Coates BarryBARRY COATES (Green): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai. This bill goes by the name of the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2016-17 Closely Held Companies and Remedial Matters) Bill—what a mouthful. I think my next member's bill might be to limit the length of titles of Government bills.I want to highlight some of the welcome provisions in this bill. There is a removal of GST from capital-raising costs. That is really important for entrepreneurs and small companies and we support it. We are adding 14 charities with overseas tax purposes—congratulations to those charities. As a former head of Oxfam New Zealand I welcome new ideas and new energy into the overseas development sector. There are also minor changes to the Working for Families tax credits. Obviously that is tinkering and far deeper reform is required if that system is to work for the benefit of all in our society.The most significant changes in this bill are to tax laws that close loopholes particularly the stronger look-through company rules and the non-resident withholding tax and approved issuer levy rules. We support these. These are important ways to close the loopholes that have allowed foreign multinationals to get away with not paying New Zealand tax amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars if not more while wage and salary earners are left to bear the brunt of the taxes.Last week we saw some papers go out for consultation announced by the new Minister of Revenue Judith Collins. Those changes—those consultation papers—are consistent with the amendments that are proposed in this bill. We welcome this bill as part of that broader effort to reform our tax system. We also welcome New Zealand's participation in the OECD base erosion and profit-shifting process often known as BEPS. It is really important that New Zealand is a part of that process and that we are actively implementing some of the recommendations that come out of it.We are concerned that this bill is very much tinkering and that the proposals made last week do not go far enough. We need in New Zealand a diverted profits tax which would provide the incentives for multinationals to pay their fair share of tax to cooperate with tax authorities and otherwise as in Australia and the UK they would pay a penalty rate of tax. Those measures are necessary to bring companies to the table. We need GST on the imported products that are sold online and we need a claiming back of unpaid taxes from all of those who have abused our tax rules in the process of avoiding their legitimate tax obligations in the past as the UK Italy and France have done in taking cases against multinational companies.From the Greens' perspective although we welcome the amendments in this bill these loopholes in our tax system have lasted for far too long. The Government needs to stop giving New Zealand companies disadvantages against foreign companies and foreign competition. We need to stop giving foreign investors advantages so that they can buy our assets tax free and have an advantage over bidders from New Zealand. We need to stop loading the burden of tax on to wage and salary earners and we need to stop giving tax cuts to the rich.So what do we want from our tax system? This bill will help with the first of the requirements. We want a system of integrity and part of that integrity is to make sure that multinationals cannot avoid paying their fair share of taxes. We also need a system of tax that is far more fair and protects the vulnerable supports productive work and provides incentives for innovation. And we need a tax system that makes the polluter pay and supports a low-emissions economy and sustainability. These are what our tax system should be doing.This bill does some useful tinkering. We will support it but we believe that a far deeper process of tax reform is urgently required. The Green Party aims to provide a fairer tax system when we become part of the Government on 23 September. Thank you.