Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): Let me tell you what motivates this bill. It is a simple question: how can we help low and middle income New Zealanders? How can we help people who are doing it tough because there is a worldwide inflation problem? How can we help people in this country who don't get benefits don't get the winter energy payment and don't get super? What can we do for people who some on other side like to refer to as the squeezed middle? The answer is that we have a cost of living package that is designed to help exactly those people. It's based around cutting transport costs and putting some money in people's back pockets. That is what motivates this bill.The Opposition have been quibbling over it. First of all they've complained that they don't know the detail. The most recent speaker—Simon Watts—said he wasn't sure whether it applied to New Zealand tax residents or New Zealand residents. Well frankly I do know that detail and he clearly does not. Tax residency is quite different from residency for citizenship purposes and people who complain about knowing the detail ought to know that in the first place before they get up and complain about it. It's straightforward—it goes to New Zealand tax residents people who have been residents in New Zealand for 183 days or more within a one-year period. It's quite straightforward. Anyone who wants to comment on tax ought to be able to tell you that.But going on from that they complained about the fact that perhaps IRD might not be able to tell us exactly how many people are going to be affected by this bill and are going to eligible for the payment. Again there's a straightforward reason for that. The 2021-22 tax year returns processing is not yet finished. So the Inland Revenue Department can't know exactly how many people will benefit from it but they know about how many. We know it's going to be about 2.1 million New Zealanders—close enough to get enough fiscal cost on it. In fact anyone with a good business brain ought to be able to sort that out and we can do that on this side of the House.Simon Watts: This is a bit embarrassing Minister. She's pointing out where all the gaps in your bill are.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order on this side of the House! You've had a chance to make your speech; now I'd like to hear Dr Deborah Russell.Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: They pointed out that it's going to be tough for IRD to process these payments. Yes it is going to be tough. It is a big ask. But we're pretty confident that IRD can manage it. It will be tough it will be hard but you know times are tough and hard out there for ordinary New Zealanders and that is why we are doing our best to answer that question: how can we help low and middle income New Zealanders? This is a new and unusual policy in New Zealand. We haven't done something like this for a very long time. It is unusual but that does not mean it should not be done. The times demand that we try something new and that is exactly what we are doing in this space.I want to address some of the words that were used by Paul Goldsmith in speaking on this bill recently. I heard words like rapacious" and "aggressively greedy" as though somehow a Government trying to collect the money it needs in order to fund services is greedy about it and of course that ties into the mantra from the other side about tax cuts. They talk about tax cuts but they never talk about service cuts. They never talk about running down the health system which is what you have to do in order to fund tax cuts. They never talk about short-changing the education system which is what you have to do in order to have tax cuts. They never talk about the services that we provide for all New Zealanders because that is the best way we can ensure the wellbeing of New Zealanders: by making sure there is a decent health system by making sure there is a decent welfare system and by making sure there is a decent education system. That is also how we look after New Zealanders and in order to that we need to have a decent tax system. Simply chanting "tax cuts" without saying where you would cut services is irresponsible and it shows an Opposition that is not prepared to do the hard work—on this side of the House we are and on this side of the House we are confident that this payment will help New Zealanders. It will put money in people's pockets. It will help just a little bit. It will make a bit of a contribution to the issues we all have with inflation at the moment and that is why I am proud to support this bill."