Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): What is really disappointing about that contribution of the last speaker the Hon Dr Deborah Russell—and I must say it was a lecture actually in most elements which is not uncommon for that Minister of the House; I don't know why my colleagues are laughing when I say that. But what the Minister does not understand in regards to this specific carve-out around disabled beneficiary trust is that when a disabled person reaches the age of 65 they no longer receive the supported living payment. That is the threshold in which this carve-out will not apply.This Minister is so out of touch on the detail that she has ignored the fact that disabled people over the age of 65 will be not carved out of this legislation. They will be impacted and they demonstrated through that change that they are a heartless Government. They are a heartless Government to those thousands of individuals over the age of 65 who are disabled and who rely on this. But no in their haste to try to push through this legislation which personifies the way in which this Government operates they leave elderly people with disabilities in the cold. That is the cold hard reality of this Government. I only hope like she said with the census when it didn't get to 90 percent I'll put my career on it." Remember that? How's that going Minister? But we'll get back to the bill.The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023-24 Multinational Tax and Remedial Matters) Bill is a complete wasted opportunity. It is so disappointing that time after time we come to this House and this Government failed to use the opportunity that is presented in front of it to actually do something positive for hard-working Kiwis across this country. The annual rates section of this bill does nothing to consider the appropriateness of the thresholds of taxation on Kiwis. It does nothing in order to provide relief to those Kiwis which are dealing with a cost of living crisis. This Labour Government's policy has created the cost of living crisis that Kiwis across this country are facing. This Government is accountable for the pain and suffering of Kiwis across this country. When will those members take accountability for the actions that they have done that is causing people in this country to be suffering the way in which they are? They will not but in 153 days from today New Zealanders will have an opportunity to reflect and tell this Government that they have not listened.DEPUTY SPEAKER: In the meantime you've got the opportunity to talk about the bill now Mr Watts.SIMON WATTS: Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I appreciate that guidance. Let's talk about the trustee tax rate. The trustee tax rate—a Government that said they would never increase taxes before this election. What have they done? In this bill they've increased the trustee tax rate. I went to school; I wasn't an A-grade student in everything but I can tell you what when someone says "I'm not going to increase taxes." and 72 hours later they increase taxes will I trust them? No. Will Kiwis trust you? No—and "you" as in the context of the Labour Party.So trustee tax rate—the issue with this: the unintended consequences of this change have not been thought through. What consultation has been taken in regards to increasing the trustee tax rate? Any idea? No? Not much—not much. But that's not out of sync. The elements around the lack of consultation will mean that these proposals around the increasing of the trustee tax rate are going to cause unintended consequences and that is going to have a significant implication.The other thing is—which again for most people out there that have a degree of understanding around the topic—that this Labour Government's policies have created the environment in which they have basically had to undertake this change in policy. The increasing of the personal tax rate to 39 percent created a differential between the corporate tax rate and the personal tax rate. Historically 6 percent differential was the gap; they've opened it up to nearly 11 percent. Do you know what people do when there's such a big gap? They think "Well you know what? I'm seeing all my tax money being wasted on $52 million bike bridges. I don't really feel like it's the best use of my tax money going into their big empty bucket which goes on wasteful spending." So they use and rightly so—and it is absolutely within the law—trustee mechanisms to deal with that.So what the Minister as a result of increasing the personal tax rate has caused is a significant differential. That has therefore meant that trustee element has been utilised. And now it's like "Whoops-a-daisy now I have to increase the trustee tax rate." Well I tell you what and Andrew Bayly mentioned this before going on the thematic of "We're not going to announce any new taxes before the election"—which was a complete load of bollocks because they've just done it today. But ignore that let's just say that was a bit of an oversight like the KiwiSaver tax—remember that one that the Minister threw through but the Cabinet were asleep that day which is probably every other day. But the thing that's going to happen—the corporate tax rate is the next thing that's going to go up isn't it? Because now we've got this 28 percent and the Minister's going "Gee we're spending a lot of money. We're spending a lot of money. How are we going to pay for it?" Well we're going to the only way the Minister—and his colleague Grant Robertson—knows: to feed that addiction to spending let's tax people more. So they're going to increase the corporate tax rate probably next. They've created this; all their policies have created this scenario. For most people it's like that's no surprise but anyway.Let's have a talk about the OECD just for those at home thinking "Gee whiz! I wish he'd talk about the OECD provisions in this tax bill." because that is the most exciting part and the Minister I know does find these provisions—26 abbreviations in the bill in regards to that section. When you have to do 26 abbreviations on any type of policy you are pretty much trying to say "Who the heck is really going to get this?" and the reality is not too many people.The other little detail in there is that processors and submitters in regards to this have a bit of an issue around the ceding of sovereignty to the OECD. These points don't seem to be referenced in the regulatory impact statement (RIS) or the disclosure note. So I think that will cause concern for a few people out there. What are the rights that the Government is in effect ceding over to the OECD in regards to these clauses around OECD Pillar Two global things?Hon David Parker: None—none.SIMON WATTS: The Minister's saying "None". Well why didn't you say that in the RIS? A nice simple question we can go into committee stage now if you want Minister. No we're not going to do that—you don't want to do that because you know what's going on here.DEPUTY SPEAKER: No I don't know anything. You're talking about the Minister.SIMON WATTS: Thank you Mr Speaker. I acknowledge that. Let's get a little bit in—because we're running out of time and as usual I could do with another 10 minutes. We won't have that today but there will be plenty more opportunity when this gets to select committee won't it? I'm glad at least the Minister has decided to put this to select committee—Chlöe Swarbrick: Great committee.SIMON WATTS: —unlike the other bills pushed through under haste. I'm hearing my colleague here from Auckland Central—Chlöe Swarbrick: Great committee.SIMON WATTS: Great committee and yes the Finance and Expenditure Committee is a great committee.Anna Lorck: Love those doughnuts.SIMON WATTS: A lot of collegial behaviour. Doughnuts; we're going slightly—this is doughnut economics from this Minister. How about that?Let's get back to the bill ladies and gentlemen. So we talked about the fact that this bill has not used the opportunity in front of us to adjust the annual tax rate to make sure that those rates are applicable and provide relief to hard-working Kiwis. It would have been very simple ladies and gentlemen to be able to make those changes in this bill. It would have brought back a little bit of credibility that this Government is actually listening to the pain that hard-working middle-class families across this country are feeling at the moment. But no they have demonstrated through this bill that they are not willing to listen that they are not willing to deal with the underlying issues that our communities are facing that they're not willing to deal with the core drivers of the cost of living crisis and the core drivers of the cost of living crisis is this Labour Government's policies. Do not believe them when they talk about other factors. But in 154 days ladies and gentlemen this Government will be held to account and I'm pretty sure that Kiwis are going to do the sensible thing."