targeted welfare tax relief for donated trading stock tax relief for other categories of income for Working for Families or a redundancy tax credit such details should still benefit from ample consideration with Ngai Tahu as to their application.  
We support the measures included in this bill and we believe that they represent a commitment to doing whatever it takes to give the people of Canterbury every opportunity to respond to and recover from the impacts of the Canterbury earthquakes. We are happy to support this bill.