Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. I rise in support of this bill on behalf of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand. It should surprise nobody that I am not a tax expert but I think that's kind of the point. I wouldn't hesitate to say that the majority of us in this House are not tax experts and of the people that we represent—the 4½ million New Zealanders around this country—by far and away the majority are not either.The technical detail has been incredibly well traversed by both the Government and Opposition benches and I don't intend to read from the same song sheet there. As has been stated it is complex and nuanced but indeed there is no silver bullet to fix tax loopholes.I'd just like to quote a well-known economist in Aotearoa Shamubeel Eaqub who said At its core tax is about pooling our resources and redistributing so that society is better off." and this final part may be somewhat contentious particularly with members of the Opposition but he ends with "Tax is love." I believe that by far and away fundamentally the majority of New Zealanders would believe in the argument that a tax system should be fair. New Zealanders should be comfortable in knowing that at the end of each week each fortnight or each month as they get their payslip and note the tax contribution they've made to this country billion-dollar multinational companies making money here are paying their dues too.As was noted by the former speaker David Carter this was work which started in 2011 and in 2012 it was coming into the public consciousness. In 2013 the OECD found that base profit shifting strategies distort investment decisions and give multinationals a competitive advantage over more compliant or domestic companies. They result in the loss of substantial corporate tax revenue and jeopardise trust in the integrity of the tax system. All of those things I think are pretty critical points indeed. To note what's been raised by a few members of the Opposition—that this was a plan a body of work which started under the previous Government—I'd just like to point out a slight fact check which is that the IRD flagged that this was happening in 2013 and warned the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Revenue at the time in 2013 that this was an issue that needed to be moved on and should be a key focus in the next 18 months. It did however take explosive headlines in and around 2016 to get some movement on it—in particular the incredible work of investigative journalist Matt Nippert.I'd like to read an extract from his piece in the New Zealand Herald on 7 June 2017. He found that—and I quote—"the 20 multinational companies most aggressive in shifting profits out of New Zealand overall paid virtually no income tax despite recording nearly $10 billion in annual sales to Kiwi consumers." He goes on to say "Of those companies who responded to questions all insisted that they were meeting their legal obligations. Several pointed to their New Zealand operations being almost solely as distributers with the vast majority of their employment research and manufacturing taking place offshore." I think that relates quite nicely to the points that were raised by my colleague Michael Wood around the fact that what we're talking about tonight is not just the strict legal definition but what kinds of ethics and values we would like to see playing out in the social contract in our society.The estimations of costs to our economy are pretty astronomical. Treasury as has been noted estimates that it's somewhere in the region of $200 million to $300 million per year but Matt Nippert who I mentioned earlier estimates that it's around $500 million. That's enough tax to fund the salaries of 9259 nurses 7601 police or 10498 primary school teachers. So that's an estimate of around $500 million but I'd also note that Professor Craig Elliffe told Radio New Zealand National that the amounts could be closer to $1 billion. Meanwhile the UK-based Tax Justice Network found in March 2017 that here in New Zealand our likely losses are somewhere nearer to $700 million.What we're looking at here is a piece of legislation that is complex and technical and indeed possibly quite dry and boring to some but I hope people are able to get a little bit of excitement out of it because indeed it levels the playing field. It feeds into a more equitable more just more fair society. So I'd like to say that there was incredibly good work done by the Finance and Expenditure Committee on this. I'm incredibly proud to stand in this House tonight as we unanimously support it through. I commend this bill to the House."