General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGeneral Debate[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10466. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]General DebateANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Once upon a time they used to say that John Key’s moral compass was broken. It now turns out that he never had one at all. Of course it is no longer just his moral failure; it is the entire moral failure of that National Government and every backbencher who supports it. You see it is not just the Prime Minister any more. Even the Minister of Finance Bill English—this master of small government—cannot face up to the real challenges of young New Zealanders who are desperate for opportunities and to get a job. He just writes them off. This is a dreadful shabby little Government that has nothing to offer the future of New Zealand and New Zealanders.So we now see the real world of John Key being opened up for all of us to see—a world that was never shown to New Zealand until now. Once upon a time we all thought that John Key was this easy-going charming affable sort of leader—a man of the people a man for everyone. But he is not because we know who his friends are we know whom he associates with and we know whom he takes his advice from. It is those who live in that world of enormous of extraordinary of just plain mega-wealth who will do anything that they can—take all the advice that they can from the high-paid lawyers and accountants—to avoid their civic obligations and to avoid paying the taxes that they should pay.We live in the developed world. We are lucky to have a country like many others around the world that has a good developed education system that has a good health system—apart from the slops they serve up around our health system at the moment—that has good roads and that has peace and security. But you see in the history of the last 30 years around the world this community has been growingof people who no longer respect that—who no longer respect the histories of those countries—who are greedy and who see their job and mission in life as being to avoid wherever they can contributing to and taking those steps that help the next generation through. And that is now what drives the Government or at the very least the leader of it. It is hopeless—it is hopeless for it it is hopeless for us and it is hopeless for all of New Zealand.You know most New Zealanders wondered why in their usual kind of genteel way when we heard about the big multinational corporates like Facebook and Google that were coming here with massive trading revenues but paying little or no tax. But the Prime Minister’s response was to say “Well it’s legal.” and shrug his shoulders—there was nothing to see here. Then faced with the reports of this country now playing host to 12000 special trusts that allow the mega-wealthy of the world to avoid paying tax in their own countries he shrugged his shoulders and said: “This is good for us. We get legal fees and accountants’ fees.” And that is all he cares about.The rest of New Zealand was in shock because we thought we had a good reputation. We thought we were a country driven by good healthy wholesome values—that if you work hard you get ahead that you pay your way that you make your contribution and that you help the next generation come through—because that is what we have always stood for. But not that Government. It has sided itself with the world’s greedy and the mega-wealthy who just want to avoid their civic obligations and their civic responsibilities.And it is not just the Prime Minister anymore because you see I have not heard a single National Party MP in the last week or 10 days stand up and say: “This is wrong—this is wrong. We are a better people than this. Where is our morality?”. Not a single National Party MP and they are all tainted. They are all responsible. We are a better country—we can be better. New Zealanders do not want us to be associated with those who will shrug off their civic responsibilities fail in their duty to their home countries and enjoy their greed at the expense of every other citizen who works hard and has to make their way. That is not New Zealand.New Zealanders are looking for real moral leadership and that Government—that party—has demonstrated it is incapable of it because it has a leader who does not know right from wrong. In politics there is a right and there is a wrong and it is in the wrong. We do not want to have tax laws that play to the mega-wealthy of the world at our expense and at the expense of the countries they come from. We can do better—we can do better. New Zealand is a better place not under that Government but it will be better under Labour.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister supporting Greater Christchurch Regeneration): That was a round of applause as the party bus heads its way down from 28 to 26. This country has trust laws that apply to all trusts in this country. Every New Zealander who sets up a trust whether it be for the protection of their families or the security of their retirement income—and it could be any number of retirement schemes that exist throughout the country—is governed by the same laws that Andrew Little has said in the House today Labour wants to dismantle. Why does he want to affect the rights of New Zealanders to make the most of the circumstances that they find in their own lives? Simply because he wants to protect the tax base of foreign national countries. Well let us be very clear about this. If you are a young worker in New Zealand entering the workforce you are likely to be paying a tax rate of around 17.5 percent. If you are in an average OECD country that same person would be paying twice that rate at 35.5 percent. The answer for those foreign jurisdictions is not to start moaning about New Zealanders’ rights under trust law but simply to adjust their own tax law.Is it any wonder that the Labour Party is in such a dreadful state? Why would New Zealanders turn round to it and say: “You’ve got my vote because of the attention you are paying to foreign tax bases at our expense.”? Of course the attack on John Key is motivated entirely by the perplexing situation that the Labour Party sees in the current round of polling. Everyone would agree that there is only one poll—that is on election day—but the indications coming from the public are that that is a party with the phone off the hook. We saw it today in question time and we see it every day in question time where there is every effort made to reflect on some past glory of a previous Labour Government and to compare it to the extraordinary results being delivered for New Zealanders on a daily basis by this Government.Was it not interesting in the general debate today to hear Mr Little’s plea to help foreign tax bases at the expense of New Zealanders and their rights under trust law again by saying: “This country has a good education system a good health system. It is a peaceful country and it is a secure country.”? If that is where the Labour Party is coming from—and its worry is entirely offshore—no wonder New Zealanders are not listening.In the last week this Government has made a number of announcements that are positive for New Zealand. Anne Tolley announced the changes to the way in which this Government will see the State’s involvement with children enhanced to a level not seen before—a programme that will see children put at the centre of the State’s care and not the bureaucratic institutions that deliver that care. That is the sort of thing that New Zealanders want to hear and do connect with. It was fascinating that even the Labour Party saw the worth in that.Today there was an announcement from my colleague Michael Woodhouse. He will make more comment on that in a few minutes but it is a clear demonstration that this Government knows where the opportunity for delivering social services to this country comes from. It is from the small businesses that risk their capital that employ people and that go out day after day working hard. What we will get from the other side is an attack on that and no support for it. No wonder then that New Zealanders are asking: “What does the Labour Party stand for?”. If you were listening to Mr Little today it stands for good education good health good security and good housing. He concedes that this Government is delivering all of that and then his party stands for protecting the tax base of foreign countries against the rights of New Zealanders who want to enjoy the privileges of our domestic trust laws.METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): Renters deserve warm dry and safe homes. Renting is now a reality for a third of New Zealanders in this country. That is nearly one and a half million New Zealanders who are living in rental homes and every one of those New Zealanders deserves to live in a warm dry and safe home. The Green Party will do what is right by renters and it is right to make our homes warm safe and dry for our kids and for our families. It is right—and not only that it is 100 percent possible—to make New Zealand homes warm dry and safe.New Zealand needs to have a warrant of fitness for rental properties in this country. That is what is needed to make homes warm dry and safe. So I am urging New Zealanders to sign the Green Party petition—and you can find it on our website—that will urge this Parliament to put in place a warrant of fitness for New Zealand’s rental homes and for those nearly 1.5 million New Zealanders who live in those homes. We can make warm dry and safe rental homes real in this country. We can make it real in this country if we all work together. So please sign the petition. I invite members to sign the petition.Why is this important? Well we know that on average 15 children in this country will die from conditions related to cold damp and mouldy houses—on average 15 children a year. Why do we not just think for a minute in this House about the kids whom we know and love? Think for a minute about our own children about our own grandchildren about our nieces and our nephews and the children in our neighbourhoods whom we love and think that there will be families this winter—up to 15 families this winter—who will see their child sicken and die because they live in a cold damp home. That is the only reason why these children will get sick. It is because they live in a cold damp house. We can fix that in this country. We can save these children’s lives and save these families the grief of watching their children sicken and die.Think for a moment about your grandparents and the kind of home that they and their friends might live in. Did you know that 1600 New Zealanders die every winter in New Zealand from preventable illnesses? Those 1600 deaths would be preventable if those people were living in warm dry homes—that is all that is needed to make sure. Of those 1600 most will be older people who die as a result of living in cold damp and mouldy homes. Think for a moment of the 40000 hospitalisations of children this winter from respiratory illness—40000. That is the entire population of Gisborne—every man woman and child—going to hospital for respiratory illness. It is the entire population of Wanganui or the entire population of Blenheim going to hospital—that is the equivalent. We can fix that. We can make sure that our kids and our grandparents and our families are safe in their homes with a warrant of fitness for rental homes that will make those homes warm dry and safe.The power will be in the hands of this Parliament when it soon comes to debate the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill. We can choose in this House to make sure that our homes are warm dry and safe for our kids for our families and for our grandparents. That power rests also in the hands of the public and the public is saying: “We demand that our Parliament puts in place the systems that will protect our families this winter.” I urge everyone to sign the petition to make sure that our rental homes are warm dry and safe. Thank you.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (Minister of Revenue): In addressing the many comments that the Leader of the Opposition has made on the so-called foreign trusts I am not sure—I am a bit confused. I do not know whether to speak more loudly because he is deaf or more slowly because he is stupid because frankly that is where we have got to. I have got a dilemma: either he is completely obtuse about this issue or he thinks that the New Zealand public is because he keeps banging on about things that are simply not true. I respect anybody’s right to have a different opinion but they cannot have a different set of facts and these are the facts: there is no tax avoidance or evasion in New Zealand in respect of foreign trusts.Hon Annette King: Rubbish!Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: These are—see the member says “Rubbish!” right? Cloth-eared again. These are foreign trusts owning foreign assets and earning foreign income—there is no tax obligation in New Zealand. On Monday 11 April Mr Little said: “The reality is the Government is allowing the world’s richest people”—here is the kicker—“to hide their wealth in New Zealand and not pay their fair share.” There is no wealth hidden in New Zealand with these foreign trusts. Otherwise here is the thing: they would not be foreign; they would be domestic trusts. If there was any money in New Zealand—Hon Annette King: That is so dumb.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: —then there would be a tax obligation to the Inland Revenue Department and an anti - money-laundering obligation including to the New Zealand Police.And here is “dumb”: Mr Little apparently released his tax returns—no only he did not; he released his personal tax summary. A personal tax summary is not a return of income tax and when that was pointed out to him his press secretary said something like: “Oh well there may be other things like a small amount of interest income on his savings.” Can you imagine what Labour would have said if the Prime Minister had given that sort of response? I do not need to remind you that a certain David Shearer is a bit forgetful about offshore interests is he not? Fifty thousand dollars of offshore interest in a bank account that he forgot about—but we did not go on for too long about that did we? We gave him a tease.Even today in question time—here in question time today—the breathless revelations that Mr Brash and Mr Shewan went to the Bahamas. Here is why: they advised the Bahamas Government on how to set up a tax regime to make finance services to offshore companies zero-rated for GST. Guess what? So is ours—so is New Zealand’s. Roger Douglas’ GST framework which is the world leader gives the opportunity for New Zealand tax and accounting firms to offer services to offshore companies at a rate that is zero-rated for GST. That is sound tax policy and we are losing the plot on the discussion about New Zealand’s world-leading tax system.Here is why it is so sad about today because today is a very good day for small businesses in New Zealand. The vast majority of our businesses are small: more than 90 percent of them employ fewer than 20 people and 97 percent of them employ 50 people or fewer. Small business is the backbone of this country and of this economy. To be able to announce today that there is a package of tax measures that will make life so much easier for them is something I think we should be very proud of as a Government—I certainly am. Here is why. What businesses say to us—because we talk to business; in fact we give them a damn good listening to—is that provisional tax is very very clunky and inefficient and does not fit with the business model. So the accounting income method using accounting software is going to make meeting tax obligations much much easier. It will fit with a company’s income flows and cash flows and avoid the late-payment penalties and the use-of-money interest that has been a burden on small business for some time. We have listened and we have delivered.We have also made significant changes to use-of-money interest where people using the uplift method who make honest underestimations or have a really good year should not be punished for having a better year than the previous year and so use-of-money interest will apply only on the third provisional tax payment. Even then they will have an opportunity to bump it up if they can see that their income is going up. These are good policies. This is good sensible tax policy. It is the sort of policy that New Zealand’s tax framework is renowned for globally including amongst the OECD and I stand very strongly beside it.Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): We have heard it all. We have just heard from the member who has just sat down Michael Woodhouse who came down here and said: “I don’t like the way Andrew Little tabled his tax records.” Well I put it to that member—if John Key has nothing to hide if he has nothing to run from and nothing to fear then why does he not come down to this House and show us his tax records? Let us have some transparency from this Government on tax. It would make a change.We saw it all again in question time today—the man of many hats is back. This time he is even more slippery he is even more evasive but he is back. He is trying to dance on the head of a pin. This is the man who sat back and watched a dirty-tricks campaign being run out of his office. This time he is back here in the House trying to tell us he cannot answer whether or not the Bahamas are a tax haven. That is what we heard today from the Prime Minister. Well Prime Minister Google it. Get a brochure from the Bahamas tourism office; it is how they market themselves. But he is back and he is on the side of people avoiding; he is on the side of people evading. He is shushing his way through. He is on the side of people who are money-laundering and people who are hiding stolen assets.What does this mean for you and me? You Mr Speaker as I am sure pay your taxes. What does this mean for the people who pay their PAYE for the business owners who pay their tax for the companies that pay their tax? Internationally this tax avoidance this tax evasion and this money-laundering ultimately end up with people paying more tax. When the mega-wealthy decide that they are going to hide it away then it falls on middle New Zealand to pick up the pieces in this country.This is the side our Prime Minister has taken. He has decided he is going to protect that. He is going to defend that rather than say we need to have fair tax and we need to make sure that people pay their fair share. This is not the kind of country that any of us want. It certainly is not the kind of country where we make sure that people pay their fair share and we spend it on health we spend it on education we spend it on housing and we spend it on building the Kiwi Dream rather than sheltering people who are doing wrong and spending their time in Parliament defending it.Then we had a very limited game of defence played by the Government members today. Obviously they were not queuing up at procedures to ask for a call in this general debate because they knew what was coming. It was Gerry who came down and I have to give the Minister a sub-par performance. It really was not up to Gerry’s normal standard—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Dr MEGAN WOODS: —the Minister’s standard. But then I guess that particular Minister remembers that it was the Prime Minister who is quoted as saying “I’ve told Gerry to deliver me a paper that has a zero rating of funds and we’ll work on that.” when he was in the role of Minister for Economic Development.Then we had what can only be described as a bizarre speech from Michael Woodhouse. This is the man who thinks that worm farming and growing lavender are two of the most dangerous occupations that we can have in this country. He decided that he was going to try to have a sledge and have a go but it backfired. This is a Government that will not fess up. It got it wrong. It was out of touch with New Zealanders when the Prime Minister shrugged his shoulders and said: “There’s nothing to see here. Move along. We’re not a tax haven.”The polling shows that that is not what New Zealanders think. That is not what they think out there in my electorate of Wigram and it is not what they think all around the country. This is a Prime Minister who is showing he is arrogant he is out of touch and he is not on the side of the people who want a fair go.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): It is a privilege to be here in the House this afternoon. I have to say I did have to listen to the Leader of the Opposition Mr Little really complaining and bagging the Government saying that this was a dreadful shabby little Government that has nothing to offer New Zealanders. Basically he seems to be saying that the 50 percent of New Zealanders who support this Government are fools. Is that what he is saying? Is that what he is saying—that the 50 percent of New Zealanders who support this Government who continue to support this Government and who put their trust in the Prime Minister and this Government to do the best thing for this country are fools?Then he talked about morality. Does he really think that he as Leader of the Opposition and leader of the Labour Party lives on some higher moral plane than the rest of us over on this side of the House? Does he really think that he is of a higher moral standing and of a higher morality than the many hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who stand behind this Government? I do not think he is. The moral thing to do—in my opinion being involved in the Government—is to work every day to improve the living standards of New Zealanders. That is what we do. That is what we on this side of the House get out of bed every morning to try to do.That is why we work hard every day to reform the Resource Management Act so as to make housing more affordable for everyday New Zealanders. We think that is the moral thing to do. [Interruption] It is interesting that members on the other side of the House do not seem to think that that is important. We think the moral thing to do is to remove barriers to entrepreneurship to remove barriers to competition to help small businesses to get through the difficulties of business and pay their provisional tax and get on and do well. We think the moral thing to do is to provide a stable environment that is sustainable and predictable so that New Zealanders in every walk of life can know where they stand and can make plans for the future can make investment for the future and can do well for themselves and for their family. We think the moral thing to do is to focus on getting good results out of Government spending rather than the lazy idea of just throwing money at a problem and expecting that that is a solution in itself.We think the moral thing to do is to continue to reform welfare in this country. It is not good enough just to accept multigenerational dependency which has developed in many parts of this country but you actually have to think hard and tackle those long-term issues. That is what we think and that is what I believe is the moral thing to do as a member of Parliament and we strive to do that every day.I do not take criticisms from people on the other side who claim to be living on some kind of higher moral plane than everybody. I have not met a single person in this Parliament on either side of the House who does not come here and think that they are going to do the very best job that they can for New Zealanders. We disagree very strongly about how to go about doing that. We have strong arguments about what the best way to raise the living standards of New Zealanders is but I personally am not one who would want to throw such abuse at members on the other side of the Parliament.The Prime Minister made a very interesting speech this morning around the progress that the Government is making on building a more productive and competitive economy. He did mention a couple of things: that the overall spending of Government—Dr Megan Woods: Isn’t 5 minutes up?Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Thank you very much. He mentioned that the overall spending of the Government on structural expenses had gone from 36 percent of the entire economy in 2004 up to nearly 45 percent in 2009—an 8 percent increase; a massive increase in Government spending. And why is that a problem? It is because there is very little money left over for ordinary New Zealanders to spend on what they want to spend if Government is taking 45 percent of the whole economy in terms of spending.We have to be mindful of the fact that most Government spending is done by monopolies and it is not subject to competition and real discipline. That is why I am proud to be part of the Government that has managed to bring that down and it is very difficult. We have got it back down to 39 percent—dropped it 6 percent—and we still have got a lot more work to do. But it is that hard work that we carry on in this Government. The task is not finished and we have got a long way to go.Finally I did want to mention the progress that we had been making in the financial literacy space. I was very pleased last week to have the launch of the Sorted website and I encourage all members of the House and anybody listening today to have a look at that for help on financial capability. Thank you very much.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): Politics is a matter of trust. The Government boasts of its transparency and accountability and that is very apposite right now. I am reading a poll which Government members have not got—and thank God we have—that says that the last spokesman’s statements are utterly wrong and that they are in trouble. I cannot share it with them because it is confidential but there it is and it is all bad news for the backbench. The so-called Panama Papers are like the real-life embodiment of John Grisham’s novel The Firm.Hon Member: That’s last week.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I know it was last week. It will be next week and the week after and the week after and the week after because this is a perfect storm built from secrecy and deceit and above all the Prime Minister’s arrogance. That is a new feature in his behaviour.Government members have been so cocky that they decided to get a retread as the person who is going to investigate the wrongdoing that has been happening to this country’s formerly good name. They started off with the Inland Revenue Department doing the job and then they decided to get an international tax expert. Then all of a sudden because the polls were coming in we had a re-run of the comment made exactly 46 years ago to this day: “Houston we have a problem.” That was exactly 46 years ago today: “Houston we have a problem.”So Mr Key pulled out not the overseas tax expert but a Wellingtonian who has travelled overseas to the Bahamas to advise them to do the exact thing that is happening here and that saw the foreign trusts in this country treble under the financial money-mover Mr John Key Prime Minister. So who is Mr Shewan? Well he was involved in the Westpac Banking Corporation disgrace of trying with the three other Aussie banks to dodge paying their tax in this country. He was their adviser. They settled out of court for $2.2 billion.Denis O’Rourke: Some adviser!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Yes some adviser. And then you have got the other cases all the way to the Privy Council—the highest court that we have got in my view—all saying this man is no tax expert. But why has he been chosen? It is not because he is the poacher turned gamekeeper. No he is the poacher out to help poachers and he will not change. Mr Key you see could not get an independent expert because he cannot stand the sunlight of disclosure and that is what this is all about.You can run all the protection rackets you like to try to protect National now but it will not work and those of us who have got experience know just how long that can take. The good news is that we have got months and months to dissect this series of disgusting scandalous transactions where New Zealand is mentioned—how many times? It is 60000 times. I asked the Prime Minister: “Of the 70 State and governmental leaders around the world in the Panama Papers is your name one of them?”. He gets up and answers: “I’m not doing any transactions in Panama.” Is that an answer to my question?Hon Members: No.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No it is not. Does he think that is going to be successful?Hon Members: No.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No it will not. I know people like Mr Mitchell from the Rodney electorate and places like that and the member for the Bay of Plenty. I know that they are smiling over there. But right now their knees are knocking big time because I know reaching into the old National Party that about one in three voters knows that this has got an acrid stench and it is sadly coming into the party they thought would never behave like this. I have got news for them and it is all bad—very sad as well.Sadly the new National Party a bunch of Tea Party clones will put up and say anything to defend its behaviour. It will say anything just to hold on to power. Unfortunately the polls are now—and if you take the one on TV ONE the other night it is a total waste of time. This poll says that the flag did make a massive dent and this is before he was discovered dealing with a group of Chinese business people to try to change the flag outcome in New Zealand. We always knew he was in the pocket of the Chinese but this is outrageous—this is outrageous. Also the poll was before the Panama Papers and my message to Television New Zealand is: “For goodness’ sake for the first time go and get a reliable poll and stop misleading people.”KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): First of all I would like to wish all the Kiwis of the Khalsa Sirjana Diwas—and Vaisakhi which was celebrated yesterday in Parliament. Hundreds of constituents came to celebrate. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you Mr Speaker for giving the opportunity to many of the baptised Sikhs to come and visit Parliament while wearing their kirpan and participate in this celebration.In 1890 the first Punjabi arrived in New Zealand. That was 125 years ago and they started with bush scrub-cutting in the Waikato area. They progressed from there and today they own small medium and large businesses. Some of them own businesses that employ more than 500 people in New Zealand contributing to the economy. Why I say this is because Indians and migrants have been very hard-working and have been contributing to the New Zealand economy.This Government is looking after all those businesses which are contributing to the economy. As was mentioned earlier the Prime Minister today announced a package that will help small and medium businesses with their provisional taxes. Small and medium businesses around the country and in particular in Manukau East are the backbone of this country. More than 90 percent of businesses are small to medium businesses that employ fewer than 20 people and they are the ones that are creating jobs. If you look at the statistics retail spending is increasing every time. Tourism is increasing. The economy is increasing. That shows that the policies that have been introduced by this Government are working and benefiting the economy.Budget 2016 will contribute to ensuring that New Zealand continues to be one of the fastest-growing economies in the OECD group of the wealthier nations. This Government has been encouraging all businesses to diversify. We have been very much an exporter of primary goods but we are helping businesses to diversify. In the last year only if you look at the statistics there was a 15 percent increase in research and development—in just 1 year. That shows that we are helping businesses so that they can grow. As I mentioned the provisional taxes are going to be simplified. That is not the only thing we are doing. We are also helping small businesses giving them different tools to help them to concentrate on their business rather than concentrating on the paperwork. We are going to give small businesses with a turnover of less than $5 million the opportunity to choose a new pay-as-you-go option for provisional tax. It is very important because small businesses continuously struggle for their capital and subsequent to these changes they will have more money in hand so that they can expand their businesses and help to grow this economy.The way provisional tax currently works is that people by one method or another estimate their likely income tax bill for the coming year and pay the amount in three equal instalments. With the new options they will pay on only as much income as they feel they are going to make whether it is a huge profit or a medium profit. They will determine themselves how much they want to pay.More flexibility will be given to contractors who pay on average about 20 to 25 percent withholding tax. There are 130000 contractors who pay withholding tax which is deducted from them. Many will be familiar with the form that says if you are a shearer you have to pay withholding tax of 15 percent if you are a freelance journalist you have to pay 25 percent withholding tax contracting cleaners pay 20 percent withholding tax and the list goes on. We are changing this from 1 April 2017. It will be easy for contractors to choose their own withholding tax rate subject to the minimum of 10 percent.We are helping small businesses to grow and we will continue to support them. Thank you.KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): I would like to begin my general debate speech by thanking someone and that is the Hon Bill English. I would like to thank him for writing the latest chapter in the three-part saga of National called “Arrogant and Out of Touch”. We now know from the comments—I would like to thank Iain Lees-Galloway—that Mr English made at the Feilding Federated Farmers meeting last Friday what National really thinks about New Zealanders. Usually we get positive comments from the Government like “We are backing New Zealanders. We back them. We don’t care what the Labour Party says; we back New Zealanders to be the best that they can possibly be.”But when National members are behind closed doors talking to their mates—and Bill English has got form in getting caught telling what he really thinks about New Zealanders—we find out what National really thinks about New Zealanders. What did Mr English say about young males to the Federated Farmers in Feilding last Friday? He said they were “pretty damned hopeless”. He said we need to have a little bit more immigration at the moment because Kiwis in general—so not just males—are “pretty damned hopeless”. So that is what National thinks behind closed doors. When the camera is out and the microphones are out those members say “We are backing New Zealanders so they can do the best for New Zealand.” but when they go to their caucus room and they have their little party meetings around New Zealand they think New Zealanders are “pretty damned hopeless”.Well I have got some news for the Minister of Finance. For 15 to 19-year-old males what is the unemployment rate? It is 23 percent. The unemployment rate for young males aged 20 to 24 is 9.3 percent. What is our national average? It is 5.3 percent. So it is our young males more than anyone who are struggling to find jobs and what is the message that we get from this arrogant and out-of-touch Government? It is that young males are “pretty damned hopeless”. Well if those people out there can hear the message that this Government has got for them they will find out that this Government has been pretty damned hopeless at getting them the job opportunities that they need.This is not a Government that is working for those “pretty damned hopeless” males out there. If it did its job and was not so damned hopeless those people would have jobs. They would have the education to make sure they could get the jobs that New Zealanders need. That is the kind of arrogant and out-of-touch Government that we have got when those members talk behind closed doors of New Zealanders who may have voted for them but will seriously reconsider their vote now. Those members already think that those young men out there are “pretty damned hopeless”. Those are the kinds of people that I have got in my electorate who are desperate to find a job. And yes in one respect they have not got any hope. They are not hopeless; they do not have any hope in this Government to do a decent enough job to get them a job. That is what this Government really thinks about New Zealanders.I would like to know what else those members are saying behind closed doors about other sections of New Zealand because we have now found out what Bill English really thinks of young males in New Zealand. He got caught out telling what he really thinks about New Zealanders. There is one story in front of a camera and in front of a microphone and another story when those members are talking to their mates. So this is an arrogant and out-of-touch Government and that is the latest chapter in a very long saga.We got another episode of arrogance this week when the Prime Minister said he will not release his tax records. [Interruption] I will put my leader’s credibility over the credibility of your Prime Minister every day because this is a Prime Minister who has got a loose relationship with the truth. Let us hear what he said about his Tranz Rail shares back in 2008. When John Key was asked how many shares exactly he and his family had in Tranz Rail he said it was 50000 at the maximum. Sometimes it was 20000 and sometimes it was 50000. He was asked whether he personally bought 50000 Tranz Rail shares in 2003 and sold them off. He said: “Actually maybe 100000 from memory sometimes 50000 sometimes 100000 yep.” When he was asked whether it was an issue that he should be clear about he said: “Yeah sorry there was 100000 in total.” That was our Prime Minister talking about his own personal affairs and his shares. Within the space of 30 seconds he went from one story to another.I think we are going to see that with the Prime Minister around his affairs and trusts issues at the moment. Why will he not front up and tell the people of New Zealand like our leader has all the details around his tax? Why is he not “manning up” as those people on the other side of the House have said and telling us the story of his own tax details? Why will he not? Because we know that in the past he has got form—Iain Lees-Galloway: If he’s got nothing to hide he’s got nothing to fear.KRIS FAAFOI: That is right. What was the line when the Government Communications Security Bureau legislation was going through?Iain Lees-Galloway: If you’ve got nothing to hide you’ve got nothing fear.KRIS FAAFOI: Nothing to hide nothing to fear. So it is a very simple request to the Prime Minister: if you have got nothing to hide show us your tax details.SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): I was surprised the other day when I was back in my electorate that someone actually came up to me and asked the question: “Simon do you actually believe the poll about how bad Labour and the Opposition are performing?”.I say that I was surprised because being the bluest strongest seat in the country by and large the Tāmaki electorate does not really care about Labour.Basically they do not care about poor performance because by and large the good people of Tāmaki are there because they have worked jolly hard paid all their taxes and a lot more acted philanthropically and so forth. But this person did ask me whether I believed that Labour polled at 28 percent. Well to that particular constituent and anyone else who is listening you only need to have engaged with the general debate today to see how out of touch how odd and how silly the Opposition is. There are a whole lot of other adjectives waiting to be used but I try to be a man who is polite.Just to illustrate we have just had the usual rant from Labour. Basically its members have been told by the doyens in their research office—the bean counters and the like who will not actually even know what a counter or a bean is but that is what they call themselves—“Oh just use the words ‘arrogant’ and ‘out of touch’ many many times because eventually the New Zealand public”—Kris Faafoi: You just did it.SIMON O’CONNOR: —“will fall for it. They’ll just fall for it.” The irony is of course—now they are saying: “Oh my God you’ve used the word.” Yes I am allowed to use the words occasionally but they just repeat them over and over again.And then the real humdinger is this: “Oh our Leader of the Opposition ‘Angry Andrew’ Little who—Mr SPEAKER: Order!SIMON O’CONNOR: Sorry very good point. He yelled and screamed for about 5 minutes. They are saying: “Oh he released his tax return.” Well no actually. To those listening and certainly to the Opposition he did not release it. He said he did but of course he did not actually. What he released is something called the personal tax statement. To those of us on this side of the House who actually understand the Inland Revenue Department who actually put in tax returns and the like that is not the same thing. I am not going to bore you with all of the tax details but this is classic Labour. It has made all these assertions about what it and its leader have done but they are actually false. Not just false—demonstrably false. And not demonstrably false by this side but by its own self.Then from New Zealand First we have basically an array of fiction which is pretty classic Winston Peters. I think it was illustrated perfectly by him quoting John Grisham’s book The Firm—we did not quite understand why. But then he moved on pretty quickly to talking about The Perfect Storm and a film—I was wondering what sort of operatic philharmonic and ballet things he was going to get on to—all again falsities to try to illustrate nothing absolutely nothing.So ladies and gentlemen—Fletcher Tabuteau: You have a wonderful turn of phrase.SIMON O’CONNOR: —the reason ultimately that the Opposition is faltering so badly—falsely faltering flat-footedly; we can just keep going; we are just going to keep the alliteration all for Fletcher—the reason is ultimately that it is just so totally and utterly irrelevant.The opposite is true when I think back to my own electorate at the moment in particular in the area of small business. They are happy with where the Government is at and are already thrilled judging from the texts and emails that are coming through. Tāmaki is an aspirational hard-working electorate. It is an area with a lot of small businesses. You go around and you see actually that in the most recent weeks we have had new businesses set up—if you have not already The Good Grocer down in Kohi Mission Bay is a fantastic new development. We have got a new fruiterer up in Sunhill and I am looking forward to visiting there. One of our local coffee shops Tim and the team at Cigana another small business has moved recently but is redeveloping around the Tāmaki to Glen Innes cycleway—a $40 million project.Todd Muller: How much?SIMON O’CONNOR: Forty million dollars pumped into the Tāmaki electorate. We have got a new butcher and a whole lot of new business is often advertised through the Neighbourlywebsite which incidentally was actually developed by a Tāmaki local.The long and the short of it is that there are lots of small businesses doing well and lots of small businesses that will be absolutely thrilled today about the announcements made by the Prime Minister and other Ministers that will make life easier primarily around provisional tax. And that is where I want to finish here actually where there is the contrast of the “do” attitude of a local constituent who will welcome a Government doing something versus absolute rubbish coming from the other side which is in itself irrelevant—which means that 28 percent is probably a high-tide mark for this Opposition at the moment.JAN LOGIE (Green): We all know that food shelter warmth rest safety and security are essential for children to develop. I believe that in this House we all want every child to be able to be a child and to be able to develop into their best self. Yet we all know that without those basic needs being met children suffer and it becomes pretty impossible for them to grasp the opportunities in life. Yet thousands of children in this country are suffering and missing out on those opportunities because benefit and paid work rates are too low and housing and power costs are too high. Otago University research has shown that more than one child a week dies of low income-related diseases because of those policy settings.I want to remind the House of this because talk of putting children first in the Child Youth and Family review does ring a little hollow when it is not happening in other areas across Government that could absolutely also save children’s lives. We have had multiple reports telling us that things within Child Youth and Family are in crisis and we have had those over a long time. Last year the Office of the Children’s Commissioner told us that there was the equivalent of a small city of children right now that he could not tell us were safer in care than they were in the homes that they were removed from. Since that report came out we have had experts talking and now we are looking at—5 years out—money being provided along the way being taken from existing services in the meantime to build a future model. In the meantime social workers who are children’s potential lifelines are feeling under attack and are still overwhelmed with too much paperwork and too many cases. And we still cannot say whether those children right now are safe. We need to look at the short-term safety of those children as well as our long-term goal of securing a better future for all children through whatever Government structure we eventuate with.The Government’s new proposal will create a central organisation that is accountable for all children within care. It will put we are told more money into support for foster carers and it will create a market for these services to ensure that children do not have to wait for them as they are now. The Minister for Social Development has likened this to ACC. She has repeated many times that children are having to wait for services from Government and she does not believe that they should have to. We do not believe that they should have to either yet there are waiting lists for ACC services and indeed in some areas even where the Minister lives there is an absolute dearth of ACC providers particularly for sensitive claims which is the most analogous area. On the East Cape on its website ACC has one counsellor listed for the entire East Cape—a population of over 43000 with high rates of abuse. So we know from the example of ACC that the market does not solve the problem of its own accord. We absolutely need State oversight and an investment in core Government services so that we are transparent and are accountable to the people because when we distance it out into relying on individual groups to come forward and businesses we lose some of that accountability and ability to be sure of the provision of services.And I do want to in the last minute talk briefly about some of the concerns for Māori. Sixty percent of children in care at the moment are Māori and I have heard from social workers who are deeply concerned that the changes at the moment—unless they absolutely focus on changing the model to a kaupapa Māori model—will result in another stolen generation. The phrase that was said to me was that this has the potential to simply legalise child trafficking and profiteering from it and for Māori it equates potentially to genocide. We have to watch this carefully to make sure that every child now and in the future is safe.MAUREEN PUGH (National): It is a pleasure to stand here and take a call in this general debate. I have been listening to some of the comments made by the Opposition today and we have heard today that the National Party benches and their rich mates have some sort of advantage. Well I do not like the thought of “rich” being used as a four-letter word. From my own experience being rich is quite subjective and does not always equate to the amount of money someone has in their bank account. For me it was only a few years ago when I worked in a service station pumping gas and cleaning a public toilet but I thought I was rich then. The thing that I would like to make as my point about that is that becoming a member of Parliament and representing your community is something that this country makes available to every citizen.We also heard from our Opposition today that young men are in the highest cohort of unemployed. I would just like to do the maths. We have heard about bean counters today and I am certainly no bean counter but this Government has been in the Government for 8 years now. Prior to that there was a Labour Government for 9 years. So in 17 years I think we are seeing the tail end of those people who went through the education system under a Labour Government. You will see too that National has now broken the cycle with the work that is being done by the Hon Anne Tolley and the work that is being done by Hekia Parata to make sure that that cycle is completely broken. So we are seeing the tail end of those educated under a Labour Government and thank goodness for that.In terms of economic opportunities I would like to focus on just some of the success stories that are happening in an area that is near and dear to my heart which is West Coast - Tasman. Rather than talking about some of the huge Government investment that is happening in that electorate like ultra-fast broadband or major capital works like a hospital or seriously big infrastructure like roading or cycle trails I will focus on a few small businesses. They are mostly family-owned and they are producing high-value products for domestic and international markets. I am sure the House would like to hear a few of those examples.Alluvial gold mining is still going gangbusters. These little operations are employing people and taking a high standard in terms of the environmental responsibility. There are families like the Birchfields in Ross and there are the Acker and Mates families in Kūmara. They have been supported by the gold mining industry for many years they create jobs and they engage local service businesses that support their industry.Dear to my heart is the timber industry and especially the harvesting of the windthrow native timber which was introduced in a concept I brought to the Hon Nick Smith and was supported wholeheartedly by this Government. We are seeing a factory in Reefton Sustainable Forest Products now adding high-value native timber to its production line. That is going into domestic and international markets. Those people too are employing and growing their businesses and helping repair properties in Canterbury after the earthquakes.Many family-owned fruit and tree nut growers account for more than 11 percent of employment in the Tasman region and Tasman supports a third of the national pip-fruit industry and employment. And there is even a specialist Waimea grower who produces 60 percent of the trees for the apple growers nationwide.I was in Motueka and Golden Bay recently and during this time I caught up with some people in the viticulture sector. It is no surprise that these people are thrilled given the 14 percent rise in their exports last year which are now worth $1.5 billion to this country. This is music to the ears of the winegrowers in Waimea.Of course there is also tourism. Tourism is a flourishing industry and this directly contributes $10.6 billion to the New Zealand economy and both the West Coast and Tasman regions thrive on tourism. It is increasingly becoming one of the electorate’s consistent job creators. Abel Tasman Sea Shuttles is a family-run business out of Motueka there is the Glacier Country with its helicopters and there are other trickle-down businesses that are affected by the growing tourism industry. All of these industries are excited about the potential of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They are grateful that this Government shares their ambition to expand their markets and they are celebrating the new tax announcements made today. Thank you.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.