Henare PeeniPEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Thank you for this opportunity. I rise to make a short contribution on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2016-17 Closely Held Companies and Remedial Matters) Bill. I guess when your normal New Zealander is out there and they look into this House and they look at the pieces of legislation that we are currently debating they want to see several things. They want to see several things particularly with regard to taxation and taxes. They want to see that (1) it is transparent—all of the processes are transparent. They want to see that (2) it is robust (3) that it is fair and finally (4) they want to see it is user-friendly. I can tell you that as I have read through much of the material here I have thought: robust? Yes. Transparent? Hmm questionable. Fair? I think it is pretty fairly well weighted in favour of the businesses and in favour of the taxpayer. Is it user-friendly? That is a big question I will leave on the floor this evening. Members across the House have already spoken about how you fall into dangerous territory when you start making a series of rules around taxation without any clear policy framework a clear policy framework that provides for all of the attributes we look at when we consider taxation law. We find then that when you start making these ad hoc rules along the way it often becomes problematic. I have already mentioned how when you have got a clear framework around taxation when you set the annual rates—as this particular bill will be doing for 2016-17—there is a clear direction with your taxation. There is a clear policy direction that allows for the public out there to have a look at this particular bill and say: OK if we're going to pay these taxes that are set by this particular bill we expect these types of things to come from them. We expect infrastructure spend and we expect spend on the essential services to our communities." I get back to my point about how if you are making ad hoc changes to taxation law you fall into a trap of that lack of policy framework and that lack of policy direction. This particular bill in setting the annual rates for 2016-17 is supported on this side of the House to make sure that it does get to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. There are far smarter people out there who are able to provide fantastic advice which I am sure the select committee will look forward to hearing. We support it at this particular point in time. At the select committee you can expect continual challenges from this side of the House to make sure that when large omnibus bills such as this one are passed in this House the detail is not simply swept under the carpet and that the transparency for our public can be found in the debate and in the processes this bill will go through from here on out. I do not want to go on too much further but to say that we will be supporting the bill at this point in time. We send it off to the select committee and we look forward to hearing from the submitters: the experts like the Inland Revenue Department business owners tax specialists and accountants from across the country who will have an opportunity to have their say on this particular bill moving forward. On this side of the House we will be supporting it. Thank you."