Andersen GinnyHon GINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you very much Madam Chair. I've got a very specific question in relation to the independent earner tax credit. The Minister might want to revisit his last answer because I think what he just said was we should pass legislation and see how it works and then we'll know what it does. Like that's just loopy. That's like Let's just pass some stuff and see what happens and then we'll know what it does." Like I think it's incumbent upon lawmakers within this House to go through some regular process a regulatory impact statement some analysis some data some evidence to understand what the potential impacts of legislation would be on the population of New Zealand instead of just decreeing law and seeing where it lands. So I'm quite struck by that comment by the Minister and he may wish to revisit it because it isn't really that sensical to a lot of New Zealanders—who will be at the other end of this legislation. I think it would be within their best interests to understand that he's actually turned his mind to how it might impact upon them before he simply passes this legislation through urgency.So my question specifically to the Minister is in and around the independent earner tax credit. We know that what this bill does is it lifts the upper income threshold from $48000 to $70000 but that lower threshold limit remains at $24000 and this all comes to into effect on 31 July. So we know that the independent earner tax credit is available for those individuals who might not be eligible for other kinds of Government support. So they won't be eligible for Working for Families or a main benefit or even superannuation. So the abatement rate for this tax credit will remain at 13c and this will apply to every dollar of income over $66000 per annum. But I would like the Minister to confirm and specify—because I've had some queries from people who are sitting right around that threshold so this is where families are looking at what they earn looking at where they're eligible whether they're under that limit or over that limit. Can the Minister confirm that this would mean that there is or there is not any remaining entitlement to that independent earner tax credit when a person's income exceeds that $70000 annual amount? I think that's where a lot of people are really doing those sums and looking to see whether that works for them or not.The second question that I have for the Minister relates to increasing the in-work tax credit rate. I think we haven't actually had this clearly answered and so what I want to know is that if taxpayers receive more from the previous one the independent earner tax credit than they would the in-work tax credit because of the change does the IRD do that or not? Or is that incumbent upon the wage earner the person who's paying the tax to figure that out? Are people required to do those sums figure out which one they get more on and do it themselves or is that work that the IRD will do on behalf of New Zealanders?Furthermore can the Minister speak is the IRD well-resourced enough to be able to be doing all this work? There's going to be hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders coming forward with questions about which tax credit they're eligible for how they interplay with each other. Is the IRD going to have their 0800 number up and running without two hours of waiting time so that New Zealanders are able to get answers to these questions and figure out how they go about getting additional money each week?So they're my two specific questions to the Minister. It's around the $70000 tax threshold whether they're eligible; and the second one is on that interaction—whether IRD proactively makes that change for them or whether that is incumbent upon the person."