Parker DavidSecond ReadingHon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Revenue): I move That the Taxation (Budget 2021 and Remedial Measures) Bill be now read a second time. Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to take a call on the second reading of the Taxation (Budget 2021 and Remedial Measures) Bill. I won't restate what has just been stated in the first reading but I will respond to the comments that the Chair ruled in order in respect of David Seymour and various members of the National Party about the effect on rents. The suggestion is being made by the Opposition that changes to benefit levels and changes to the in-work tax credit that this bill is about will all be absorbed in rents and I want to explain why I don't think that's correct.I do agree with Chris Bishop that we have got some problems with rigidities in land markets.Nicola Willis: Hurry up and fix it.Hon DAVID PARKER: Well the member shouts out Hurry up and fix it." I would point out that nine years in Opposition they made things worse. And actually I'm about to tell the member how we are fixing it and how the fixes are working.Now we know there's been this rapid escalation in house prices and related to that rents in New Zealand. The good news is that—I think the members of the Opposition misheard it when the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister both referred to the fact that Treasury's projection is that house prices will go up in the year ended June 2021 by 17 percent. That's actually the year that ends next month and their projection which is set out on pages 12 and 13 of the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update 2021 is that for the following year—i.e. for the year that commences on 1 July—the predicted increase in house prices is 0.9 percent for the year. Now the reason for that is that housing policy is now working.Nicola Willis: Ha ha!Hon DAVID PARKER: Well it's a fact-free zone on the other side of the—Opposition. This is the Opposition that denied we had a housing crisis for nine years made it worse in everything they did to overly complicate the Resource Management Act and all of the other distortionary policies that they pursued. Madam Speaker I am referring in no more length to the issues that you gave other parties the latitude to—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! The Minister will resume his seat. We are in danger here of this bill becoming more about housing policy than the matter at hand. So I—[Interruption] There will be silence while I'm on my feet. I will invite the House very warmly to stick to the matters that are contained in this bill. There is latitude from the Chair to recognise that we are in urgency but we are getting to the trading-blows stage of debate and I would prefer that members stick to the substance of this bill.Hon DAVID PARKER: The reason why this bill will not result in higher rents is that this last year we had more than 40000 consented houses which is building houses ahead of population growth in typologies that are smaller houses mainly two- and three-story semi-detached units in Auckland and that's why the projection in this Budget is that house price inflation essentially disappears from next year on. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Hon Michael Woodhouse.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Oh I thought you were going to ask if the question was going to be put.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Oh sure. The question is that the motion be agreed to."