Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Speaker for the opportunity to take a call on the Rates Rebate (Statutory Declarations) Amendment Bill. The member who just sat down Priyanca Radhakrishnan has tried to paint this piece of legislation as quite a rosy piece of legislation. In fact it's actually a very small piece of legislation making very minor changes. As my good friend and colleague Lawrence Yule said essentially it's tinkering around the edges without actually focusing on some of the issues which could be looked at in regards to our rates rebates system here in New Zealand.The issue that the member opposite referred to was the issue around fraud. That is an issue that we have raised consistently on this side of the House and whilst acknowledging it may be a smaller issue by removing the statutory declaration this bill does in some regards open up the ability for there to be increased opportunity for fraud and reduced legal oversight over the Rates Rebate Scheme. This is a scheme which does cost taxpayers millions of dollars every year and it is important that there is oversight the ability to monitor this information and the ability to ensure that those who are entitled to receive the money are the ones who are receiving it.The question does need to be asked over how much additional administration is now going to need to be put in place by local government and by other Government institutions to ensure and monitor the information and the accuracy now that there is a lower legal threshold which is being imposed by this piece of legislation as to those who are qualified and the application process.The member opposite talks about how this is going to make things so much easier but fails to actually mention that people still have to go through the application process. All this does is simply remove the requirement for a statutory declaration. But this small piece of legislation will be the catalyst for a large increase in the number of people actually making an application a large increase in the number of people who do qualify actually making an application and receiving the rates rebate.As my colleague Lawrence Yule referred to there are much bigger issues that could have been looked at in regards to our rates rebate system: solutions put forward by the Productivity Commission where they recommended looking at different ways that this could be managed whether that was around a deferred payment or integrating this into the tax system so as to ensure that those who are qualified are automatically able to receive their rates rebate or the tax system being able to look at all the relevant information and knowingly being able to ensure that those who do qualify are given the rates rebate for their rates bill.This piece of legislation in many ways embodies a lot of what this Government has become well known for which is simply tinkering around the edges and failing to actually address the real issues and trying to claim some form of success along the way. Well I challenge members on the other side of the House as to whether this is a moment where they can stand in this House and claim that after three years in Government this is something which is going to be the catalyst to support New Zealanders older New Zealanders those who do struggle with paying their rates bills or whether this is simply just a tinker and a little change and a talking point which they're going to try and use on the campaign trail to justify their continued existence in Government—it does seem to think it's going to be the latter—when they could have used this opportunity to actually make some more decisive more long-term changes based on what the Productivity Commission had provided and is providing through their report.The National Party does not support this piece of legislation. It does not address the real issues and we do not support particularly the loosening of the criteria around the system whereby statutory declarations do provide a much higher legal system rather than an honesty-based system which this bill does put in place.