Seymour David; Williams PotoDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Madam Assistant Speaker it's no problem. As you know I'm one of Parliament's old-timers and I can remember giving speeches before we had any such technology in this House and we got along just fine.I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in support of this bill. I had planned to oppose it but I listened to the very wise and apposite speech by Michael Wood—not something I say every day I must tell you—and I decided he had a point. This is not a bad bill. The modernisation that is going on—I wouldn't quite agree with James Shaw that he stands proudly in awe of the New Zealand tax system; who else could really say that but James Shaw? But it at least starts to bring the IRD's administration of tax up to where the financial sector the private sector banking system was maybe about a decade ago—that things happen efficiently and electronically so one needn't pay secondary tax so one needn't keep those pesky receipts.And that was another fine revelation from Michael Wood. Who knew that a Labour MP actually voluntarily gives to charity without it being prised out of their cold dead hands by the IRD? It is a good thing that we'll be able to pay less tax when we give to charity without having to keep all those pesky receipts that accumulate throughout the year. So these are positive things and reason to vote this bill through so that my fellow Finance and Expenditure Committee members and I can scrutinise the bill have a look at it and see where it might be improved.I follow on from my friend and neighbour the Hon Paul Goldsmith in pointing out one area where this bill could be improved—that ACT's future support of this bill will depend upon being changed—and that is clause 3 of this bill the clause that sets out the annual tax rates; unchanged again. Let's give a little bit of history. These tax rates and tax brackets have not been changed for almost a decade now since 2010. Once again exactly the same tax rates and the working people of New Zealand will find that through no fault of their own inflation has pushed their incomes into higher tax brackets. They can't purchase more but the same purchasing power that they used to earn 10 years ago is now taxed at a higher rate thanks to fiscal drift or fiscal creep and they find themselves increasingly in the top tax bracket. Nearly half of New Zealanders pushed into the top tax bracket—over $70000 paying 33 cents in the dollar—because nobody including the previous National-led Government despite the protestations of its principal partner the ACT Party has bothered to adjust the tax bracket for 10 long years.Actually the ACT Party has a solution to this. We heard from members opposite that it's great that we are taxing because we can fund a whole lot of things—some of which are somewhat dubious from a public policy perspective but nevertheless many things can be funded with these tax rates. Actually we could fund all of the things that the Government wants to spend—and in some cases waste—money on and significant tax cuts. ACT showed this last year that we could have a beautiful three-rate tax system of 10 cents in the dollar—that's down from 10.5 cents—up to $14000 15 cents in the dollar all the way up to $48000 and 25 cents in the dollar after that. What would be the fiscal impact of that change? It would fit easily within the $20 billion - odd of surpluses that these tax rates will give the Government over the next four years. We could have tax rates where nobody would pay more than a quarter of their income in tax simply by giving back the Government surplus to the people who earned it.So just think about it fellows on the Government benches. I realise most of the members present are on the back benches and don't have a huge amount of influence over these things but nevertheless maybe speak to Grant Robertson the Minister of Finance and ask him—Hon David Parker: More influence than you.DAVID SEYMOUR: And here's David Parker. He can affect things. David Parker—he's got some influence. Think about it David Parker. Let's try having a top tax rate of 25 cents which can be afforded within the surpluses put forward by Treasury under the tax rates in this bill and if the Government is prepared to give real tax cuts real tax relief let the people who earned the money keep it—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member. Your time has expired. Thank you.