Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): There were some moments of gold—pure gold—in the speech given by the member who has just sat down Andrew Bayly. Here is one of the moments of gold: he said New Zealand has one of the best tax systems in New Zealand." Well done Mr Bayly. I quite agree. But I also agree with what I think he meant to say: it was one of the best tax systems in the world. Indeed we do have a very good tax system.The other moment of gold was when the member who just sat down berated us for not fixing a problem that has been in place last year the year before last and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that. It's a problem that has been in place for a long long time. Who is the Government that is fixing that problem that has been there through the years of neglect? We are. We are fixing that problem. Going forward we will be able to ensure that people pay exactly the right amount of tax on their portfolio investment income. This Government on this side of the House is fixing that problem.Another moment of gold though—in fact it was quite extended in the speech from the previous speaker—was where he talked through the various measures that the bill is taking and in fact agrees with them as is commonly the case with tax legislation. It is broadly agreed across the House because it is about getting the tax system right.Indeed that was the approach that was taken by many of the submitters to this bill. So as the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee I want to just refer to some of the people who came and made submissions to us and to thank them for their work. We had Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand the ANZ bank. We had Kensington Swan now Denton Kensington Swan KPMG. We had the Corporate Taxpayers Group Ernst & Young Deloitte the Financial Services Council of New Zealand PricewaterhouseCoopers Tax Management NZ Russell McVeagh and so on. All the people who often put in submissions on tax bills and their suggestions were listened to carefully and where it was sensible to do so implemented. Why? Because there's a broad agreement on what we should do with the tax system in this country.However there was one submitter who I think caught the imagination of the entire committee and indeed I think of the Parliament and Mr Bayly has already referred to him indirectly but I would like to name him and his mother by name. The most compelling submission we received was not actually on this bill it was on a previous one but we brought the work into this particular bill. His name was Mr Tim Fairhall and together with his mother Joan Fairhall he made a submission to our committee.Mr Fairhall has trisomy-21 which we often know as Down syndrome. He's a lovely man; cheerful happy. He holds down a job at his local supermarket. Like many Kiwis do as part of holding down that job he has been putting money into KiwiSaver. But as it turns out trisomy-21 can shorten people's lives. It's a congenital condition and people often have shortened lives. Most of us will collect our KiwiSaver when we turn 65. Mr Fairhall may not live that long. So together with his mother he made a compelling presentation saying that he should be enabled to access his KiwiSaver funds before the standard retirement age of 65. Why? Because of this congenital condition that will shorten his life. We agreed.So what happened was the committee reviewed his evidence and then Kris Faafoi the Minister decided that we should actually do something about it. So thank you to Minister Kris Faafoi for responding in advance to the submission and thank you to the committee who listened with such respect to Mr Fairhall.And he has in fact brought about a significant change in the way that we administer KiwiSaver legislation in this country. So to those who say that nothing ever changes at select committee that they just get to say their words and then the MPs ignore them well I tell you here is the evidence that that is not the case. Mr Tim Fairhall achieved the end he wanted and I think we're all grateful to him.This is an excellent bill full of the standard sorts of measures that occur in tax bills. Of course we can refine it further but it is good legislation which has been through a good process and I commend it to the House."