Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Chair. I just appreciate the opportunity to take a short call on this Taxation (Budget 2021 and Remedial Measures) Bill. Just reflecting on the comments from the Minister there where he talks about the crocodile tears of great sympathy and great respect for people who are trying to balance their budgets at home. I know there'll be thousands of people listening and watching the Minister at home. They've probably all tuned out now—tuned out when they heard him talk about great respect for them and then doing nothing for them.What this bill does or appears to do is pretty much diddly-squat. Here he's replacing $30576 with $31096. This is something which seems to be doing absolutely diddly-squat and it just shows that this Government can talk a big game about its sympathy and respect but it doesn't actually deliver for those who are trying to make ends meet and those who are working hard those who are trying to pay the bills and those people who are trying to actually get ahead.He's talked about the fact that this Government's trying to lift the incomes of those on the lowest but it fails to take into account the actual increase in costs that this Government continues to pile upon these exact same families. It talks about trying to lift the incomes of our lowest-income earners but the Minister has failed to talk about the increased cost of renting a house. How much has the cost of renting a house increased under this Government's time in office Minister? How much has it cost in rent? How much more are families paying in rent every single week under this Government than when this Government first came into office? How much are families paying extra in tax on their petrol since this Government came into office? How much is this Government forcing—Hon Dr David Clark: Got nothing to say about the bill.SIMEON BROWN: Well it does have something to say about this bill because this Government talks a big game. This Minister got up and talked about the great sympathy—the great sympathy—that apparently you've all got towards all these families who are working hard and trying to balance their budgets—the great respect for people sitting at home right now trying to balance their budgets. They'll be sitting at home having their dinner time meal just about to put the kids to bed and they'll be thinking about the fact that this Government does nothing to help them balance their budgets—does nothing. All we get are some words about respect and sympathy. When I hear interjections from the other side of the House about What's this got to do with the bill?" well people at home will be asking the question of what's this Government got for them—what's this Government doing for them? And here we are debating a piece of legislation which makes a small change here to the minimum family tax credit.I go back to my line of questioning which is around the cost of living around what the cost of living has been under this Government—the increased rent that people sitting at home are having to pay.People are having to look down the barrel of more costs being imposed upon them. Every time this Government passes new regulations around rentals they fail to take into account the fact that landlords pass those costs on to their tenants. It's almost like they don't quite understand—like if you increase a cost on someone supplying a service or a product somehow they're just going to magically not pass that cost on. It's like money grows on trees if you live on the other side of the House. But actually if you're a business or you're a family or you're trying to get ahead you realise actually every single cost has to be paid by somebody.This Government is putting forward pieces of legislation like this which essentially just fiddle around the edges but fail to address the real costs that working families sitting at home right now are truly really challenged for. All we hear from the Minister is "I have great sympathy". Great sympathy; great respect—great. Well it's not that great is it?"