Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): It warms my heart—it truly warms my heart—to see the members on the opposite side of the House so concerned about low-income New Zealanders. May I suggest that they could extend that concern to all low-income New Zealanders? That would be a pleasant change from that side of the House. I do want to pick up this issue that Andrew Bayly the previous speaker has just talked about to do with the portfolio investment entity (PIE) rates and it relates to a very fundamental principle in our tax system which is that our tax system is based on self-assessment. It underpins our system. Each of us in this room may not be aware of it and many of the people listening on this Wednesday morning may not be aware of it but when we complete our tax returns we are in actual fact assessing our own tax and then presenting that to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue who agrees or disagrees with it. It is a fundamental principle that each person completing their tax affairs works them out for themself whether they are a business person claiming deductions a wage and salary earner putting in for various donations and the like. We work it out for ourselves and tell the commissioner what we think we ought to be taxed according to the laws. So when people sign up for portfolio investment entities one of the things that they are required to do is to assess what their own tax rate should be and report it to the PIE who then deducts the tax and pays it over accordingly. So going back and refunding based on misreported rates would actually break that principle of self-assessment. Now perhaps there could be a case for doing that but if there has been a case for doing it with respect to portfolio investment entities it has existed for years and years and years and years and in fact it existed under the previous Government and it was not fixed then. I do not understand why.The fact is that in this bill we are fixing that problem going forward. So from now on we will be able to fix that problem and we're doing it under the law we've put through a legal change to make sure that we can actually do it going forward. So that is this Government taking responsibility going forward which the previous Government did not.However I just want to talk about the nature of this bill. It really has three main issues and two major focuses. With respect to the rules around KiwiSaver administration and student loans what we see is a number of administrative changes which are making it easier for people to comply with the law and making it easier to get the tax law right. So I see these as very positive changes. When it comes to the research and development issues there are some compliance issues in there but there is also some very positive assistance for firms who are starting out and engaging in research and development; in that space cash flow is king. One of the things that this bill does is help those firms with their cash flow by giving them easier access to credits for the work they have done on research and development. So it assists those firms and it assists us in increasing the amount of research and development that is done in this country. This is a good bill. I'd like to thank the Minister and the Finance and Expenditure Committee for the work they have done on it and for the committee of the whole House for the work that was done in that space as well. I'd especially like to note on the select committee the previous speaker Mr Andrew Bayly who is always an excellent contributor on that committee and all the members of the committee who worked hard to get this bill right. I commend this bill to the House.