Tisch Lindsay: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Tisch Lindsay: Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:606;Page:4098] 
LINDSAY TISCH (NZ National—Piako) 
: 
 The commencement date of legislation is very important but when I look at the commencement dates that are mentioned here on page 6 of the Taxation (Annual Rates Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill I note that a number of dates are retrospective. On Supplementary Order Paper 60 which has been lodged in the name of the Hon Dr Michael Cullen I note there under the commencement date sections 5B and 65(14B)— 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: That’s retrospective. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: Yes they are treated as coming into force on 28 May 2002. That is retrospective. That is last year. So here we have commencement dates that are retrospective. Now this party does not stand for retrospective legislation. 
David Benson-Pope 
: What do you stand for? 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: We are standing for lower taxes. That is what we stand for and we are not going to support retrospective legislation that comes into effect on 25 May 2002. Further down Supplementary Order Paper clause 2(4) states that sections 58B and 165 to 171 are treated as coming into force on 17 October 2002. Once again we have retrospective legislation. Here we have commencement dates that have already happened as far as this bill goes because they are retrospective. 
My colleague the Hon Dr Lockwood Smith talked about section 100 which members will find in clause 2(5). That clause in particular states that those sections come in on 1 April of this year and I just draw the House’s attention to that section 100 in the Supplementary Order Paper. Members will notice that it is the same in the bill but it is reflected here in the Supplementary Order Paper. What does clause 100 say? This is significant in terms of a commencement date. It is very significant because clause 100 is the obligation to pay tax where competent objection has been lodged. It states here: “the Commissioner may require a taxpayer to pay all tax in dispute if the Commissioner considers that there is a significant risk that the tax in dispute will not be paid should the taxpayer not succeed in objection proceedings.” 
This is a very important part of the bill and we will be discussing clause 100 in detail when we get into Part 3 of the bill. But this now includes a provision that on 1 April which is not far away this will come into effect. We are opposed to that in particular because it takes away the rights of those people who may be in dispute with the Inland Revenue Department and having some issues they have to address. We feel that natural justice should prevail and we will not support that sort of clause being included. 
We will not support the commencement date where we have legislation that gives favourable treatment to any one sector. We know what this bill is about. It is about a 19.5 percent tax rate for a certain sector of the community. That is what it states. It is very interesting that the people over there want to object but if they actually read the bill they would know what it says. We will not support any commencement date that gives favourable treatment to one sector. 
As I said in the debate on the title the bill is misnamed. It should be the “Special Maori Taxation Bill”; so any commencement date that confers special privileges on any sector will not be supported by National. We will not support tax breaks on a racial basis so any commencement date that confers that will not be accepted here. We will not support a commencement date where we have much higher compliance costs. That is the name of this bill. When we go back to the name of the bill it talks about it being a taxpayer compliance and miscellaneous provisions bill so even in the title we will see huge compliance costs and we will not be supporting this commencement.