Shaw JamesHon JAMES SHAW (Minister for Climate Change): Thank you Madam Speaker. I was just thinking this is a surprisingly robust debate given it appears to have universal acclaim on both sides of the House. We're violently agreeing with ourselves on this one.I also just wanted to rise just to put on record the Green Party's continued support of these bills—in fact three separate bills—amending 14 separate pieces of legislation. I know that it is very technical and that it does cover a number of different pieces of legislation but there are two things that I did want to just put on record from the Green Party's perspective that are worth noting on and really why we're supporting this legislation so strongly.First of all is the component around the Regulatory Systems (Workforce) Amendment Bill (No 2) which is about improving the fairness of paid parental leave to ensure that all parents and all caregivers are able to access the full suite of benefits that they're entitled to. I think given the technical nature of these things it can often get lost what the purpose or the intent of Parliament is in trying to make these amendments and on this one there are some areas in the existing legislation which do mean—basically due to a technicality—that people are not easily able to access the support that they need. Given the vulnerability of young parents in terms of their ability to provide for their kids or to access childcare I think ensuring that they do have that full access is really important. So while it does seem like a fairly small set of amendments I did just want to bring that to the attention of the House to say that as a result of this legislation we are actually making life easier and better for parents and caregivers.The second bit is actually quite different which is the piece around tax evasion. This is the Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment (No 2) Bill which is about adding tax evasion and conspiring aiding abetting or inciting a person to commit evasion into the offences section of the Companies Act.I think one of the things that Kiwis get really hot under the collar about is the idea that whilst they may be paying their fair share of tax somebody else out there is not. That degrades trust in the tax system overall because after all if someone else is able to get away with not paying their fair share of tax then Why the heck should I put so much effort into paying my fair share of tax?" and I think Kiwis generally are pretty fair-minded people. We feel like we all need to be putting into the kitty in order to get the public services that we all need to make this country operate and to ensure that everyone has got access to the public services that we need but they get really really annoyed when people are able to get around that. So what this does is to ensure that we extend the remit of tax evasion to ensure that we are actually catching everyone who is trying to get around it. People found guilty will be automatically prohibited from directing or managing a company for five years and I think that's a pretty good deterrent. The other thing that the amendment does is it prohibits a bankrupt person from working for no pay for a relative or for an entity controlled by a relative. That's a loophole in the existing legislation which essentially means that someone who has been declared a bankrupt can technically volunteer for an organisation or a company that's controlled by a relative and thus get around the provision that they shouldn't be participating in the management of a company. So this does close a loophole there as well. So again if we just kind of get out of the detail of it and just focus on the principle what's important here is that we're closing loopholes and we're making it harder for people to avoid tax and we're making it more difficult for people to avoid the restrictions that are placed upon them when they're in bankruptcy. I think that both of those are laudable aims of the set of amendments that are in front of us and we just want people to know that actually this is legislation that whilst it's kind of small in its detail and so on actually it can make a real material difference to people's lives and improve the fairness of the country. So I commend this legislation to the House."