2. Question No. 2—Prime MinisterHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 2—Prime Minister2. Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's statements policies and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she agree with Grant Robertson who is reported as saying There was no recommendation in the Tax Working Group report excluding Māori from the capital gains tax"?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: If the member was willing to characterise the member's statements correctly then I would agree with Minister Robertson.Hon Simon Bridges: What does she say about volume 1 of the Tax Working Group report page 15 headed "Summary of Recommendations" which makes quite clear there are recommendations around Māori being excluded from a capital gains tax—[Interruption] SPEAKER: Order! Order! The Hon Kelvin Davis will stand withdraw and apologise.Hon Kelvin Davis: I withdraw and apologise.SPEAKER: And if I'd been able to tell who the other member was who interjected in that impolite manner that person would have been too. Please start the question again.Hon Simon Bridges: What does she say about Tax Working Group volume 1 page 15 headed "Summary of Recommendations" which makes quite clear recommendations about exemption of Māori and report volume 2 which says Māori freehold land merits "specific treatment under an extension [of] the taxation of capital gains. This could take the form of an exclusion"?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Firstly may I commend the member for finally reading the report. Secondly—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Order! I want to be able to hear the answer. If we have about 10 people yelling there is no chance of that occurring. The Prime Minister will start again. Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: What the group clearly recommended was that we engage "further with Māori to determine the most appropriate treatment of transactions relating to collectively owned Māori assets." They recommended that we think about it. I'd really like to question the member: where exactly is he trying to go with this issue—where exactly?Hon Simon Bridges: Does she accept it's not where I'm going it's where her Government's going on a capital gains tax; and will her Government exclude Māori from any capital gains tax it imposes?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again I question the motivation behind this line of questioning. Secondly—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member will resume her seat. It has been a long practice in this House not to question indirectly the motivations of members in that way and I'm going to ask the Prime Minister not to do that again. If people have specific things to say they should say it but indirect implicit criticism of that nature is not acceptable. Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again I refer them back to the report which encouraged the Government to consider whether particular circumstances such as disposing of Māori freehold land or where assets are—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Are you going to exempt Māori?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: —transferred within iwi whether or not we should give specific consideration to an exemption—in the same way that for instance if you had land passed down after death—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Are you going to exempt them?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: —whether there should be a 12 months' exemption. These are exemptions they asked us to consider and for very good reasons.SPEAKER: Now before we have any more supplementaries I'm going to warn the father of the House after—he's been here since I think 1990. I think he made five inappropriate interjections during that time bringing me into the debate. I think I've warned him about this about 10 times in the last year and I'd like him to learn.Rt Hon Winston Peters: If any owner Māori or otherwise was holding land in trusteeship for future generations how could a capital gains tax possibly apply when they do not intend to benefit from any capital gains themselves?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes the member is making the point around intent of sale and again I'd like to make the point that of course as has been the case for a number of years and successive Governments we have for instance a 17.5 percent tax rate that applies to Māori authorities. And now is the member stating that he disagrees with that provision as well?Hon Simon Bridges: Will her Government exclude Māori from any capital gains tax it imposes?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As I have reiterated the Tax Working Group has as a group including a range of representatives acknowledged that it warrants consideration. We have made no decisions but unlike the other side of the House we can see when there are circumstances that are particular that do warrant consideration. It seems to me the National Party now has a strategy where they don't support 17.5 percent tax rates for Māori authorities. We might be interested in sharing that with iwi leaders.Hon Grant Robertson: What does the Prime Minister make of the fact that the questioning around this issues says "Will Māori be exempted?" rather than saying "Will Māori freehold land be exempted?"; why does she think someone might make that kind of statement?SPEAKER: Order! I think asking the Prime Minister to read the minds of other members is inappropriate.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Will the potential tax considerations to be put before Inland Revenue have regard to how much a person feels like they are a Māori or whether they discovered that somewhat the same way as Columbus discovered America—purely by accident?SPEAKER: I'm going to move on. I'm going to work I think for the last time today on the basis that that was not deliberately disorderly. I think we've had a couple from Ministers that are heading in that direction and from this side as well.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she agree with Grant Robertson who said yesterday the Tax Working Group report did not include recommendations of taxes like a "capital gains tax a water tax a fertiliser tax a nitrate tax and agricultural emissions tax."?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I sat in this House when member Nathan Guy rattled off a series of taxes where there was no commentary in the Tax Working Group on any of those issues. I am happy as I said to debate the facts of the report if there was accuracy around it.Hon Simon Bridges: Is it the Prime Minister not me who hasn't read Cullen's report?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No.Hon Simon Bridges: Well has she read pages 16 and 17 of volume one under the heading "Summary of recommendations of the report" which recommends not only all of those taxes I outlined before but also recommends here an environmental footprint tax and a natural capital enhancement tax; aren't all of those taxes recommended in this report?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: It would be good to have a rational discussion about the Tax Working Group's recommendations—all of which in the environmental section ask us to consider the entirety of what's happening in the environmental space without the scaremongering that is coming from that side of the House and the inaccuracy from that side of the House and I have to say the environmental inaction that we are having to deal with on this side of the House because of nine years of an absolute failed Government.Hon Simon Bridges: So is she so brave that she's going to give New Zealand at page 16 an agricultural emissions tax a nitrate tax a water tax a fertiliser tax and at page 17 an environmental footprint tax and a natural capital enhancement tax given this is in her words our "nuclear-free moment"?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: At least I recognised we have a nuclear-free moment. On that side of the House we had such inaction that the Tax Working Group felt the need to have to traverse an entire range of issues because we are dealing with environmental degradation that has built up over years—first point. Second point: we of course are still considering all elements of the Tax Working Group and when we have a response we will share it. But if the member wants to be a responsible politician he might engage in a debate based on fact not fiction.Hon Simon Bridges: Can we just clear up given that Grant Robertson doesn't accept that those taxes are in the report that she does indeed accept factually there is a nitrate tax a water tax an agricultural emissions tax and the various other taxes I've mentioned actually in this Cullen working group report?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: When that member releases his workings on KiwiSaver then let's talk.SPEAKER: No. [Interruption] Order! I think it wasn't an invitation to talk. It was a direct question which will have an appropriate response.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I accept very few of that member's assertions based on his record.SPEAKER: The Prime Minister mightn't have been in the House yesterday—I can't remember—at the stage when I did admonish Tracey Martin for essentially answering a question indicating that she didn't accept the word of the member. It was a factual question. It was properly prepared. If it was inaccurate it's a matter of privilege and the Prime Minister will answer it.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: For clarity I do not accept the member's characterisation of the Tax Working Group's report.Hon Simon Bridges: It's pretty simple: are there the taxes I have mentioned listed as recommendations on pages 16 and 17 of volume one of Cullen's Tax Working Group report?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: In the interim?Hon Simon Bridges: Yes or no?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Not with the specificity that the member has detailed.Hon Simon Bridges: Has she read this report?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course I have.Rt Hon Winston Peters: When the Prime Minister referred to the possible record of past statements of the primary questioner did she have regard to the fact that they had their response to the Tax Working Group's 21 February report out within minutes of it being published? That means they couldn't have read it.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Certainly a level of detail—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Come on one of you.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: There's certainly a level of detail that could not have been traversed in that time.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she accept that both Michael Cullen in his public advocacy for the report and Grant Robertson her finance Minister are clearly treating the report options as absolute recommendations such as the KiwiSaver offsets and the recommendations such as the Māori exemption from a capital gains tax as merely options rather than recommendations; and aren't they being incredibly political in their handling of this report since its release?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Absolutely not. I think you'll find that Sir Michael Cullen has had to come out and defend the Tax Working Group because it has been mischaracterised so badly by the Opposition. Again we on this side of the House welcome a debate on this issue. All that we ask from the other side of the House is accuracy in the way it's portrayed and that's all I'm sure the members of the Tax Working Group are asking for as well.Hon Simon Bridges: In light of the fact that she doesn't even know the taxes in the report who's being accurate or inaccurate?SPEAKER: Order! Rephrase the question. [Interruption] Well you've used a question OK."