Wood MichaelMICHAEL WOOD (Labour—Mt Roskill): Very pleased to stand up in vigorous support of the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2019–20 GST Offshore Supplier Registration and Remedial Matters) Bill. I want to commend Minister Stuart Nash for the introduction of this bill and the many good policies within it. He could work on some names for these bills that roll a bit more easily off the tongue though.This is a Minister who is very active and what we see within this bill in addition to the annual process that we go through of setting the annual tax rates—and these will be for 2019-20 so they will have to be confirmed within that tax year in order to ensure that that revenue is appropriated lawfully—are a number of other very important policy initiatives. I want to talk through some of those in a moment. Before I move on to doing that though I do just want to respond very briefly to some of the comments from the Hon Amy Adams because what we really had in that address was about 8½ minutes of a deeply ideological rant against tax a rant that was entirely devoid of any understanding of the fact that in fact all of the public and social institutions that New Zealanders rely upon—our public health system our public education system our justice system our transport—are reliant on a fair and decent taxation system.So what we had was the Opposition spokesperson on finance—interestingly enough not the spokesperson on revenue—standing up and calling the Government's tax take wasteful. Well she thinks that $750 million spent on fixing up our neglected hospitals this year is wasteful. She thinks that the investment in over 30 new schools that was announced this year is wasteful. She thinks that the winter energy payment that has been provided to over-65s in this country so that our pensioners can keep the heater on through the winter is wasteful. She thinks that investment in 6400 new State homes for some of the most needy families in our country who are victims of the housing crisis unacknowledged under that previous Government—she thinks that the tax revenue collected in support of decent housing for those families is wasteful.It really goes to underscore the difference between this side of the House and that side of the House. This side of the House actually believes in the public provision of decent housing of health of education and of putting the resources into those public goods to ensure that the people of this country can live dignified lives. After nine years of neglect under that lot I thought they might have had a bit more reflection on the benefits of that public investment but on the evidence of Amy Adams' speech that is not the case.This bill does confirm the annual tax rates for the 2019-20 tax year. It is just worth pointing out again that this Government made very different choices to the previous Government. The Government did choose not to proceed with the tax cuts that were legislated for but not implemented by the previous National Government. They held them out there as an election sweetener. They could have in fact implemented them during their term of Government but they chose not to. The choice this Government made was to retain the current tax rate so that we could invest in housing health and education for all New Zealanders rather than tax cuts that would disproportionately benefit the wealthy few—once again the difference between this side of the House and that side of the House.This bill makes other important changes including the application of GST supplies of low-value imported goods and this has been a change which has been a while coming. It's a bill that's supported in many parts of our economy including from Retail New Zealand and it's actually work that was started under the previous Minister of Revenue the Hon Judith Collins and I acknowledge her in the House today. She was an active Minister of Revenue at least in comparison to her predecessors—well that wasn't a particularly high bar to clear. She did begin the work in this area and it's been continued on by the Hon Stuart Nash. This is important because within our tax system what we do all seek is fairness and equity and this is about ensuring that those goods which are purchased from offshore are not purchased at an advantage compared to those goods which may be purchased from within New Zealand. So we have retailers within New Zealand who currently are disadvantaged because the cost of GST does have to be tacked on to those goods and it doesn't get added to the cost of those goods imported from outside. In past years this wasn't such a big issue but it's really the explosion of online purchases which does make this a more significant issue in our economy and within this bill we are moving decisively to rectify that and create a level playing field.Other colleagues will speak on the importance of taking action on the ring-fencing of residential rental losses. But fundamentally this is about ensuring that once again we get back to having a functional housing market that is driven by the needs of people and not the needs of speculators. At the moment we have a situation whereby people who are speculating in housing have a tax advantage that gives them a leg-up over first-home buyers the mums and dads that we actually want to support to buy their first home. That's why this change is important.I just want to speak very briefly on one more important change within this bill which is the proposal that allows the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to use her discretion in cases where a victim of a sex offence becomes liable for child support payments. I want to acknowledge this is something that Stuart Nash the Minister I know feels passionately about. He's been driving this change. It's about justice and decency within our tax system for a small group of people who otherwise face a great injustice and I certainly commend that change along with the others in this bill. I look forward to receiving the bill on the Finance and Expenditure Committee and working with colleagues on that bill in the months to come. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.