Wong Pansy: Taxation (Annual Rates GST Trans-Tasman Imputation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Wong Pansy: Taxation (Annual Rates GST Trans-Tasman Imputation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:10087] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 This title is more reflective of the substance of the bill than are the titles of most of the bills that come before the House. At least we know that this legislation is about confirming a new taxation rate GST trans-Tasman imputation and miscellaneous provisions. But I would still like to point out that the minority Labour Government could have done better with the description if it had been even more upfront and transparent and had stated that the bill confirms the high annual income tax rate. I think we now have a halfway house. This minority Labour Government which always says it believes in transparency has failed to convey such an obvious factor in the title as the high annual income tax rate. I have brought that point up in this debate on the title because it is important to highlight it. Later on when we start to debate the various parts of the bill we will find that the high personal income tax marginal rate—increased from 33 to 39 percent—has led to many complications requiring adjustments to the Income Tax Act. So it has quite serious implications. 
I think the Minister may like to take a call to explain to the poor taxation petitioner and to people who file their own taxation returns why this legislation has 15 commencement dates. I ask the Minister to stand up take a call and explain to all accountants and more important to small-business people and individuals who file their taxation returns how they are supposed to comprehend legislation that has 15 commencement dates. There are 159 pages of this legislation— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I am sorry to interrupt the member but clause 1 is not the commencement date clause. 
PANSY WONG 
: I will come back to the title because we will take up the debate on the commencement dates later. The title when I think about it—apart from the issue of the high income tax rate complicating the taxation legislation—is also complicated because of the many commencement dates which will certainly confuse everybody. If this minority Labour Government had not instigated that high personal income tax rate we would be debating a much simpler bill today. 
Apart from that the National Party wants to demonstrate to the public that we are constructive about the parts of the bill that relate to the GST provisions for imports and also to the harmonisation of taxation treatment and income tax dividend imputation between us and Australia. We are in agreement with those parts of the bill. 
 In terms of the title I feel that it is does a better job of reflecting the contents of and the types of issues that this bill tackles than the titles of some other bills do. It does not do too bad a job of highlighting for the benefit of any tax petitioner or business person who wants to know what is in the bill that it does cover the GST issue and the issue of trans-Tasman imputation. But I think the title does a very poor job by just simply describing the annual taxation rates without highlighting the difficulties caused by the varying personal tax rates and the high income tax rate which cause a lot of complications amendments and adjustments that people have to face every year.