Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Well the Business Payment Practices Bill is a bill as the Hon Michael Woodhouse has very clearly stated that is destined to end up on the cutting room floor on the scrap heap. It is a great shame isn't it when one thinks about all of the opportunities that we have in this House to deal with some of the most significant issues that our country faces that the Government of the day decides to pass a piece of legislation under urgency—under urgency of course—which is going to result in pretty much not much happening.That is the reality of the Business Payment Practices Bill a bill which has already been tried and tested in overseas jurisdictions. We heard earlier the fact that this in a similar bill as this bill has already been implemented in both Australia and the United Kingdom in 2017 and in 2020. And what was the outcome? What were the learnings that we can derive from that experience? Well quite simply we can derive the learnings from those two jurisdictions that the implementation of legislation such as this makes absolutely no difference. And for those that are watching at home at 5.35 p.m. getting ready to watch the news tonight reflecting on—Hon David Bennett: They'll be watching The Chase.SIMON WATTS: —is my Government dealing with—ha ha!—my number one issue around cost of living or crime or other factors? No. Rest assured your Government is dealing with issues and matters that aren't going to make any impact. So that is a shame. The other aspect of this bill is that when officials inputted and provided advice and I acknowledge the select committee who did a valiant job in trying to you know—Hon David Bennett: They're in the paper.SIMON WATTS: —improve—ha ha!—a bill that was destined to failure make it better. For some of the members I'm sure they did try hard but it hasn't made much difference. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) actually said that—quite a simple question is: how big is the problem we're trying to fix? How big is this issue? A pretty reasonable question isn't it? Well you know what? You know what? The—the—officials—Hon Willie Jackson: Can you get to the point?SIMON WATTS: Thank you the Hon Willie Jackson for helping me on that. The officials from MBIE said to us that they cannot measure or see or are able to quantify the scale of the problem that actually needs to be fixed. And not only are we standing here this evening passing a bill under urgency that's going to make absolutely no impact but the officials who do a really great job in many circumstances said to the Government By the way we can't even quantify the problem you're trying to fix." So with those two elements alone you would probably think "Well maybe let's not bother doing this." But no there is more to come. The other aspect of the bill is in regards to the $33 million threshold which triggers this bill coming into play. And we've heard from the Hon Michael Woodhouse in regards to the fact that the similar Australia legislation is set at $100 million. I was just doing again a bit of a packet exercise on the $33 million under current inflation rates at 6 percent today. They're saying inflation's dropping—Hon David Bennett: Tumbled—tumbleweed.SIMON WATTS: —tumbled down like a tumbleweed. What a load of bollocks—what a load of bollocks isn't it? I mean 6 percent. Wow! Hurray! You know that's double where we should be. But anyway the point I'm making is that $33 million with a bit of inflation that's $35 million in one year right? So that's the scale of the inflationary impact. That $33 million—what is that? It's about $650 grand a week give or take—you know about 90 bucks—90 grand a day if you're doing a seven-day business.Hon David Bennett: They're only four days—four days over that side. SIMON WATTS: A four-day week—anyway that's the scale. Aussies even though the bill didn't work in Australia they still at least set the threshold at A$100 million. But anyway—we've pushed back on that tried to be constructive but consistently with the Government that hasn't been listened to.The other aspect of the bill which has been highlighted in the committee of the whole House today was the reality that actually if you really want to get to the heart—and the Minister used the words "This bill needs to deal with the big fish." The "big fish" were the words that the Minister used. The big fish! Let's get out there—let's get out there—you know whatever we're going to do and let's deal with those big fish. Well the big fish are the departments that report to these Ministers all right? They are the big fish you know and if you think about—let's think about the police OK the New Zealand Police department and maybe the Minister has a little bit of experience with that department. I don't know—maybe; maybe not. Half a billion dollars in 2022 was their operating expenditure budget all right? So I'm not talking about staffing. Staffing's $1.5 billion for the police but half a billion bucks spent on suppliers and they'd be big and small no doubt but there'll be a lot of small ones you know providing those torches or batons or what other—what's that sorry?Hon David Bennett: Repairs of cars from potholes.SIMON WATTS: Repairs of cars that are getting—Glen Bennett: Who's giving the speech?SIMON WATTS: It's always useful for the Hon David Bennett to contribute into this with the wealth of knowledge. I appreciate that. But the guts is half a billion bucks of spend and the only thing that these Ministers need to do to get them sorted is to send an expectation to their Government departments to pay on time. They can write a little letter on the laptops—yeah—and go "Dear Department A. Please ensure that you pay your bills on time. Kind regards Minister ABC." Just do that. I mean I'll tell you what. Instead of spending $5 million to $10 million of taxpayer money which is how much this bill is going to cost in terms of MBIE system costs the Ministers could write a little letter to every Government department and say "You know what? Just pay your bills on time." And that in itself would deal with the big fish that the Minister refers to that are the ones that need to get themselves in order. We know that the Government departments are the slowest payers and they are the ones that could easily—this could be solved with literally printing a letter. I'm quite happy to draft the letter for the Ministers myself if that would help because that is all they need to do to set the expectations. But they're not going to do that. They're going to pass a bill like this under urgency a complete waste of time and it's not going to work. The other aspect that—and it's good to see we've got a little bit more time because we can go on for a little bit more. But the other aspect is in regards to the IT programme right? So we talked about the fact that the MBIE officials—the question was: how much is this all going to cost? How much is this all going to cost the taxpayer? And the costs coming back in regards to trying to do all of the compliance. We talked about all the information-gathering powers right and the changes to the Income Tax Act as well which I think was another revelation by the Hon Michael Woodhouse. Always an eye for detail but he picked up that and I don't think the Government wanted to talk about that little bit of more information-gathering powers. But I'm surprised I didn't read it in the New Zealand Herald in the letters to the editor from the Hon David Parker this morning. Did everyone see that?Hon Members: No.SIMON WATTS: The Minister is writing to the Herald to do letters to the editor now as a way in which he communicates. But I didn't see it in his contribution to the Herald in the letters to the editor this morning about the fact that there's more changes in this bill relating to the Income Tax Act but maybe that might be coming tomorrow—Hon David Bennett: They're still holding it.SIMON WATTS: —because there's only a certain word count you're allowed in the letters to the editor the Hon David Bennett. But anyway five to 10 million bucks $5 million to $10 million of taxpayer money coming out of the pockets of hard-working Kiwis is going to be splashed up against the wall on this completely hopeless and useless bill. And that is just another example of wastage of taxpayer money by this Government.Hon Gerry Brownlee: It's a very well-plastered wall full of splashes.SIMON WATTS: And you know as the Hon Gerry Brownlee is noting you can get a lot down your way for 10 million bucks and it would be a lot better purpose than this bill in our communities out there by letting that money go to those that need it most. So I think I've traversed the bill adequately. I think it's pretty clear that National will be strongly opposing this bill. A complete waste of time. It's on the list. It's on the long list of urgent bills that will be repealed in round about 100 days. So there is hope. But we will not be supporting this bill."