Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): It's going to be nothing but a monumental task to maintain the momentum of such a vigorous precursory speech for what I'll be talking on the Taxation (Neutralising Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Bill. Look when I was thinking about the remarks that I'd make—and I'm going to make some brief remarks this evening. But when I was thinking about the remarks I wanted to make in respect of this bill you know taxation is an interesting area of law. Some of my colleagues—for example Dr Deborah Russell—thrive on it and they flourish on it. These are things that make their hearts pump. For others of us look I think that if you boil it down to some bare-based principles most of us understand that—the oft-cited quote is that Tax is the price of civilisation" and I think that most of us across this House all understand that.Now for a country like ours that is significantly dependent on trade we're an importing-exporting nation and we operate within a big global world. Most of us agree that we earn a wage and we pay our fair share of the pie and that pie goes towards things like roads and schools and hospitals and running our nation. But also too in a global world we have large overseas companies multinational companies that too operate within our communities that provide very important goods and services that we all benefit from. However where you make a profit it's only right that you also pay your fair share back into that local domicile nation. I think this is an issue that globally many countries have been trying to grapple with not just us here at home but around the world and look a lot of these multinational corporations engage in aggressive tax planning often known as base erosion and profit shifting. You have one parent company based in a country. They set up a subsidiary. There's a whole range of complicated commercial vehicles that you could use to do that but that smaller subsidiary—I'll take the example of Google and I'll use Google because they submitted on this bill and they were actually very helpful in terms of I think showing a corporate shift in culture. So where many multinational corporations have—and you know it's their right probably to try to—DEPUTY SPEAKER: We've just got a time for you now. [Indicates clock on wall]KIRITAPU ALLAN: Oh thank you. Is that the accurate time is it?DEPUTY SPEAKER: That's the accurate time.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Oh fantastic. I've still got four minutes just to fill this House with great thoughts on taxation and globalisation and everything else in between. But look one of the things that came through—DEPUTY SPEAKER: And the bill.KIRITAPU ALLAN: —in the Google submission was that they have acknowledged that when they operated in terms of—actually so I don't stuff it up and maybe I won't—Kieran McAnulty: Can she say that? Can she say "stuff it up" in the House? KIRITAPU ALLAN: I can say "stuff it up" can't I?DEPUTY SPEAKER: No it's not very parliamentary.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Oh I cannot say it. I will not make a mistake in this House Madam Deputy Speaker. One of the things that struck me in their submission was they said that in the past when a customer bought advertising on Google their Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore would enter into a contract with that customer. It earned revenue from that contract in Singapore. What Google New Zealand received was arm's-length remuneration for the services it performed. They went on to say that "We intend to shift our business model from this past approach such that customers will enter contracts with our New Zealand entity which will generate revenue from NZ advertising customers and pay taxes in line with its role in the transaction." That's a huge shift in corporate culture and what this bill here does is it's about ensuring that New Zealand provides the regulatory environment to ensure that companies who operate across multiple jurisdictions can't so easily slip through the holes—the many taxation nuances and loopholes—but pay their fair share here.Therese Turner was mentioned at some length last night. She's our independent tax adviser for the Finance and Expenditure Committee. I must also too acknowledge and laud the contribution that Therese made to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. I think both sides of the House equally felt her contribution. One of the things that she said—it was cited about 15 times last night so I won't keep going but she did say that this was one of the most complicated pieces of legislation to come before this House. She said that in her 30 years as a tax practitioner she'd never encountered a bill this complicated. So I don't intend to pretend that I am anything of a tax expert but what I am really thoroughly pleased with is that we as a whole House in this Parliament could come together to make good laws that ensure that New Zealand was benefiting as it rightly should.We know that currently there is a gap of somewhere between $200 million and $500 million that we miss out on because companies engage in base erosion and profit shifting. We know that. And so for both sides of this House to work collegially together—I acknowledge the work of the former Government in terms of getting this bill to where it was. Unfortunately or fortunately as new members of Parliament we came into the consideration of this bill midway through but there were substantive amendments made.I also want to acknowledge the work of IRD and others who worked tirelessly to get this piece of legislation right. I know that there were many contributions many submissions—particularly from the banking community—that might have felt that we went too far too fast and that comment came through. But I think that where this House collectively landed was that we must act and we must act collectively to ensure that the taxation laws that apply within this country to overseas corporations operating in New Zealand are fair and applicable and that everybody—all New Zealanders—gain collectively from their operations within this country. I don't want to go on in this House too long but I do want to commend this bill to the House. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker.Bill read a second time."