Lu NancyNANCY LU (National): I stand in front of all of you today to oppose the Goods and Services Tax (Removing GST from Food) Amendment Bill in its first reading. At its first glance and I invite you to read the title again it sounds like it's making an attempt to address a pressing issue which—every single member tonight and this afternoon has addressed it too—is to provide financial relief for the high cost of living pressure in our country that our people are experiencing. I must put out loud and clear—and eventually in black and white in the Hansard—that this member's proposal to amend our current effective fair Goods and Services Tax Act is ambitious; however it is very dangerous to New Zealand's tax system not only just now but also in the long run. I don't believe any member in this House or any families in New Zealand watching TV right now or online watching would disagree about the reality we are in which is the high cost of living pressure and crisis that we're in. All of our families experience and feel the financial burdens and pain when they go into a supermarket having to choose between an apple or a banana or having to choose and downgrade for a different brand of products. Do you know why the people of New Zealand have made their choice in October 2023? It is precisely because they've lost hope for the last Government who had tried for six years—six years—to do something for New Zealand but they didn't. So the people of New Zealand actually made their choices by voting for a National-led Government to bring our country back on track to bring down the cost of living to bring down inflation to fix the economy to grow our economy and to get our country and our people back on track.I am definitely opposing this amendment in front of you today because this amendment simply does not address the intention to help cost of living pressure for any of New Zealand's families not in the short term and definitely not in the longer term. My first reason is very very simple. This amendment to the House today to change the current tax code in order to charge GST according to the different products and kinds of products in the market simply is just not going to work. It's going to be an overhaul of word games. Let me ask who in this House—members and Speaker—needs a new definition of what food" is. We know what food is. We don't need a separate tax definition to tell us what food means so I am opposed to this overhaul of word game that the member is proposing.Secondly I oppose this bill because while it seems like it intends to provide relief for families who go through the pressure and the painful points when they're in the supermarket I encourage members and all our voters and constituents watching us to learn from other countries who have already adopted or are adopting similar tax policies. I encourage you to have a look at the UK. I remember going through university that my tax law professor said to our class once "There are only two things that are certain in this world: death and tax." and it should keep it that way—it should be death and tax. Tax should be simple and easy to understand. It should be effective. It should be fair. We do not have to go into the restaurant or the supermarket to understand that "Oh this is taxable but this is hot and therefore this is taxable. But this is cold—oh I'm sorry this is not taxable." This is not the situation and not the thing that New Zealand families need.I am opposing this bill before the House because I believe a National-led Government has better policies and better tools to bring our country back on track. That includes working on improving the productivity of New Zealand sectors and New Zealand's workforce. That includes increasing trade and that is why we are talking actively on free-trade agreements with other regions and countries. We are talking about better technologies so that our people our tradies and our companies can have higher profit return and therefore pay higher wages for their employees. We're encouraging people to look into baking a bigger cake so that every single New Zealander can have more to share. So therefore I oppose this bill."