Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): It was a great day yesterday. This bill is the product of Budget 2017 and this bill has demonstrated again—yes again—that this National Government believes in rewarding hard-working people. Yes we believe in rewarding hard-working people. It is really amusing listening to the speeches from the Labour Party members. On the one hand they are saying that this is an election bribe and on the other hand they are saying that this is not doing enough. They are making contradictory arguments so they need to decide which side they want to be on.The anger that is coming out from their speeches shows that they cannot bear the fact that we have come up with such a good package. They are playing a position without any logic. I want to say this to them: they are not opposing us; they are opposing more money going into the pockets of low and medium income families. Yes they are opposing more money going to low and medium income families.I am taking this call to support the Taxation (Budget Measures: Family Incomes Package) Bill in its second reading. I am very proud to take this call. I am not a member of the Finance and Expenditure Committee so it is a real privilege for me to have this opportunity to speak on this bill in its second reading. Putting this bill through under urgency shows how eager this National Government is to help low and medium income families. We are talking about a package worth $2 billion. Maybe the Labour Party does not realise how many zeros are after 2" in $2 billion. This package is to help families in different phases of their lives including people who are on superannuation. This package is to put more money in the pockets of 1.3 million families and it comes to an average of $26 a week which is great news for low and medium income families.The economy is doing really well. We have a strong economy and that is because of our responsible management of finances and also because of investing heavily in diversifying our economy. Now we are all enjoying the benefits of this strong economy. Through this bill we are passing on the benefits of this strong economy to low and medium income families. We know that wages are rising faster than inflation under this National Government. We have increased the minimum wage every year since coming into office in 2008. The annual average wage in the last 7 years has gone up from $49500 to close to $59000. As a result of that some families have been faced with a higher marginal tax rate. We do not want to punish them for earning more. We want to reward them for earning more for working hard.It was the previous Labour Government that believed in punishing people for earning more and Labour's spending went up by 50 percent even when it knew the global financial crisis was coming our way. But on this side of the House we want to reward these families and that is why we are shifting the $14000 income tax threshold to $22000 and shifting the $48000 tax threshold to $52000. This is a bill that employees are going to celebrate. This is a bill that businesses are going to celebrate. Businesses know that happy employees mean more productivity. Yes happy employees mean more productivity. This bill is going to be celebrated by people on superannuation. We know that as a flow-on effect of this bill people on superannuation will get $622 from 1 April next year—this is the married rate. The current amount is $600. So this is an increase of $22. This bill contains many other components. For example—Brett Hudson: Delivering for New Zealanders.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Exactly—delivering for New Zealand. This bill also increases the accommodation supplement for student allowance recipients as well as the family tax credit rate for young people. We are simplifying that through this bill and as a result of that some families are going to get more for their family tax credit rate that they get for their young children. This bill demonstrates that we are building on all the hard work that we have done in the past. For example we made GP visits free for children under the age of 13. We increased benefits by $25—this was the first time in 40 years.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! This is a debate on what is currently in the bill. It is not a Budget speech. This debate is about the taxation measures and the family package. So just concentrate on those. This is not a general Budget speech. That comes later on.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I was just saying to the Opposition that this bill builds on all the hard work that we have done in the past. So this bill is actually to help low and medium income families and I want to say again that by opposing this bill the Labour Party is opposing more money going into the pockets of low and medium income families. I am really proud of this bill and I am really looking forward to this bill being passed. I support this bill and commend this bill to the House. Thank you."