Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura): Thank you Madam Speaker. What an excellent choice might I say. Look this is a bill that the National Party supports. We are disappointed that the efforts of our colleague Andrew Bayly to right a wrong for those particularly KiwiSaver investors who have been overtaxed and actually were often not aware of what the tax rate should be—that they cannot get their money back. I was disappointed that Dr Russell who spoke just a few speeches ago on this matter as chair of the FEC or Finance and Expenditure Committee chose to make I thought quite gratuitous and unfortunate remarks by saying that the National Party didn't fix the system so that these payments could be made. We spent a billion dollars of taxpayer money fixing the IRD tax system and computer system which by the way we had also inherited but we all know that computer systems do not last for ever. The Inland Revenue computer system was I was told when I was their Minister—and getting the funding along with my colleagues to fix the system to enable the payments to be made—the oldest of all of the Government's computer systems. And that is one of the big problems is that when you have these systems all the various changes that are made by various Governments to the way that payments are made all these sorts of things they all have to be coped with by a computer system that was dating back I understand from the early 1990s. So it's a wonder it didn't crash. It was very fortunate and I thought Dr Deborah Russell MP for New Lynn at this stage made an unfortunate contribution. I generally get along very well with her and I generally have a great deal of respect for her chairing of the committee.I'm also disappointed that the Government has not taken up the opportunity to tell us yesterday—unless I missed it in the documents that were sent to us as MPs about the Budget package which by the way wasn't sent to us as MPs and I still haven't received anything from Grant Robertson's office about what I can tell my constituents and where they can get help other than to be told this morning when I rang his office that Business New Zealand has all the details you can get them from them. That is outrageous. Most businesses are not members of Business New Zealand. It is by far those larger businesses that are. People need to know now about their KiwiSaver. They need to know now what's happening. They need to know now about their wages. Many people expect that their MPs—being locked in here during this extraordinary sitting of Parliament—would actually have that information. So I would say that there is a lot more that needs to be done about informing people.We also have a situation where the financial advisers are the people who often deal with KiwiSaver for not only businesses but for individual people. The financial advisers have asked the FEC to extend submissions out on the Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Bill. This is a bill that obviously deals with how they operate and this is very appropriate for KiwiSaver and other matters like that. The committee this morning under the chairmanship of Dr Russell chose not to grant that extension of up to a month. That is a disappointment.It's a disappointment because the National Party supported it and so did ACT because we understand that these are extraordinary times. As the Prime Minister said yesterday We need to be a little bit kind." Well how about being a little bit kind to the 1600 members of Financial Advice New Zealand who are the advisers trying to help people when they see their KiwiSaver savings go down through the bottom of the floor? So I think there's no reason at all why a little bit of kindness couldn't have been extended and I would hope that the chair would take the opportunity while we are still locked in Parliament to be able to help us to make a better decision than what was made this morning.I would also say on this Taxation (KiwiSaver Student Loans and Remedial Matters) Bill that I haven't heard anything from the Government about those overseas - based New Zealanders who are paying back their student loans. These people are paying back—as we would hope that they would do. Many of those people have lost their jobs overseas. Many of those people are living just as we all are in uncertain times. We've heard nothing from the Government and I ask the Government to answer this: is there any provision being made to give these New Zealanders who are doing the right thing by their student loans a holiday for repayments—something that they could have some time? Is there any provision being made? Are we thinking about them?I don't worry about those New Zealanders who have had their student loans known the rules gone off overseas and never cared about us again. But I do say I think we need to be a little bit thoughtful about this. So I will wait with bated breath to hear from Grant Robertson's office about what I can tell my constituents. I don't think I should have to tell them they can go to the Business New Zealand website; I think I should have better information than that. I actually think that when we are being asked everyone to work together to come together for the benefit of our country—and we all know that this is a very difficult time that we're about to go through. Right now is not so bad but it will be next week and the week after. We know that economically and health-wise it will be a very trying time.The Government needs to keep the Opposition not just informed but in the room because it is very important and not to complain about someone playing politics when actually we don't even have the information. That is not right. What is playing politics is not giving us the information and saying "You can get it from some industry lobby group." I'm sorry that is not good enough. I would say to the Government "All is not lost. They can repair this. They just have to keep us informed." I will be expecting that the Minister of Housing will be wanting to talk with me about what steps are being made to help people through this difficult time and to understand that there will be people who can't pay their rent. There'll be people who can't do all sorts of things and who need to be isolated—very very difficult at this time.So I expect a better standard from the Government on involving us. One of the ways to do this is to listen to the advice of our colleague Andrew Bayly on the KiwiSaver changes that we've asked for. Remember this: we've heard this morning from Dr Deborah Russell the chair of the FEC committee that these New Zealanders have as she said "Self-selected their tax rates". Most New Zealanders don't know the difference about how these things are going to change for them because tax is a very difficult area. I know as someone who has a tax degree and has practised in it it is not something that we can expect everybody working in retail or any other business to just suddenly understand all the different rates.Also by the way people's employment situations change. Sometimes they get a pay rise sometimes they lose a job sometimes they get a better job. All these things can affect that tax rate. Of course people make errors. Should they be punished for it to the tune of about $70 million? I don't think so. Not when we have the ability to fix it. We have the technical ability to fix it. We should fix it. Thank you Madam Speaker."